Wednesday, August 19, 2020

19th August,2020 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter

 

Commerce Ministry For Promoting 'Make In Pakistan' To Reduce The Import Bill, Boost Exports

Description: APP - Associated Press Of Pakistan 

Description: Commerce ministry for promoting 'Make in Pakistan' to reduce the import bill, boost exports

Ministry of Commerce, through tariff rationalization and budgetary intervention, is promoting 'Make in Pakistan', which aims to reduce the import bill and boost exports, managing the problem of balance of trade

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Aug, 2020 ) :Ministry of Commerce, through tariff rationalization and budgetary intervention, is promoting 'Make in Pakistan', which aims to reduce the import bill and boost exports, managing the problem of balance of trade.

According to two Years Performance Report launched by the government here Tuesday, various reforms have been initiated to better Commercial Intelligence, trade diplomacy, market access and also to follow the diversification of export products in international market.

The key objective of the policy is to diversify Pakistan's exports, in terms of product diversification as well as geographical diversification.

According to the report, Value-addition to exports is another objective, particularly in the textile sector and food processing.

The government has prioritized the e-Commerce and digital industry's growth to make it one of the key drivers of Pakistan's economy for contributing achieving higher export growth through enhanced activities from e-Commerce platforms.

In order to enhance trade and increase outreach to major African economies, the Ministry of Commerce launched "Look Africa Policy Initiative" in 2017-18.

Among other steps under the policy, Ministry of Commerce relocated/opened six new Commercial Sections in addition to four already established Commercial Sections, to cover the top ten economies of Africa.

The Ministry of Commerce organized the first ever Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference (PATDC) on 30-31 January2020, in NairobiKenya. Conference was attended by Official and Business Delegates from Twenty-Six (26) MINISTRY OF COMMERCE 37 African Countries, as well as Eighty-Five Pakistani companies from various sectors.

In order to provide an opportunity of networking to exporters from Pakistan and importers in Africa, B2B meeting Secretariat was established at the venue and a total of 1883 business meetings took place between Pakistani exporters and African buyers.

Despite ongoing pandemic Pakistan's exports to Africa is witnessing growth.

In order to further strengthen trade ties with countries in the middle Eastern region and the GCC various events were organized including Pak- Saudi Arabia Business Conference, Pak-Qatar Trade and Investment Forum were held in 2018-20.

Additionally, Qatar lifted the ban on Pakistani Rice and so far 48000 MT rice have been exported to Qatar.

Ministry of Commerce in collaboration with TDAP is organizing Pakistan's participation in mega event of EXPO 2020 to be held in October 2021.

Pakistan - Afghanistan business forum was organized in June2019 during visit of Afghan President to Pakistan.

The Third Biennial Review of the European Union GSP Plus (2018-19) has successfully concluded in March 2020 and the facility is to continue for Pakistan.

The Strategic Economic Framework (SEF) was signed between Pakistan and Turkey.

The first ever Pakistan Turkey Business and Investment Forum were organized by Ministry of Commerce in partnership with the Turkish Ministry of Trade, and the Foreign Economic Relations board of Turkey.

After extensive consultation with the public and private stakeholders, the Ministry of Commerce got the import duties reduced on 1639 Tariff Lines of raw materials and inputs in the annual budget 2019-20. Furthermore, the import duties of more than 1600 tariff lines have been reduced to absolute zero in the annual budget 2020-21.

In order to implement the first ever National Tariff Policy (NTP) 2019-2024, in line with the vision of Government, a number of measures have been taken like studies on Iron and Steel sector, tariff rationalization of 135 smuggling prone items, changing tariff structure under Make in Pakistan Initiative, exemptions of additional customs duty on 1623 Tariff Lines (Primary raw material) and others.

 

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/business/commerce-ministry-for-promoting-make-in-paki-1004975.html

Lack of border facilities hampering Pak-Afghan trade

By  Staff Report

 

Description: https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/29-2-696x410.jpg

PESHAWAR: Pakistan is gradually losing its trade share in Afghanistan, mainly because of administrative issues related to commerce, consignment handling facilities and closures of crossing points due to political issues as well as lack of facilities at the borders.

According to a report released last month by the International Organization for Trading Economics, Pakistan’s export volume with Afghanistan during the first 11 months of the last fiscal year (FY2019-20) declined by 33.40pc to $8.82 billion, as against $10.11 billion during the same period of last year.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s imports from Afghanistan were recorded at $579.53 million during the period under review, of which the share of fruits and vegetables was $175.25 million and $155.14 million, respectively. Besides, Pakistan had spent $91.14 million on minerals’ import, $57.87 million on cotton and $32.78 million on iron and steel products.   

Talking to this scribe, Wafa Jan, an Afghan trader, said in line with the rest of the world, Pak-Afghan trade was also dented badly by coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdowns. Although Pak-Afghan border points have now been opened, trade activities remain very slow, mainly due to the lack of facilities at the crossing points, he added. 

“Lack of arrangements and regular delays in the clearance of goods have forced the Afghan traders to shift to Iranians ports,” he said. “However, if proper facilities are provided and bottlenecks are removed, trade between the two countries could be enhanced up to $5 billion.” 

He urged Pakistani authorities to reduce goods’ clearance time by improving border management. “The biggest problem currently being faced by Afghan importers is that they are not receiving their goods on time, which is why they are being forced to look towards alternative options.”

Pakistan is Afghanistan’s biggest trading partner. The country’s main exports to its western neighbour included wheat, cement, sugar, vegetables, marble, ghee, rice etc. However, despite years of efforts, the menace of smuggling and illegal trade between the two countries could not be curtailed.

Talking to Profit, Frontier Customs Agents Association President Ziaul Haq Sarhadi said that the trade volume would not increase until the Afghanistan-bound containers were cleared in due time, adding that effective arrangements should be made at crossing points by further strengthening all the departments through the provision of latest machinery. 

Sarhadi warned that if the current situation continued, Pak-Afghan trade would be reduced to zero. 

“There was a time when trade volume between the two countries was $2.5 billion, but it gradually declined over the years, and the coronavirus pandemic has now played a major role in further reducing the trade volume, as the border crossing points remained closed for almost three months,” he stated.

https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/08/18/lack-of-border-facilities-hampering-pak-afghan-trade/

 Punjab Govt. Bans sale and use of 9 Agro-chemicals

Description: Pritam Kashyap

Pritam Kashyap 18 August, 2020 3:24 PM IST

Punjab government on August 14 ordered a ban on the sale and use of nine agro-chemicals after the agriculture department found these pesticides were still being used by farmers despite being detrimental to the quality of rice.

The ban is aimed at protecting the paddy's quality, which is critical for its export and remunerative pricing in the international market and also aims for protecting the paddy quality, which is critical to its export and remunerative pricing within the international market, says an official statement.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who also holds the agriculture portfolio, has ordered the ban of Acephate, Triazophos, Thiamethoxam, Carbendazim, Tricyclazole, Buprofezin, Carbofuron, Propiconazole and Thiophinate Methyl, under Section 27 of the Insecticides Act, 1968 with immediate effect.

Singh has asked agriculture secretary Kahan Singh Pannu to issue detailed guidelines to the director agriculture to ensure strict enforcement of the ban, issued after state government laboratories conducted sample testing.

Further K.S. Pannu also said these agrochemicals were non-conducive to the farmers’ interest, besides resulting in degradation of quality. 

They also posed a risk of upper pesticide residues in rice grain than the utmost Residual Level (MRL) fixed by the govt. 

The Agriculture Department has launched an intensive campaign over the past two years to sensitize the farmers & pesticide dealers about the impact of hazards of the use of such chemicals on human beings. Even the Punjab Rice Millers & Exporters Association had reported that several samples contain the residue value of these pesticides, much above the prescribed MRL values in Basmati Rice, Punjab Agriculture Secretary said.  

https://krishijagran.com/agriculture-world/punjab-govt-bans-sale-and-use-of-9-agro-chemicals/

 

 

 

Rice leads off series of online research field days for Arkansas commodities

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FAYETTEVILLE — Rice will lead off a series of online commodity-based field days designed to give Arkansans a first look at the latest University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture research and extension from the safety of their homes.

The rice field day will be held at 6 p.m. Aug. 20 and will be followed at two-week intervals by corn on Sept. 3, soybeans on Sept. 17 and cotton on Oct. 1.

Social distancing protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic led the Division of Agriculture to take its annual agricultural field days online, said Nathan Slaton, associate vice president for agriculture and assistant director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

“Field days are an important activity for the Division of Agriculture,” Slaton said. “They provide our farmers and other Arkansans an opportunity to hear directly from our scientists about research and extension programs that are important to them. Visitors also have an opportunity to ask questions and speak to us about the agricultural challenges they face and how we can assist them.

“In keeping with physical distancing precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are moving our field days online to maintain that face-to-face interaction without the risk of spreading the virus,” Slaton said.

The rice field day will cover new varieties, the latest research in hybrid varieties, soil fertility, weed management, and disease and pest control. The event will open at 6 p.m. with a welcome from Bob Scott, former director of the Rice Research and Extension Center and new Division of Agriculture senior associate vice president and director of the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

Roger Pohlner, chairman of the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board will give an update on the board’s activities.

Online presentations by Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers and Extension Service specialists will include:

Weed Control in Rice – Jason Norsworthy, professor of weed science

Hybrid Rice Breeding – Ehsan Shakiba, assistant professor of hybrid rice breeding

Managing Potassium in Rice – Trent Roberts, associate professor and extension soil fertility specialist

Foliar Fungicides/Fungicide Seed Treatments – Yeshi Wamishe, extension rice pathologist

New Rice Varieties – Xueyan Sha, professor and rice breeder

A live question-and-answer session following the presentations will give participants an opportunity to interact with scientists and learn more about how the research applies to their crops and operations.

The field days are free, but registration is required to connect. Register for the rice field day at https://bit.ly/ArkRiceOnline.

For more information about the online field days and to register for the later commodity events, visit the 2020 virtual field day website at https://aaes.uark.edu/field-days. A recording of the field day will be available on demand from the website after the live broadcast on Aug. 20.

https://www.guardonline.com/news/rice-leads-off-series-of-online-research-field-days-for-arkansas-commodities/article_1c23fb33-e091-5b5a-bac4-ce9200024d73.html

 

 

Rice leads off series of online research field days for Arkansas commodities

·         By Fred Miller University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

 

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

FAYETTEVILLE — Rice will lead off a series of online commodity-based field days designed to give Arkansans a first look at the latest University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture research and extension from the safety of their homes.

The rice field day will be held at 6 p.m. Aug. 20 and will be followed at two-week intervals by corn on Sept. 3, soybeans on Sept. 17 and cotton on Oct. 1.

Social distancing protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic led the Division of Agriculture to take its annual agricultural field days online, said Nathan Slaton, associate vice president for agriculture and assistant director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

“Field days are an important activity for the Division of Agriculture,” Slaton said. “They provide our farmers and other Arkansans an opportunity to hear directly from our scientists about research and extension programs that are important to them. Visitors also have an opportunity to ask questions and speak to us about the agricultural challenges they face and how we can assist them.

“In keeping with physical distancing precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are moving our field days online to maintain that face-to-face interaction without the risk of spreading the virus,” Slaton said.

The rice field day will cover new varieties, the latest research in hybrid varieties, soil fertility, weed management, and disease and pest control. The event will open at 6 p.m. with a welcome from Bob Scott, former director of the Rice Research and Extension Center and new Division of Agriculture senior associate vice president and director of the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

Roger Pohlner, chairman of the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board will give an update on the board’s activities.

Online presentations by Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers and Extension Service specialists will include:

Weed Control in Rice – Jason Norsworthy, professor of weed science

Hybrid Rice Breeding – Ehsan Shakiba, assistant professor of hybrid rice breeding

Managing Potassium in Rice – Trent Roberts, associate professor and extension soil fertility specialist

Foliar Fungicides/Fungicide Seed Treatments – Yeshi Wamishe, extension rice pathologist

New Rice Varieties – Xueyan Sha, professor and rice breeder

A live question-and-answer session following the presentations will give participants an opportunity to interact with scientists and learn more about how the research applies to their crops and operations.

The field days are free, but registration is required to connect. Register for the rice field day at https://bit.ly/ArkRiceOnline.

For more information about the online field days and to register for the later commodity events, visit the 2020 virtual field day website at https://aaes.uark.edu/field-days. A recording of the field day will be available on demand from the website after the live broadcast on Aug. 20.

https://www.guardonline.com/news/rice-leads-off-series-of-online-research-field-days-for-arkansas-commodities/article_1c23fb33-e091-5b5a-bac4-ce9200024d73.html

 

80,000 tonnes of duty-free rice to enter the EU market each year

Tuesday, 2020-08-18 18:01:21

 

 

Description: https://en.nhandan.org.vn/cdn/en/media/k2/items/src/898/8474cd7b3e7989506f796e45d629c6c3.jpg
The EVFTA has helped Vietnam achieve a quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice per year with a 0% tax rate. (Illustrative image)

NDO – Vietnam will export 80,000 tonnes of rice to the EU each year including 20,000 tonnes of not-yet-de-husked rice, 30,000 tonnes of de-husked rice and 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice.

According to the European Commission (EC), thanks to the effectiveness of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Vietnam has a tariff-free quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice to export to the EU per year.

According to the Import and Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the EU will directly allocate the quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice to their importers while Vietnamese enterprises that are eligible to export rice to the EU need to contact EU rice importers to make full use of the quota.

The amount of Vietnamese rice exported to the EU remains low. Vietnamese rice exports to the EU only reached about 20,000 tonnes in 2019 while the average rice consumption of the EU is 2.5 million tonnes per year.

The reason is that Vietnam was not granted tariff quotas by the EU before, so it was difficult for Vietnamese rice to compete with rice from other countries allocated with tariff quotas or tax exemption.

The EVFTA has helped Vietnam achieve a quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice per year with a 0% tax rate.

To meet the EU's requirements for rice exports, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is rushing to finalise and submit related administrative procedures for the Government in order to issue a decree on administrative procedures for rice exports to the EU and the enjoyment of tariff-free quotas.

 

https://en.nhandan.org.vn/business/item/8988102-80-000-tonnes-of-duty-free-rice-to-enter-the-eu-market-each-year.html

 

COVID-19 reviving Africa’s confidence in locally produced food

BY JOSEPH OPOKU GAKPO

AUGUST 18, 2020

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Restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have prompted a revival of locally produced food in Africa.

As border closures make imported foods more expensive and harder to get, and political leaders rally support for the local agricultural economy, African consumers are showing renewed interest in local foods.

“I wish the farmers could go and stay in their farms so that we can produce what we need sufficiently so that we don’t have to import,” Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari told the media in Abuja. “In any case, we don’t have money to import so we must produce what we have to eat.”

Although Africa has more than 60 percent of the globe’s arable uncultivated land, it spends about US$50 billion annually on food imports, the majority of which could be produced on the continent. Local rice and poultry products, for example, are usually shunned in favor of imports from the United States and Thailand. Consumers claim that imported rice has a better aroma and imported chicken is cheaper. Meanwhile, local producers have no market for their products.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a sub-regional block of 13 countries in the southern part of Africa, published a report last month recommending steps to ensure food security in light of COVID-19. It called on member states to “encourage crop diversity through the promotion of diversified diets, including indigenous foods.”

In a recent national broadcast, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo urged Ghanaians to take an interest in local goods. “We have to make the things we use and grow the foods we eat,” he said. “We have to come out of this crisis better, stronger and more united than before. Ghana — free, united, socially just, self-reliant and productive — that is the Ghana we are going to create together after we have defeated this virus.”

Almost half of Ghana’s annual US$1.5 billion food import costs go toward rice, even though rice is produced in all 16 regions of the country. Much of it hardly gets to market as consumers rush for imported brands, but things are starting to change.

“With the issue of promoting the patronage of Ghana rice, current advocacy involving the president has made good impact,” Samuel Abroquah, a Ghanaian farmer and founder of Agro Impact Africa, told the Alliance for Science. “Aside from arousing interest in eating Ghana rice, it has considerably increased the number of rice farmers.”

Ghana has started a campaign to encourage consumption of locally grown rice.

Nana Adjei Ayeh, a rice farmer and president of the Ghana Rice Interprofessional Body (GRIB), said the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions are a wakeup call to Ghanaians on the need to choose local foods, which he insisted are better, over imports.

“I think COVID-19 has taught us a very big lesson that we must invest in our local production,” he said. “Our rice is fresh. We produce the rice and within a year, we consume everything. The rice from Thailand, some of it you see is five years, six years old.

“If we start consuming local rice, we are creating jobs,” Ayeh continued. “I am a rice farmer. Since last year, I have doubled the laborers on my field. All because of the Eat Ghana Rice Campaign. So, I have employed more people.”

Ayeh wants the government to build on the progress it’s made so far by completely banning the importation of foods that can be grown in-country, insisting the local agricultural sector can feed the country.

“If I had power, I would put restrictions on importation of foods that we can grow in Ghana, especially rice,” he said. “Let me cite an example. When we ran out of facemasks (for fighting COVID-19), what did we do? We started producing them locally. So why can’t we do the same thing with food?”

Abroquah of Agro Impact Africa argues in favor of restrictions instead of a complete ban. “There should be a quota on the number of tonnes of rice that can be imported,” he said. “There should be increased tariffs on imported rice that will be channeled to support local production. Government should equally look at innovative ways to support farmers to produce more efficiently at a lower cost of production.”

Abroquah cautioned that “our uncontrollable taste for foreign foods is a disincentive to farmers and takes a significant toll on economic growth. Indirectly, this will crush our food systems and consequently raise a generation which doesn’t really know how to eat most of what we grow. This could inevitably bring us to the table of the colonial barter trade where we must exchange our range of resources for food even though we are living with numerous agricultural resources that can produce what we eat.”

When Ghana first recorded cases of COVID-19, Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr. Akoto Owusu Afriyie assured citizens that the government would take advantage of the pandemic and related lockdown to make the nation food secure.

“The COVID-19 pandemic provides a golden opportunity for Ghana to optimize our potential for food production to meet domestic needs, grow our agricultural exports and create jobs for the youth of this country,” he told a media briefing in the capital Accra.

“In the wake of export bans in countries from where we import a large chunk of our food items, like rice and poultry, it provides a compelling situation for us to put strategic measures in place to ramp up production for all our key staples,” the minister added. “It also gives us the opportunity to intensify agro-processing, thus reducing post-harvest losses, and ensure year-round food availability while creating the needed jobs.”

Just as he predicted, COVID-19 is opening up the local agro-processing sector and creating jobs for the masses. The cash crop of cashew nuts — whose export earned Ghana US$381 in 2019 — has been the biggest beneficiary.

“Because of the stiff competition of the raw cashew nuts being borne by the expatriates, our local processing companies could not compete with them,” John Manu, Ashanti regional director of crop services at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, told Alliance for Science. “When COVID-19 came, because of travel restrictions, these expatriates could not come in. And government encouraged the local companies by supporting them financially to aggregate and buy these raw cashew nuts and start their [processing] businesses. Some seven industries had closed down. But because of this intervention, they are now working. And we think with COVID-19, despite its negative effect, on the other side it has really helped us locally by reviving our industries,” he said.

“So, it is a wakeup call for us as a nation that we should look at our local industry and promote what we grow,” Manu added. “We should eat what we grow too. We should encourage the citizenry that it is high time we look at what we are producing and patronize it. Because the more we patronize what we grow, the more it energizes the farmers to do more.”

https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/08/covid-19-reviving-africas-confidence-in-locally-produced-food/

 

Rice farmers hope cash infusion spurs Iraqi imports

 

By Bill Tomson

American rice farmers are counting on a recent $450 million loan from the U.S. Export-Import bank to Iraq to restart the country’s rice imports.

Iraq has not purchased any rice yet this year, a stark contrast to 2019. Last year Iraq imported about $15.5 million worth from the U.S. from January through June, according to USDA data. And the U.S. could really use that business now because exports are down from last year.

Iraq has long been a big importer of U.S. rice, but the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench into the finances of the country that buys grain through government-run tenders.

The steep decline in oil prices has hit Iraq particularly hard, says Peter Bachmann, vice president of international affairs for the USA Rice Federation, and it’s the oil revenues that enable the Iraqi Grain Board to import rice and wheat.

"Over the past several years, Iraq has been an important destination for U.S. rice, averaging over 100,000 MT per year," said Bobby Hanks, chairman of the USA Rice Federation and head of the group’s international trade committee. "With exports down significantly in 2020, the rice industry welcomes the news of the EXIM loan and looks forward to reestablishing trade with Iraq."

EXIM President and Chairman Kimberly Reed says the loan is expected to directly benefit U.S. farmers who will sell more to Iraq now that it has the funds. The loan is part of an overall $5 billion memorandum of understanding signed last year to facilitate long-term efforts to “to identify potential projects in Iraq for procurement of U.S.-produced goods and services.” 

 “Building on the $5 billion Memorandum of Understanding that I signed with the Republic of Iraq Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance … today’s unanimous board action underscores EXIM’s commitment to strengthening and expanding our relationship with Iraq while supporting U.S. jobs — including in American agriculture — here at home,” said Reed in a statement released last week.

And this week an Iraqi delegation that includes the country's prime minister and deputy trade minister is in Washington to forge closer ties with the Trump administration. Sources tell Agri-Pulse that the Iraqi officials will be meeting with high-level officials, including leaders at the USDA.

A bright spot for U.S. rice farmers this year has been food aid. The U.S., through its three main food aid programs, has bought and shipped a record amount of U.S. rice to needy people around the world.

Through July the U.S. government donated more than 100,000 metric tons of rice through its Food for Progress, Food for Peace and Food for Education programs. On top of that, USDA tendered last month for 31,500 tons rice to benefit West Africa and another, similar tender is expected soon.

For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com

https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/14295-rice-farmers-hope-cash-infusion-spurs-iraqi-imports

 

 

Agri trade gap widens

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:05 AM August 19, 2020

The imbalance between the country’s agricultural imports and exports further widened during the first quarter of the year as the Philippines continued to outsource rather than produce certain agricultural items. Based on a Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) report, total agricultural trade in the first quarter hit $4.4 billion, down 11.7 percent from $5.06 billion a year ago. The decline was faster than the annual drop in the previous quarter of 0.5 percent.Total agricultural exports hit only $1.61 billion while imports amounted to $2.79 billion, which translated to a trade deficit of $1.18 billion.

The country’s top 10 commodity exports, which accounted for $1.54 billion, or 96 percent of the total, included edible fruit and nuts, peel of citrus melons and animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products.

Of that figure, $153 million worth of products were traded with other Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, with Malaysia as the Philippines’ top export market in the region. In the European Union, the Netherlands was the country’s major market for agricultural products.

The PSA report also showed that cereals—which included rice—were the country’s top agricultural imports in the first quarter, accounting for $573 million. This is equivalent to 20.5 percent of the total.Vietnam, where the country sources most of its imported rice, was the biggest source of the Philippines’ agricultural imports in the Asean, accounting for 27 percent of the agricultural imports from the region. Aside from cereals, other imported agricultural goods from Asean were miscellaneous edible preparations and animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products.In the European Union, the Netherlands was the country’s top supplier of agricultural goods worth $66.53 million, or 22.3 percent of the total imports from the EU. Nonetheless, thePSA noted that the country’s agricultural imports decreased by 19 percent during the quarter from $3.44 billion in the same period last year. —KARL R. OCAMPO INQ

 

Japan still PH top ODA partner as China-funded projects hit snags

https://business.inquirer.net/305558/agri-trade-gap-widens

 

 

New Look, New Sponsor, and Better Prizes for Annual Scholarship Video Contest

By Deborah Willenborg

 

ARLINGTON, VA -- The annual National Rice Month Scholarship Video Contest is up and running with a new sponsor, American Commodity Company (ACC), and a revamped website full of information and tips on making a great video.

 

Open to graduating high school students from Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, or Texas, the contest asks students to create a video that in three minutes or less, shines a light on this versatile, tasty, home-grown grain.  "Educate, entertain, and tell us why you think rice is special -- to you, to your state, or to the world," says the website.

 

Three guaranteed scholarship prizes, sponsored by ACC, totaling $10,000 will be awarded.  The grand-prize winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship and a trip with a chaperone to the annual USA Rice Outlook Conference, the second-place winner receives a $3,000 scholarship, and third place receives $2,000.

 

"The scope of the video contest has grown each year, not just in the number of participants but also in the quality and inventiveness of the entries," said ACC President & CEO Chris Crutchfield.  "We're impressed with how this promotion broadens the reach of the U.S. rice story to these young consumers and storytellers, and we were happy to step up as sponsors to help make them achieve their higher education goals.  One of ACC's core values as a company is to inspire young leaders, and this program is a perfect fit."

 

Last year's grand prize winner, Kyle Voong, graduated from Brandon High School in Brandon, Mississippi, and is headed to the University of Southern California this fall to study neuroscience.  His video was a musical take on all things U.S. rice that included a cooking demonstration of a favorite family rice recipe.

 

"I was by no means an expert on rice before my participation in the competition, but the NRM video contest gave me an opportunity to immerse myself in a new subject," said Voong.  "I not only learned facts about rice, but I was also able to refine my skills in editing, research, and video production."

 

Entries are judged on creativity, quality, and effectiveness in telling a story about U.S.-grown rice, and are due by October 31.

 

Based in Williams, California, American Commodity Company (ACC) is a full-service handler and marketer of milled and paddy rice, including all types and varieties of short and medium grain rice produced in California.

 

 

India facing flash droughts during monsoon: Study

TV Jayan  New Delhi | Updated on August 18, 2020  Published on August 18, 2020

Description: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/5k78ck/article32387600.ece/alternates/WIDE_615/BL19DROUGHT

Th study found out that 10-15% of area under rice and maize crops in India is affected by flash droughts   -  BUSINESS LINE

Prolonged dry spells during the rainy season are leading to a severe drought kind of situation that develops very rapidly

Monsoon is normally associated with flash floods. But a team of Indian researchers found that a kind of rapidly developing drought also manifests during the prominent rainy season.

Long-term monsoon breaks — prolonged dry spells during the season — are leading to a unique phenomenon called flash droughts in India, affecting kharif crops and groundwater depletion, according to a new study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Gandhinagar.

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In a study recently published online in the journal Environmental Research Letters, IIT-Gandhinagar researchers Shanti Shwarup Mahto and Vimal Mishra found that more than 80 per cent of these extreme weather events occur during the monsoon season in the country.

Intense droughts

Flash drought, a term coined by scientists only a few years ago, refers to a severe drought kind of situation that develops very rapidly. “Unlike conventional droughts that develop over months, flash droughts intensify very quickly. This happens because rains stay away for 15-20 days at a stretch,” said Mishra, an associate professor of earth sciences and civil engineering at the IIT.

“It is widely believed that such flash droughts will occur during the summer months as was reported in the Western countries, mostly driven by heat waves and very high temperature. But much to our surprise, we found that in India, 82 per cent of such extreme weather events happen during the monsoon period,” said Mishra, whose team recorded as many as 39 such country-wide events between 1951 and 2018. Besides, there are many more region-specific flash droughts, too, during the study period.

Using India Meteorological Department observation data, they ran a model they developed to estimate soil moisture levels. When they dug deeper, the scientists found that when there is a monsoon break of 15-20 days, temperatures shoot up. This combination of monsoon breaks and increased temperatures depletes soil moisture very quickly, precipitating a very severe drought.

Impact on agriculture

“This has tremendous implications for agriculture and water management. “When there is a standing crop and no rains, farmers have no other way but to pump groundwater to sustain the crop,” Mishra said.

Their study found that each year, 10-15 per cent of area under rice and maize crops is affected by flash droughts. It also revealed that flash droughts have had significant impact on crop production, particularly in three years — 1979, 1986 and 2001.

“Monsoon variability combined with increased warming may lead to more such events in India,” said Mishra. This increasing frequency of flash droughts during the monsoon season in future can have implications for agriculture production and irrigation water demands in India, he added.

According to the scientists, the intensity of flash droughts has been increasing in some regions of the country, but not across it. For instance, in the Indo-Gangetic plains, where rainfall has been declining, there have been more instances, said the scientists who had divided the country into six different regions for the story. Two regions where flash droughts have been occurring mainly in non-monsoon periods are the peninsular region and the Himalayan region.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/india-facing-flash-droughts-during-monsoon-study/article32387601.ece

 

 

Rice leads off series of online research field days for Arkansas commodities

By Fred Miller University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

 

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

FAYETTEVILLE — Rice will lead off a series of online commodity-based field days designed to give Arkansans a first look at the latest University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture research and extension from the safety of their homes.

The rice field day will be held at 6 p.m. Aug. 20 and will be followed at two-week intervals by corn on Sept. 3, soybeans on Sept. 17 and cotton on Oct. 1.

Social distancing protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic led the Division of Agriculture to take its annual agricultural field days online, said Nathan Slaton, associate vice president for agriculture and assistant director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

“Field days are an important activity for the Division of Agriculture,” Slaton said. “They provide our farmers and other Arkansans an opportunity to hear directly from our scientists about research and extension programs that are important to them. Visitors also have an opportunity to ask questions and speak to us about the agricultural challenges they face and how we can assist them.

“In keeping with physical distancing precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are moving our field days online to maintain that face-to-face interaction without the risk of spreading the virus,” Slaton said.

The rice field day will cover new varieties, the latest research in hybrid varieties, soil fertility, weed management, and disease and pest control. The event will open at 6 p.m. with a welcome from Bob Scott, former director of the Rice Research and Extension Center and new Division of Agriculture senior associate vice president and director of the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

Roger Pohlner, chairman of the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board will give an update on the board’s activities.

Online presentations by Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers and Extension Service specialists will include:

Weed Control in Rice – Jason Norsworthy, professor of weed science

Hybrid Rice Breeding – Ehsan Shakiba, assistant professor of hybrid rice breeding

Managing Potassium in Rice – Trent Roberts, associate professor and extension soil fertility specialist

Foliar Fungicides/Fungicide Seed Treatments – Yeshi Wamishe, extension rice pathologist

New Rice Varieties – Xueyan Sha, professor and rice breeder

A live question-and-answer session following the presentations will give participants an opportunity to interact with scientists and learn more about how the research applies to their crops and operations.

The field days are free, but registration is required to connect. Register for the rice field day at https://bit.ly/ArkRiceOnline.

For more information about the online field days and to register for the later commodity events, visit the 2020 virtual field day website at https://aaes.uark.edu/field-days. A recording of the field day will be available on demand from the website after the live broadcast on Aug. 20.

 

https://www.guardonline.com/news/rice-leads-off-series-of-online-research-field-days-for-arkansas-commodities/article_1c23fb33-e091-5b5a-bac4-ce9200024d73.html

 

 

Description: California Rice Commission

COVID-19PODCASTBLOGRICE DOGS

 

Wildlife-Friendly Farming a California Rice Hallmark

By Luke Matthews

Rice farming is unique in that it has an amazing ability to provide wildlife benefits, while still producing high-quality food. Rice fields provide habitat for the threatened Giant Garter Snake and a wide range of waterbird species during the growing season (summer and early fall). These species range from small Black Terns, a species of special concern, to the ubiquitous and large Great Blue Herons.

Outside of the growing season, these fields can provide more vital habitat for wildlife, when they are managed in wildlife-friendly ways. However, managing these fields as wildlife habitat can create real costs for the farmer and provide them with little to no agronomic benefits. To help rice farmers provide this key habitat, there are a few conservation programs that they can enroll in. Here’s a list of some of the current conservation programs and efforts that are happening on Sacramento Valley ricelands.

Bid4Birds
Organization: California Ricelands Waterbird Foundation
Program Summary: Bid4Birds focuses on providing flooded habitat for migratory waterbirds outside of the normal winter flooding window (November – January). This program works with farmers willing to flood their fields during (February – April) or (August – October), providing key habitat during a time when it is most needed and scare on the landscape.

California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program
Organization: California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)
Program Summary: Supported by AB 2348, this program focuses on ensuring that levels of winter flooded rice fields are maintained throughout the region, to support migratory waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway. CDFW works with farmers willing to flood their fields during the winter for waterfowl habitat.

Pilot Salmon Project
Organization: California Rice Commission (CRC)
Program Summary: The CRC was awarded funding from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to purse a study focused on raising juvenile salmon in rice fields and tracking their migration survival. This project has been extremely successful and we are now looking to design a program for farmers to enroll in, and provide salmon habitat on their rice fields.

Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)
Organization: California Rice Commission (CRC)
Program Summary: The CRC was recently awarded RCPP funding from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to enroll rice farmers in a wide range of wildlife friendly practices. These practice vary from providing nesting habitat for waterfowl, planting native vegetation for the benefit of pollinators and upland birds, to creating shallow flooded habitat for migratory shorebirds.

Delayed Wheat Harvest Incentive Program
Organization: California Waterfowl Association (CWA)
Program Summary: This program provides incentive payments to wheat farmers who are willing to delay their harvest for the benefit of nesting ducks, which heavily utilize their wheat fields. While this is not a program in rice fields, it provides great benefits to waterfowl population in the rice growing region.

These current programs, along with a long history of rice farmers working with conservation organizations to create wildlife habitat on their farms, are why rice is known as The Environmental Crop.

AUGUST 17, 2020 9:48PM (UTC)

Anew study that examined five different types of seafood found that traces of plastic contaminants were present in every single sample — suggesting that humans ingest a large amount of plastic pollution from eating seafood both wild and farmed.

The study, which was conducted by a group of scientists led by doctoral candidate Francisca Ribeiro from the University of Queensland's Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, investigated 10 raw samples of wild sardines, 10 raw samples of farmed tiger prawns, 10 wild squid, 10 oysters and five wild blue crab. The authors' goal was to develop a simple quantitative means to improve plastic contamination detection methods.

The researchers found that every single one of the samples had plastic in them, although the extent varied quite a bit. The researchers measured the amount of plastic pollution per gram of seafood tissue, and found that sardines had the highest percentage: about 0.3 milligrams of plastic per gram of tissue, meaning that one would ingest 30 milligrams of plastic after consuming an average serving of sardines. 

Squid, oysters and prawns all had about 0.01 milligrams of plastic per gram of tissue, while crabs has 0.03 milligrams of plastic per gram of tissue weight. An average 100-gram serving of crab would cause one to ingest about 3 milligrams of plastic. 

For comparison, a sesame seed weighs about 3.64 milligrams, and a grain of rice weighs about 29 milligrams. That means that a small crab serving may contain about a grain of rice's worth of plastic. 

"Microplastic contamination of the marine environment is widespread, but the extent to which the marine food web is contaminated is not yet known," the authors explained. Their findings, as they note, illustrate the vastly different degrees of plastic contamination in different seafood animals. 

The study also went into the different kinds of plastic found in different seafood. Sardines, for instance, were largely contaminated with polyethylene, which is used in packaging and bottles; whereas oysters' contamination was largely comprised of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. PVC is the kind of plastic used in pipes, phonograph records and credit cards.

The authors said they could not be certain of the exact origin of the plastics in the different types of seafood. They speculated that the sardines may have been contaminated during food processing and handling, although not enough research has been done on plastic contamination during those processes to be able to say for sure. Other possible sources of contamination include the immediate environment where the seafood was caught, "airborne particles, machinery, equipment, and textiles, handling, and/or from fish transport."

Salon reached out to Ribeiro about the larger implications of the study, and its limitations.

"The purpose of our research was to simply develop a method to quantify plastics in seafood and understand the extent of microplastic contamination in seafood," Ribeiro told Salon by email when asked about whether the results for Australian seafood carry over to American seafood. "This method has been applied to Australian seafood, and although it can be applied to any kind of seafood, I really can't answer if there are implications for seafood consumed by Americans."

She also said that scientists are unsure about the health risks associated with the widespread consumption of microplastics.

"At this point we are not sure about the potential risk of ingesting seafood to human health because we didn't test it ourselves and, as far as I'm aware, there are no studies on the topic yet," Ribeiro explained.

Ribeiro also cautioned against assuming that the plastic comes from the ocean, telling Salon that "we do not know the source of the plastic (i.e. it may not come from the ocean) but our guess is that the values found in sardines can be from other sources, such as packaging and processing. Further research will focus on tracing the sources of plastic."

In terms of what steps should be taken going forward to address the problem of seafood plastic, Ribeiro said that "we should take a precautionary approach and make sure we stop the use of single use plastic, reduce the use of plastic in our everyday life and manage our plastic waste in a correct way."

While the origin of plastic in the wild samples of studied seafood is unclear, it is indisputable that there is too much plastic in our ocean, and plastic contamination in ocean fish and mammals is well-documented. The Pacific Ocean contains a vast morass of plastic and other trash waste known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which has an area of 618,000 square miles. A February 2019 report found that over 690 marine species had been observed having ingested various kinds of microplastics.

John Hocevar, Oceans Campaign Director of Greenpeace, told Salon last year that plastic has become ubiquitous in human life, to an extent that most people do not even realize.

"We have put so much plastic into the environment at this point that it has gotten into everything around us," Hocevar said in an email. "Plastic is in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. Everywhere scientists have looked, they have found plastic, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and from the tops of remote mountains to the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific."

He added, "It is difficult to say for sure how many people's reproductive health problems or cancer diagnoses stem from our widespread use of plastic. We know that these chemicals are dangerous, and we know they are entering our bodies through plastic packaging."



MATTHEW ROZSA

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from Rutgers University-Newark and is ABD in his PhD program in History at Lehigh University. His work has appeared in Mic, Quartz and MSNBC.

MORE FROM MATTHEW ROZSA

https://www.salon.com/2020/08/17/scientists-studied-five-different-types-of-seafood-100-percent-were-contaminated-with-plastics/

NASA Goddard Scientists Map Out Global Losses of Mangrove Habitats

 

Aug 19, 2020 02:19 AM EDT

Preserving mangrove populations around the world is essential for protecting coastlines from storms, floods, and erosions. Researchers worked with the NASA/U.S. Geological Survey Landsat program to create a map that shows altering mangrove habitats around the world from 2000 to 2016.

Mangroves are trees and shrubs that thrive in tropical and subtropical coastlines, growing in wet and warm soils. The new study in the journal Global Change Biology revealed how much mangrove loss there has been within 16 years.

Although natural mangrove habitats have losses due to extreme weather and erosion, the decline is slower than human activity. Farming and aquaculture contribute to the rapid decline of mangrove populations around the world.

For this reason, conservationists and resource managers have been trying to prevent massive losses or develop new mangrove habitats. The newly developed map can also help researchers analyze the impact of carbon cycles caused by global warming since tropical soils absorb about 30 percent of the atmosphere's carbon emissions.


Vital Role of Mangroves

Ten years ago, about 53,000 square miles of coasts were full of mangroves. Most mangrove ecosystems are found in Southeast Asian countries, a natural defense against tropical storms.

Environmental scientist Lola Fatoyinbo Agueh at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center explained the three essential environmental benefits of mangrove populations. The shrubs are efficient carbon sinks despite only making up about 3 percent of global forests. If they were wiped out, they would contribute to roughly 10 percent of carbon emissions and cause a shift in climate change.

Aside from protecting coasts from storm surges and erosion, they are also a safe sanctuary for many marine species. Fatoyinbo said, "because they are amphibious trees, their root structure protects the inland areas from the coast, and they also protect the coast from the inland areas because they're able to accumulate a lot of the soil that comes in from upstream or from the coast." The sediment that remains in the shrub roots can grow into new land, which counters erosion from rising sea levels.

Description: Science Times - NASA Goddard Scientists Map Out Global Losses of Mangrove Habitats

(Photo: Getty Images)


However, the expansion of urban development, land clearing for agriculture, and the growing aquaculture industry have threatened mangrove forests for years. For example, mangroves in Indonesia have been cleared for shrimp and rice farms.


Mapping Mangrove Losses

The high-resolution man that Fatoyinbo and the team created was from the use of machine learning algorithms. A visual representation of mangrove losses can help experts plan how to restore and conserve tropical forests from both natural and human activities.

Within the 16-year period, about 1,300 square miles of mangroves were lost, a total of 2 percent. Sixty-two percent of the losses are attributed to farming and aquaculture, while the rest of the losses were from natural causes.

Description: Science Times - NASA Goddard Scientists Map Out Global Losses of Mangrove Habitats(Photo: NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens)
This map shows the location and severity of mangrove habitat loss, measured in kilometers, caused by natural and humans from 2000 to 2016. Darker areas experienced more loss in the period.


The Goddard team is hopeful that conservation efforts are increasing because of the growing awareness that mangroves are essential, especially since storms have caused a lot of economic damage. Liza Goldberg, an intern at Goddard, said, "But on the flip side, the decline in losses, especially in Southeast Asia, means that in many areas, there are simply no more mangroves to lose."

"The main takeaway," said Goldberg, "is that conservation and restoration efforts should continue to increase their focus on evaluating and mitigating natural threats." They are also working with nonprofit organizations and other groups to protect mangrove ecosystems.

 

Independent Science News

Kervin Bonganciso/MASIPAG

Golden Rice will only strengthen the grip of corporations over rice and agriculture, endangering agrobiodiversity and human health.

The push for corporate-led solutions to hunger and malnutrition is alarming. In particular, Golden Rice is now being proposed as a solution to the worsening hunger and malnutrition associated with the pandemic.

Agrochemical transnationals (TNCs) and collaborating institutions such as the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are using concerns over food security during the pandemic to push for an industrial agricultural system that is already discredited.

According to Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Asia Pacific, Jean Balie, IRRI’s head of Agri-Food Policy, has said that they are “looking to increase the mineral and vitamin content in rice grains” as a response to the pandemic, alluding to renewed promotion of the genetically-modified Golden Rice, which has recently been approved for commercialisation in Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Dangers

Golden Rice projects and applications are currently underway in three countries. The Philippines’ Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI) issued a Golden Rice permit for Direct Use for Food, Feed and Processing on 10 December 2019.

This was despite the standing challenge by farmers, scientists and civil society groups regarding Golden Rice’s unresolved safety and efficacy issues.

It was confirmed that Indonesia rice research centre (BB Padi) had grown Golden Rice in their testing fields in Sukamandi, West Java, in August 2019. But BB Padi is still awaiting permission from Indonesia’s biosafety clearing house for confined field testing in selected areas.

In Bangladesh, rumours have circulated that Golden Rice would be approved by the Biosafety Core Committee under the environment ministry last November 15, 2019. While there have been no specifics yet, proponents are optimistic that approval in Bangladesh will occur.

We, the Stop Golden Rice Network (SGRN), believe that Golden Rice is an unnecessary and unwanted technology being peddled by corporations purely for their profit-making agenda. Golden Rice will only strengthen the grip of corporations over rice and agriculture and will endanger agrobiodiversity and peoples’ health as well.

Therefore, farmers, consumers and basic sectors have been campaigning against the propagation and commercialization of Golden Rice since the mid-2000s, utilizing various forms and actions, including the historical uprooting of Golden Rice field trials back in 2013.

Malnutrition 

The importance of rice in Asian countries cannot be understated. Ninety percent of rice is produced and consumed in Asia. Rice is at the center of the social, cultural and economic activities of peoples across Asia. It is also a political commodity as rice is the staple food for a majority of the Asian population.

Asian countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and India are centers of origin of more than 100,000 varieties of rice. Also considered as among the most biodiverse countries in the world, a wide array of vegetables, fruits, root crops and cereals abound in the farms and forests of these countries, ensuring a dependable source of nutrition for the families and the communities.

Yet, malnutrition is prevalent, particularly among children and women. This is not simply because of the absence of an important nutrient or vitamin. It is caused by the “lack of access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food” due to poverty, and changing food production and consumption patterns.

This impact is seen in IRRI’s Green Revolution wherein many farmers across Asia have become bound to the expensive inputs and seeds peddled by huge agrochemical TNCs who promote a single-crop diet. As a result of green revolution, white rice has become dominant in once very diverse Asian diets; but white rice has a high glycemic index which causes diabetes and 60 percent of global diabetes cases are in Asia.

Packing more nutrients, like Vitamin A, in rice, which requires more rice consumption would make this worse. Especially with the new pandemic for which diabetes is considered a risk factor for severity of Covid-19.

Insecurity 

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) identifies the dominance of large corporations over food systems as among the factors that contribute to food insecurity and malnutrition.

In developing countries, large tracts of agricultural lands are being converted either to industrial and commercial land uses, or to large-scale mono-cropped plantations of cash crops such as pineapples, palm oil and bananas that hardly serve the nutrition needs of the people.

FAO further acknowledges that the changes in food systems and diets, such as the prevalence of highly-processed foods and displacement of traditional foods and eating habits also contributes to the worsening trend of food insecurity and malnutrition.

Given this context, we assert that Golden Rice is simply a ‘band-aid’ solution to the wide, gaping wound of hunger and poverty. Worse, the issues that continue to hound Golden Rice further prove the point that it is unnecessary and unwanted

The worsening land-grabbing and land conversion cases, liberalization of agricultural commodities and increasing control of corporations over agriculture and food, however, are preventing farmers and their communities from having access to these safe and nutritious foods.

Trojan horse

In developing countries the challenges described above remain the main culprit of food insecurity and malnutrition. Both the development of biofortified crops like Golden Rice for solving health issues and corporate led projects in agriculture as ways to ensure food security represent a worrisome push for top-down and anti-diversity approaches to food and health that will ultimately undermine people’s capacities to strengthen their local food systems.

By emphasizing dependence on just a few market-based crops biofortification actually promotes a poor diet with little nutritional diversity

Golden Rice is a failed and useless product, and that is why we continue to resist and oppose it. Time and again, huge agrochemical companies, philanthrocapitalists and pseudo-public agencies have done everything in their power to deny the people’s right to participate in decisions about their food and agriculture.

Already, zinc and iron GM rice and thirty other GM rice are in the pipeline, with Golden Rice serving as the Trojan Horse to lure the people into social acceptance and false security.

Diet

More than resisting the release of Golden Rice however, we are pushing for safer, better and healthier alternatives to addressing VAD and other malnutrition issues.

VAD and other malnutrition problems can be mitigated and addressed by having a diverse diet. Nutrition does not need to be an expensive commodity, nor rely on advanced technology.

We believe that instead of pushing Golden Rice and biofortifying crops through genetic modification, governments should promote biodiversity in farms and on tables by supporting safe, healthy and sustainable food production.

We are also calling on governments to pay attention to the needs of our food producers, including facilitating access to lands to till, appropriate technologies and an agriculture policy that will promote and uphold the people’s right to food and the nations’ food sovereignty.

This Author 

Members of the Stop Golden Rice Network (SGRN) include: 

AGRA (Alliance of Agrarian Reform Movement), Indonesia
APC (Asian Peasants Coalition)
APVUU (Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union), India
BAFLF (Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation), Bangladesh
Bangladesh Krishok Federation, Bangladesh
BINA DESA, Indonesia
CENDI (Community Entrepreneur Development Institute), Vietnam
Consumers Union of Japan, Japan
GM Free India Coalition, India
GRAIN
HEAD (Health Action for Democracy), Philippines
KMP (Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas), Philippines
Labour Resource Center (LRC), Bangladesh
MASIPAG (Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura), Philippines
MONLAR, Sri Lanka
Narasimha Reddy Donthi, Telangana, India
NWFA (National Women Farmers and Workers Association), Bangladesh
ORRISSA (Organization for Rural Reconstruction and Integrated Social Services Activities), India
PAN Phils (Pesticide Action Network-Phils)
PANAP (Pesticide Action Network-Asia Pacific)
Peoples Coalition on Food Sovereignty, Global
PNSFP (Philippine Network for Food Security Programs)
RESIST! Agri-TNCs Network, Philippines
Save Our Rice Network, India
SERUNI (National Women’s Alliance), Indonesia
SHISUK (Shikha Shastha Unnayan Karzakram), Bangladesh
SIBAT (Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya), Philippines
SPFT (Southern Peasants Federation of Thailand), Thailand
SRD (Center for Sustainable Rural Development), Vietnam
TFIP (Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples Rights)
THANAL, India
Save Our Rice campaign, India
Women’s Development Federation (WELIGEPOLA), Sri Lanka

https://theecologist.org/2020/aug/19/golden-rice-trojan-horse

July rice inventory falls by a fifth year on year

August 18, 2020 | 6:41 pm

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Description: https://www.bworldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/rice-warehouse.jpgPHILSTAR

THE NATIONAL rice inventory fell 19.8% year on year to 2.10 million metric tons (MT) in July, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its latest Rice and Corn stocks inventory report, the PSA said current stocks compare with the year-earlier level of 2.63 million MT.

In July, rice stocks held by households rose 6.4% year on year to 1.07 million MT while inventory in commercial warehouses fell 26.5% to 808.55 thousand MT.

National Food Authority (NFA) inventories also fell 56.9% year on year to 222.57 thousand MT.

On a month-on-month comparison, rice inventory in July fell 12.2% against June.

Rice held by households fell 14.5% compared with June, stocks in commercial warehouses fell 9.3%, and NFA holdings fell 10.4%.

“About 51% of the current rice inventory was held by households, 38.4% by commercial warehouses, and the remaining 10.6% NFA depositories,” the PSA said.

Meanwhile, the corn inventory in July fell 9.9% year on year to 741.66 thousand MT.

Corn stocks held by households rose 25.7% year on year to 76.92 thousand MT while commercial warehouse holdings fell 12.7% to 664.73 thousand MT.

NFA held no corn during the month.

Month-on-month, household corn stocks fell 19.9% while commercial warehouse inventories fell 17.9%.

“Of the current corn stocks, 89.6% were in commercial warehouses and 10.4% were in households,” the PSA said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

https://www.bworldonline.com/july-rice-inventory-falls-by-a-fifth-year-on-year/

 

 

July rice inventory falls by a fifth year on year

August 18, 2020 | 6:41 pm

Description: https://www.bworldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/rice-warehouse.jpgPHILSTAR

THE NATIONAL rice inventory fell 19.8% year on year to 2.10 million metric tons (MT) in July, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In its latest Rice and Corn stocks inventory report, the PSA said current stocks compare with the year-earlier level of 2.63 million MT.

In July, rice stocks held by households rose 6.4% year on year to 1.07 million MT while inventory in commercial warehouses fell 26.5% to 808.55 thousand MT.

National Food Authority (NFA) inventories also fell 56.9% year on year to 222.57 thousand MT.

On a month-on-month comparison, rice inventory in July fell 12.2% against June.

Rice held by households fell 14.5% compared with June, stocks in commercial warehouses fell 9.3%, and NFA holdings fell 10.4%.

“About 51% of the current rice inventory was held by households, 38.4% by commercial warehouses, and the remaining 10.6% NFA depositories,” the PSA said.

Meanwhile, the corn inventory in July fell 9.9% year on year to 741.66 thousand MT.

Corn stocks held by households rose 25.7% year on year to 76.92 thousand MT while commercial warehouse holdings fell 12.7% to 664.73 thousand MT.

NFA held no corn during the month.

Month-on-month, household corn stocks fell 19.9% while commercial warehouse inventories fell 17.9%.

“Of the current corn stocks, 89.6% were in commercial warehouses and 10.4% were in households,” the PSA said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

https://www.bworldonline.com/july-rice-inventory-falls-by-a-fifth-year-on-year/

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3097781/china-food-security-country-faces-grain-supply-gap-130

 

Indonesia pushes rice estate project despite environmental red flags

 

by Hans Nicholas Jong on 17 August 2020

  • Planting will begin as soon as this October on a project that will eventually cover nearly a million hectares (2.47 million acres) of peatland in Indonesian Borneo.
  • Experts have criticized the project, citing the spectacular failure in the mid-1990s of the identical Mega Rice Project that cleared and eventually abandoned vast swaths of peatlands, paving the way for fires nearly every year since.
  • President Joko Widodo says the project is of strategic national importance and will be overseen by the Ministry of Defense.
  • But questions remain over the suitability of growing rice in nutrient-poor peat soils, exacerbating the risk of fire by clearing more peatland, and destroying forests that are home to critically endangered orangutans.

JAKARTA — The Indonesian government is pushing ahead with a plan to grow crops on a Puerto Rico-sized area of peatlands, despite criticism from experts and a history of similar failed projects.

Planting in the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan could start as soon as Oct. 1, according to Husnain, the head of research at the Ministry of Agriculture.

“The preparation has to start before October, starting from August,” she said in a recent online discussion. “Beginning this August, we’ve started to go to the field intensively.”

The plan envisions nearly a million hectares (2.47 million acres) — an area the size of Puerto Rico, or twice as big as Bali — dedicated to growing food crops, in particular rice. The government has drafted a plan and a map, with 770,600 hectares (1.9 million acres) of potential areas already identified.

Most of this new estate will sit on peatlands that were targeted for an identical initiative, the Mega Rice Project, in the mid-1990s. Thousands of kilometers of canals were dug to drain the peat soils, all without any environmental impact assessment. But the nutrient-poor peat soil proved too unforgiving for the kind of rice cultivation practiced on the mineral-rich volcanic soils of other islands in Indonesia like Java and Bali.

After multiple failed harvests, the government abandoned the project, leaving behind a dried-out wasteland that burns on a large scale almost every year. Subsequent attempts to replicate the project in other regions, like the easternmost region of Papua, also ended in failure.

That hasn’t stopped the current government from repeating the MRP experiment. In his state-of-the-nation address on Aug. 14, President Joko Widodo highlighted the need to ensure Indonesia’s food security by establishing crop estates in Central Kalimantan and North Sumatra. He previously also cited a warning from the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) about an impending global food crisis in the face of the coronavirus outbreak.

Widodo last month announced that he would put the defense minister in charge of overseeing the project because of its strategic significance to national security.

Description: https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/08/17113743/Screenshot_2020-08-06-09-19-27-scaled-e1597679688868.jpgA map of the area earmarked for the Indonesian government’s food estate project in Central Kalimantan province. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture.

Planting on wetlands

Musdhalifah Machmud, the deputy for agriculture to Indonesia’s chief economics minister, said the government would start the project with a 30,000-hectare (74,000-acre) pilot project, followed by 118,000 hectares (292,000 acres) from 2021 and 2023. The initial 30,000 hectares consists of existing rice fields cultivated by local farmers; the government’s role will be to improve the agricultural infrastructure, such as irrigation systems, and providing seeds.

Husnain said this pilot project will be on coastal wetlands and not peatlands. “So there’s no need to worry that there’ll be problems with peatlands in the future,” she said.

But experts said farming on coastal wetlands poses its own challenges. Basuki Sumawinata, a soil and peat expert at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said coastal wetlands have very acidic soils and high concentrations of a mineral called iron pyrite, which is highly toxic to crops like rice.

To make the crop grow, large amounts of lime — up to 10 tonnes per hectare — would have to be added to lower the acidity of the soil, Basuki said.

“If you want to be safe, then the need for lime is unimaginable,” he said. “That’s why we never dare to dream of neutralizing sulfuric acid using lime, because it’s very difficult. And there’s no guarantee that [the soil will then be] suitable.”

And because the area is a coastal wetland, there will have to be a constant addition of lime to counter the flow of acidic water washing into the area. While that can be addressed through an irrigation system that flushes this acidic water out to sea, this solution poses its own problem, Basuki said: it could spell disaster for the marine ecosystem.

He cited a report of a mass fish die-off in the Barito River in October 1998. The affected portion of the river ran through part of the Mega Rice Project site. Draining of that area had turned the river water unnaturally clear — an indication of very high aluminum levels from the uncontrolled discharge of acidic water.

“If we release too many acids, [which are] not balanced with the capacity of the river, then there could be surprises [ahead of us],” Basuki said. “So we have to truly calculate the discharge of acidic water.”

Imposing solutions that then require solutions of their own will jack up the cost of crop production, which the government doesn’t seem to have accounted for, according to Hari Priyono, a former secretary-general at the Ministry of Agriculture.

“If there needs to be technology that’s quite costly, using dolomite [lime], using water pumps intensively, then the cost of production will be high,” he said. “It means there’s going to be a very high dependency on the government, and the sustainability [of the project] won’t be high.”

Airlangga Hartanto, the coordinating minister for the economy, said the first phase of the project will cost 6 trillion rupiah ($405 million) over the next three to four years. Musdhalifah said investors would be involved to foot the bill.

“We’ll actually [only manage] 30,000 hectares. We hope the rest can be developed commercially by investors,” she said. “With intervention of more modern technology, which is more proven, we can plant crops on peatlands. More than 600,000 hectares [1.5 million acres] are available [for investors].”

Hari said the economic feasibility of the project is what would determine its success.

“I suggest that calculations [be made] before we’re obsessed with turning [the area] into the national food estate,” he said.

Dwi Andreas Santosa, a researcher at IPB, said similar programs in Ketapang, West Kalimantan province, and Bulungan, North Kalimantan province, were unprofitable with yields of 4 tonnes of rice per hectare, compared to 6 tonnes per hectare in Java and Bali. The projected yield for the Central Kalimantan rice estate is about 3 tonnes per hectare.

Hari said the government should focus on boosting yields in the country’s existing rice-growing heartland of Java and Bali.

“Why don’t we increase productivity, so that there’s less need to rely for our food security on less suitable lands that pose many technical challenges?” he said.

Description: https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/08/17114035/Screenshot_2020-08-06-09-21-30-scaled-e1597679629356.jpgA map of the former Mega Rice Project in Central Kalimantan that has been zoned by the Indonesian government for the new food estate project. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture.

Planting on peatland

There won’t be any new rice fields established and no clearing of peatlands in the first year of the Central Kalimantan project, according to Husnain. After that, though, the military will move in.

“The Ministry of Defense will also clear land, not farmers’ land, but land that is earmarked for [the project],” she said. “The choice of commodity will be different, maybe no longer rice.”

The government says it has already identified about 307,000 hectares (759,000 acres) of peatland that can be farmed because the peat layer is less than 3 meters (10 feet) deep. But IPB’s Dwi says crop cultivation on peatland is only feasible when the peat layer is less than a meter (3 feet) thick.

“If the peat thickness is more than 1 meter, then forget it,” he said. “It’s impossible.”

The government’s justification for including peatland with a peat layer of up to 3 meters as arable land is simply that it can be exploited; land with peat layers thicker than 3 meters are protected by law.

Another type of landscape ostensible off-limits to agriculture is forest areas. Husnain said the Central Kalimantan project’s potential area was initially smaller because the Ministry of Agriculture had excluded forest areas. But the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, at the behest of the coordinating minister for the economy, has since said it will waive forest designations to allow forest areas to be cleared for the project.

“We didn’t consider protected forests because for us, they’re not available [for agriculture],” Husnain said. “But when the coordinating ministry of economy coordinated with the forestry ministry, the ministry said ‘oh these [protected forests] can be used, these can be moved [elsewhere], it will be taken care of legally later.’ So why not?”

She added that the Ministry of Agriculture had mapped out forest areas that would be suitable for the project, but might not use all of them.

In February 2017, the Central Kalimantan government submitted a request to the forestry ministry to similarly waive forest designation for 300,000 hectares (741,000 acres) inside the former MRP to grow crops including rice and sugarcane. Almost the entire proposed area appeared to be protected peatland, according to Sapta Ananda Proklamasi, a researcher at Greenpeace Indonesia.

It’s not clear whether this area is included in the forest area that the forestry ministry now says it will relinquish for the national crop project. If it is, however, much of it constitutes habitat for the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), a species already under pressure from expanding oil palm plantations and mining concessions, Sapta said.

Description: https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/26174035/indonesia_20152486_2020-768x512.jpgFire burning through forest and oil palm on peatlands in Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Fire risk

A key concern among critics of the revived rice estate plan is that it will jump-start what the MRP began a quarter of a century ago: massive soil drainage that renders the peat highly flammable and a major source of Indonesia’s carbon emissions.

Forty-four percent of land and forest fires in Indonesia last year, an area of 728,000 hectares (1.8 million acres), occurred in peatlands, according to data from the environmental NGO Madani.

“If rice fields are established [on peatlands], then it will automatically alter the peat ecosystems to match the characteristic of rice fields,” Madani geographic information system specialist Fadli Ahmad Naufal said. “That potentially increases the vulnerability to fires.”

Dimas Hartono, the head of the Central Kalimantan chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said it’s too risky to revive the MRP on the same site.

“The citizens of Central Kalimantan have long suffered from ecological disasters [forest fires] every year due to the policy of ambitious projects in the past,” he said.

Karliansyah, the director-general in charge of peatland protection and restoration at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said his office had devised a strategy to recover peat ecosystems in the former MRP site to ensure the food estate can be developed sustainably. This includes improving water management, rehabilitating degraded peatlands, and improving the welfare of local people.

“The recovery of peat ecosystem in the former MRP site will be key to support the development of national food security sustainably,” Karliansyah said.

The ministry says only about 2.5 percent of the total 1.47 million hectares (3.63 million acres) of peatland located in the former MRP site can be considered heavily degraded and needs to be rehabilitated immediately.

Basuki of IPB said establishing the food estate on the former MRP site would actually help mitigate forest fires. He argued that past fires were able to spread out of control because the area had been abandoned and was largely unmonitored. By farming it and ensuring a constant presence on the ground, the risk of fire will decline, he said.

Areas where uncontrolled burning has broken out in the past “don’t have owners,” Basuki said. “So if we successfully establish rice fields, there won’t be large fires. There won’t be haze.”

Description: https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/07/08075609/2-1-768x512.jpgA canal of the Mega Rice Project near Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. Image by Indra Nugraha for Mongabay.

‘Win-win solution’

He said the food estate program is a win-win solution for both Indonesia’s recurring fire problems and crop shortages.

“Why do we have to create food estate? Why do I support [it]? [Because] there’s no other way,” he said. “Every year, we are being embarrassed [by the recurring fires]. How come we don’t manage [the former MRP site]? No matter the cost, it should be managed, and managed properly.”

Musdhalifah said it’s about time for an agricultural nation like Indonesia to have its own food estate. She added the government is confident it will be able to manage wetlands and peatlands sustainably, pointing to neighboring Malaysia as an example.

“There are many [successful] examples in other countries,” she said. “In Sarawak [in Malaysian Borneo], they also have peatlands and they can utilize them optimally. But they criticize me, asking why do we have to plant rice? In Malaysia, they use [peatlands] for planting oil palm trees. Indeed, our main crop is rice and so for our pilot project we will plant rice.”

Dwi of IPB said for Indonesia to avoid the same pitfalls as previous food estate projects, there are four aspects that need to be considered. First is to prioritize areas where the peat layer is less than a meter deep. Second is the provision of adequate infrastructure, including irrigation systems. Third is planting suitable crops, and fourth is ensuring social justice.

“Who are the owners of these lands [that will be used]?” Dwi said. “Are there Indigenous conflicts [over the land]?”

Description: An excavator at work on the canal in Pulang Pisau. Photo by Indra Nugraha for Mongabay.An excavator at work on the canal in Pulang Pisau. Photo by Indra Nugraha for Mongabay.

Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Arie Rompas urged the government not to rush the project and to respect the rights of the people of Central Kalimantan.

“The government has to respect the deep ties owned by the people of Central Kalimantan with their lands and give alternatives that don’t depend on the exploitation of peatlands,” he said. “There has to be a public consultation process first with the people who are most prone to the impact of the development.”

Rukka Sombolinggi, secretary-general of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), said the government could solve the issue of food security by allocating more farmland to villagers rather than to companies to manage.

“They say we need 300,000 hectares for the national food estate,” she said. “There are 75,000 villages [in Indonesia]. If each village manages 4 hectares of agricultural lands, then [our] food demand will be met.”

Banner image: Microsoft Zoom Earth satellite image show a section of burned peatland in the region in Central Kalimantan where the rice project is planned.

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Article published by Hans Nicholas Jong

AgricultureDeforestationEndangered SpeciesEnvironmentFiresFoodFood Crisisfood securityFood Vs Forests DebateForest FiresForestsHazePeatlandsProtected AreasRainforest AgricultureRainforest DeforestationRainforest DestructionRainforestsRiceThreats To RainforestsTropical Forests

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https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/indonesia-mega-rice-estate-project-kalimantan-borneo-peat-wetland/#:~:text=Indonesia%20pushes%20rice%20estate%20project%20despite%20environmental%20red%20flags,-by%20Hans%20Nicholas&text=Experts%20have%20criticized%20the%20project,fires%20nearly%20every%20year%20since.

 

Golden time to promote Vietnamese rice brand

 

SGGPTuesday, August 18, 2020 12:08

According to rice experts, after winning the World’s Best Rice award, Vietnamese rice has resonated in the global market. If the country rapidly expands the production of ST25 rice with a safe cultivation process, this will be the golden time for Vietnam to advertise the Vietnamese rice brand.

Description: Golden time to promote Vietnamese rice brand ảnh 1The Mekong Delta enterprises prepare rice for export. (Photo: SGGP)

On August 18, a rice exporter in the Mekong Delta said that the export price of 5-percent broken rice in Vietnam is at the highest level in the past ten years.


According to the Vietnam Food Association, the current export price of 5-percent broken rice in Vietnam is from US$473 to $477 per ton, $100 per ton higher than that of India, $50 per ton higher more than that of Pakistan, and higher than the rice export price of Thailand by $10 per ton. This is the first time that Vietnam's export price of 5-percent broken rice has been higher than that of Thailand.

In the first seven months of this year, Vietnam exported nearly 3.9 million tons of rice, worth $1.9 billion, up 10.9 percent in value over the same period last year.

According to rice experts, after winning the best rice award in the world, Vietnamese rice has resonated in the world market. Even in the domestic market, ST25 rice - the world's best rice winner in 2019 - is being strongly consumed by the market at a high selling price of VND30,000 per kilogram, equivalent to over $1,300 per ton. If the ST25 rice production is expanded rapidly with a safe production process, this will be a golden time for Vietnam to advertise the Vietnamese rice brand.

Description: Golden time to promote Vietnamese rice brand ảnh 1Description: Golden time to promote Vietnamese rice brand ảnh 1Description: Golden time to promote Vietnamese rice brand ảnh 2Large-scale rice field model is creating high quality raw material areas in the Mekong Delta. (Photo: SGGP)

At the same time, many opportunities open up for Vietnamese rice to access more broadly in the EU market when the EU and Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) took effect from the beginning of August this year.

Currently, the main rice exporters in the Mekong Delta are striving to implement the rice production chain following the advanced food safety procedures to meet the demand from demanding markets.

https://sggpnews.org.vn/business/golden-time-to-promote-vietnamese-rice-brand-88060.html

 

Vietnamese rice prices among highest in the world: association

 

Update: August, 18/2020 - 08:12

 

Description: https://image.vietnamnews.vn/uploadvnnews/Article/2020/8/17/106357_rice.jpg

Rice harvested at Hậu Giang Province's Vị Thủy District. The trade deal with the European Union was opening door for Vietnamese rice to expand in the EU markets with a tariff of zero per cent applied for export volume of 80,000 tonnes per year. — VNA/VNS Photo Duy Khương

HÀ NỘI — The price of Vietnamese rice has increased since mid-July and exceeded Thailand’s to become the highest in the world for some types, according to the Việt Nam Food Association (VFA).

VFA’s updates late last week showed Việt Nam’s 5 per cent broken white rice was traded at US$493-497 per tonne, compared to $473-477 of the same type of Thailand, $423-427 of Pakistan and $378-382 of India.  

Nguyễn Văn Đông, director of Việt Hưng rice milling, processing and trading company, said export prices of some types of Vietnamese rice were now higher than Thailand’s. This was the first time in the past three decades Vietnamese rice prices reached Thailand’s and even outstripped as for the case of 5 per cent broken rice, Đông said.

One of the reasons was that the Thai Baht was gaining against the US dollar, causing disadvantages for Thailand’s exports, which together with a shortage of supply of 5 per cent broken rice in the market pushed up the price, Đông said.

Many other Vietnamese rice types also had good prices, such as DT8 rice traded at $570 per tonne, compared to $540 of the previous crop, and OM5451 rice at $540-550 per tonne compared to $500 of the previous crop.

An important factor was that the quality of Vietnamese rice had improved significantly, he said.

According to Phạm Thái Bình, director of Trung An Hi-Tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, Cần Thơ City, the European Union – Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) was also bringing benefits to Việt Nam’s rice export.

Under the EVFTA, Vietnamese milled and jasmine rice would be given a zero tariff rate for a quota of 80,000 tonnes per year, which would give Vietnamese rice a competitive advantage in the EU.

To solidify the position of Vietnamese rice in the world market, exporters must work to negotiate prices compatible with the value and quality of the grain, and at the same time share profits with rice growers to help Việt Nam's rice production and exports develop sustainably, Bình said.

Trần Thanh Hải, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Import-Export Department, said Việt Nam’s rice export to the EU remained modest at about 20,000 tonnes annually, worth $10.7 million in 2019. The EU market consumed about 2.5 million tonnes of rice per year in 2016-20.

The EVFTA was opening the door for Vietnamese rice to expand in the EU with an export tariff of zero per cent applied for a quota of 80,000 tonnes per year, Hải said.

He noted that the quota would be allocated by the EU to importers, urging Vietnamese export firms to proactively contact importers with the allocated quota.

Firms could access the EU’s website at ec.europa.eu and the Việt Nam Ministry of Industry and Trade’s e-portal for quota details once the allocation was available.

Regarding jasmine rice, the EU requires an authenticity certificate granted by Việt Nam so the grain can enjoy the zero export tariff.

Hải said the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were collaborating to develop procedures for companies to register certification of authenticity.

The agriculture ministry’s statistics showed Việt Nam shipped 3.9 million tonnes rice abroad in January-July, worth $1.9 billion, down 1.4 per cent in volume against the same period last year but up 10.9 per cent in value. The Philippines remained the largest rice import market of Việt Nam with a share of 37 per cent. — VNS

https://vietnamnews.vn/economy/771210/vietnamese-rice-prices-among-highest-in-the-world-association.html

 

 

Basmati export picks up amid pandemic

Exporters have also received big orders for the coming months.

Written by Anju Agnihotri Chaba | Jalandhar | Published: August 18, 2020 11:49:01 am

Description: Basmati export picks up amid pandemic

Fetches `34k cr in 2019-20 — highest in 3 years.

Not withstanding the Covid-19 pandemic, Basmati rice export from India, mainly Punjab and Haryana, has seen the highest export in the past three years, in the financial year of 2019-20. The country has earned Rs 34,000 crore from this cash crop.

April and May of 2020 have recorded export worth Rs 6,488 crore because export orders of March of the 2019-20 were extended to April and May due to the nationwide lockdown announced on March 23.

Exporters have also received big orders for the coming months.

According to data provided by the Punjab Rice Millers Export Association (PRMEA), the total export of Basmati in 2017-18 was 4 million tonnes (40 lakh tonnes) worth Rs 26,870 crore while in 2018-19 the total export was 4.41 million tonnes worth Rs 32,800 crore. This year 4.45 million tonnes Basmati was exported, fetching around Rs 34,000 crore — an increase of Rs 12,00 crore were witnessed.

“During the pandemic, essential food items, especially rice export, have registered good growth. Basmati export has almost touched Rs 34,000 crore for the 2019-20 financial year against Rs 32,800 crore in 2018-19,” said Ashok Sethi, a leading exporter of Basmati rice and director of PRMEA, adding that exporters had orders for over 10 lakh tonnes to be delivered in February and March, but due to lockdown, March orders were not completed and extended to April, while Ramadan brought in extra cheer with Middle East countries ordering more supplies.

“The lockdown had a big impact on shipments as container movement was halted but exporters managed to ship several consignments to break the impasse,” said a senior member of the exporters Association.

Exporters said that 60% of the Basmati export had taken place with three countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran also got Indian Basmati through the indirect way in April and May months.

“The growth would have been even better as Iran being a major importer of Basmati rice, used to import around 14 lakh tonnes rice from India annually, but due to the US sanctions, export to Iran got hit,” said an exporter, adding that though indirectly Iran imported some amount of Indian Basmati via other Middle East countries.

India’s Basmati export is around 3.75 lakh tonnes monthly but in April and May month the export 8.67 lakh tonnes (4.33 lakh tonnes monthly) export was recorded against 7.85 lakh tonnes last year in these two months which is a growth of around 10%, said an exporter.

Exporters said that the Indian government should have a dialogue with the Iran government over Basmati rice export keeping the oil issue aside as under US pressure, India stopped buying oil from Iran which impacted the Basmati rice export to Iran since last one year.

“The Punjab Basmati rice industry has been in the forefront in exports since 1981, and now this premium food item is being exported to more than 100 countries. Punjab and neighboring Haryana have accounted for around 80 per cent of the total export,” said Sethi.

As Pusa Basmati 1121, which is among the high yield varieties of Basmati, covers major areas in Punjab and Haryana,as it gives 18 to 20 quintals yield per acre.

“1121 saw phenomenal growth and markets around the world, mainly in Arab countries, and has also made the route to European, American and Canadian markets,” said exporter and president of All India Rice Export Association, Nathi Ram Gupta.

Due to the rejection of some consignments of Indian Basmati by the European Union a couple of years ago, now exporters and Punjab agriculture department officials have become quite serious about keeping harmful pesticides away from this crop, which has a great demand worldwide.

“We are happy that pesticides including Tricyclazole and Buprofezin, which are widely used by farmers on the crop, are being banned in India very soon,” said Sethi, adding that the pandemic has given the industry some break to define new strategies and push hard for controlled use of harmful pesticides which will boost Basmati export further.

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/basmati-export-picks-up-amid-pandemic-6559431/#:~:text=Not%20withstanding%20the%20Covid%2D19,financial%20year%20of%202019%2D20.&text=This%20year%204.45%20million%20tonnes,12%2C00%20crore%20were%20witnessed.

Monsoon heads for another peak as fifth ‘low’ brews

Vinson Kurian  Thiruvananthapuram | Updated on August 18, 2020  Published on August 18, 2020

Description: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/incoming/8dpv82/article32383870.ece/alternates/WIDE_615/WEATHERAUG18amPNG

Rain outlook until August 19. Credit: The Weather Company

70 per cent chances for La Nina, says Australian agency

The monsoon is shaping up to lash Central and North-West India vigorously with a prevailing low-pressure area ceding place for what appears to be a virulent successor system rearing in the North Bay of Bengal as early as tomorrow (Wednesday). A preparatory cyclonic circulation has already formed over North-East Bay of Bengal on Tuesday.

Seasonal rainfall trends here may have also received a significant boost farther away from the monsoon theatre when the Australia Bureau of Meteorology upgraded the Tropical Pacific status to La Nina alert on Tuesday. A ‘La Nina alert status’ indicates the chance of La Nina forming in 2020 is around 70 per cent - roughly three times the average likelihood.

La Nina phenomenon is the alter ego of conventional monsoon killer El Nino and is marked by a warming of the Tropical Central and West Pacific relative to the East, causing evaporation from the waters to accelerate, convection to consolidate, clouds to form and storminess and rainfall to enhance over a region closest to the core of the Asian monsoon system.

Very heavy rain forecast

Back home, the 24 hours ending on Tuesday morning saw heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls being reported from Gujarat, Konkan and Goa while it was heavy to very heavy over Assam, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Saurashtra, Kutch, Madhya Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Coastal Karnataka; and heavy over Himachal Pradesh, Marathawada, Vidarbha, Telangana, South Interior Karnataka and Kerala, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The significant amounts of rainfall (in cm) received are Tapi-28; Surat-25; Matheran, Raigarh and Satara-21 each; Mawsynram-20; Raisen-19; Kolhapur and Koyna-18 each; Malanjkhand-15; Mungeli-14; Okha and Bilaspur-13 each; Udupi, Palghar, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg-12 each; Cherrapunji-11; Mandla-10; Panvel and Dindori-9 each; South Goa, Nanded, Ahmedabad and Mahabaleshwar-8 each; Dharmshala, Guna, Vidisha, Damoh, Pune, Gadchiroli, Pithoragarh, Waynad, Adilabad and Bhavnagar-7 each.

Clouds mass up over Rajasthan

This is even as a remnant of the previous low is determined to carry on from where it is ended on Monday, setting up humongous clouds over Rajasthan and parts of Punjab; Madhya Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra; Jharkhand and West Bengal; and late into Tuesday monsoon over Khavdia, Gandhidham, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar in Gujarat.

The South Peninsula on Tuesday was practically devoid of clouding except over Tirupati, Chennai and Puducherry; Mangluru, Hassan and Salem. The monsoon would continue to be active East, Central, North-West and adjoining West India during the rest of the week since the all-important monsoon trough lies favourably aligned to South of its normal position.

Outlook for Wednesday said heavy to very rainfall is likely over the North-Eastern States with extremely heavy falls Tripura while it would be heavy to very rainfall with extremely heavy falls over South-West Odisha; heavy to very heavy over Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, West Uttar Pradesh, East Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Gujarat Region.

Outlook for Wednesday

It would be heavy over Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh & Delhi, East Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Madhya Pradesh, plains of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Saurashtra, Kutch, Konkan, Goa, Ghat areas of Madhya Maharashtra, Telangana and Coastal Karnataka.

Moderate to severe thunderstorms accompanied with lightning are forecast over Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh and East Rajasthan; thunderstorm accompanied with lightning over Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, West Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya and the North-Eastern States. Strong winds (50-60 km/hr) may prevail over South-West and adjoining West-Central Arabian Sea and to between 45-55 km/hr South Gujarat-Maharashtra coasts; and along and Odisha-West Bengal coasts. Fishermen are advised not to venture out to these seas.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/angry-monsoon-clouds-leave-gujarat-but-only-just/article32382424.ece

 

Rice Prices

as on : 18-08-2020 02:37:06 PM

Arrivals in tonnes;prices in Rs/quintal in domestic market.

Arrivals

Price

Current

%
change

Season
cumulative

Modal

Prev.
Modal

Prev.Yr
%change

Rice

Gondal(UP)

110.00

-1.79

9160.50

2410

2410

-1.63

Azamgarh(UP)

100.00

-2.44

6181.70

2575

2575

5.53

Barhaj(UP)

90.00

-18.18

11065.00

2570

2570

7.08

Kalipur(WB)

80.00

29.03

3581.00

2350

2350

2.17

Gorakhpur(UP)

74.00

-10.3

1561.20

2560

2555

-

Thodupuzha(Ker)

70.00

NC

2150.00

3000

3000

7.14

Hapur(UP)

70.00

180

1342.00

2830

2760

-5.03

Sehjanwa(UP)

50.00

108.33

2857.50

2570

2575

18.98

Ghaziabad(UP)

45.00

12.5

3010.00

2860

2860

-2.05

Aligarh(UP)

40.00

14.29

4737.00

2550

2550

NC

Saharanpur(UP)

36.00

-2.7

2955.50

2775

2740

-5.61

Jhargram(WB)

36.00

NC

947.00

2900

2800

NC

Lakhimpur(UP)

35.00

16.67

3046.00

2430

2430

2.53

Faizabad(UP)

30.00

-6.25

1769.00

2425

2420

2.11

Muradabad(UP)

30.00

NC

1927.00

2625

2620

2.94

Chorichora(UP)

27.50

NC

1633.50

2565

2560

7.55

Mathura(UP)

26.00

8.33

3273.50

2580

2570

0.39

Madhoganj(UP)

25.00

138.1

3839.00

2420

2430

7.56

Egra/contai(WB)

23.00

4.55

641.00

2600

2600

13.04

Shamli(UP)

22.00

-15.38

1477.90

2785

2775

0.91

Vilaspur(UP)

21.00

NC

1788.20

2630

2630

4.78

Dahod(Guj)

19.00

18.75

1083.00

4200

4200

5.00

Bahraich(UP)

18.50

-4.64

1225.80

2410

2400

-0.82

Gazipur(UP)

18.00

12.5

2291.00

3260

3260

0.93

Utraula(UP)

18.00

-5.26

731.70

2410

2420

-

Champadanga(WB)

18.00

12.5

844.00

3250

3250

14.04

Paliakala(UP)

17.50

-12.5

855.00

2420

2410

6.84

Shahganj(UP)

17.00

-32

168.00

2640

2610

12.82

Basti(UP)

15.00

-21.05

1941.00

2565

2565

5.34

Rasda(UP)

15.00

NC

637.50

2560

2550

1063.64

Sirsaganj(UP)

14.50

-3.33

1276.00

2650

2640

-1.67

Bankura Sadar(WB)

12.00

20

2483.00

2600

2600

8.33

Etah(UP)

11.00

37.5

513.50

2590

2600

1.17

Farukhabad(UP)

11.00

-31.25

1309.00

2450

2400

-7.55

Soharatgarh(UP)

11.00

83.33

1632.70

2570

2570

5.33

Kayamganj(UP)

11.00

10

2091.00

2470

2480

-7.14

Atarra(UP)

9.00

20

916.00

2430

2430

2.97

Sahiyapur(UP)

8.00

-11.11

2752.00

2560

2560

5.79

Karvi(UP)

8.00

-11.11

729.00

2440

2425

3.17

Fatehpur(UP)

6.60

-26.67

2356.60

2480

2485

5.53

Kasganj(UP)

6.00

20

539.50

2580

2600

0.39

Devariya(UP)

6.00

-14.29

1141.50

2565

2560

5.99

Jafarganj(UP)

6.00

-25

1192.00

2400

2420

2.13

Indus(Bankura Sadar)(WB)

6.00

-25

1239.00

2800

2800

1.82

Naanpara(UP)

4.60

-11.54

707.50

2410

2410

2.12

Jayas(UP)

4.00

17.65

741.40

2300

2300

9.52

Shikohabad(UP)

4.00

60

284.50

2625

2615

-11.02

Jahangirabad(UP)

3.50

-90

322.00

2650

2650

-1.12

Chhibramau(Kannuj)(UP)

3.00

-6.25

640.70

2460

2460

-5.38

Balarampur(WB)

2.70

237.5

33.53

2600

2500

0.78

Mahoba(UP)

2.50

-13.79

487.10

2450

2460

8.17

Charra(UP)

2.00

-28.57

136.50

2550

2560

NC

Jhansi(UP)

1.80

-10

161.60

2475

2470

4.21

Muskara(UP)

1.80

20

96.00

2500

2450

6.38

Maudaha(UP)

1.40

16.67

40.50

2350

2360

0.43

Panichowki(Kumarghat)(Tri)

1.30

-13.33

72.30

2880

2900

-

Anandnagar(UP)

1.30

30

227.70

2540

2530

10.43

Lalganj(UP)

1.20

20

285.20

2350

2350

34.29

Gandacharra(Tri)

1.00

NC

9.90

2860

2860

-

Tanda Urmur(UP)

0.90

28.57

17.70

2410

2410

-

Risia(UP)

0.70

16.67

77.80

2400

2380

-

Achnera(UP)

0.60

NC

44.60

2600

2610

1.96

Atrauli(UP)

0.60

NC

11.70

2560

2560

-

Bharuasumerpur(UP)

0.60

-50

38.60

2500

2500

28.21

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KGrnwIcZR_UJ:https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/rice-prices/article32383250.ece+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk

 

EIA Pesticide Certificate for Basmati Rice Export to EU Deferred Till Jan 01, 2021

The DGFT amends rice export policy for European nations. EIA pesticide certificate for Basmati rice export to EU deferred till Jan 1, 2021. 

The Requirement of Certificate from EIC to Export to EU Deferred

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade notified on 10th August to defer the requirement of EIA certificate. Now, the export of rice to European Union (EU) member states and other European countries namely Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland will require a Certificate of Inspection from Export Inspection Council (EIC) or Export Inspection Agency (EIA). Also, exports to remaining European countries will require a Certificate of Inspection by the EIC or EIA for shipping from 1st January 2021. The trade authority had earlier mandated the requirement for a certificate of inspection by export inspection agencies. The said exporting norm to remaining European countries was effective from July 1, 2020. India exported rice worth $278.68 million in FY20 to Europe, 13.7% lower than the $323.09 million in FY19.

Export Inspection Council

Export Inspection Council (EIC) is the official authority in India which provides safety and quality certifications for products exported from India. Also, it offers compulsory certifications for different kinds of food items like fish and seafood, honey, dairy products, and meat products. In contrast, certification of other non-food products can be done voluntarily. Its Export Inspection Agencies are located in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi. Apart from these, it has a network of 30 sub-offices with NABL authorized labs. In all, the ECI ensures that the exporting product complies with the importing country’s requirements.

 https://www.grainmart.in/news/eia-pesticide-certificate-for-basmati-rice-export-to-eu-deferred-till-jan-01-2021/

Smart farming, smarter labor

With the right systems in place, Ridge Manor Nurseries cuts down on labor needs, wasted time and inefficient production.

August 18, 2020

With nine locations across Northeast Ohio and more than 7,000 varieties of plants and flowers, Petitti Garden Centers must do all it can to maintain an efficient production flow. They do so with the help of equipment and methodological approaches to labor.

Hernie Rosado, production manager at Ridge Manor Nursery, one of several Petitti growing operations, says a lot has change in his 12 years of employment. At first, the nursery had 40 employees at peak season and only sold 40% of what they’re selling today. Now, they have a total of 100 employees — office workers, drivers and field personnel — and according to him, sales have increased about 60 to 70%. He credits that to their labor tactics.

“It’s not because of the number of employees, it’s because we’ve put certain systems in place,” he says. “Timing is everything. We track how long it takes to pull orders, how long it takes to process and ship out, how long it takes to get to the furthest part of the nursery to another section, or from this section to that section. We’re able to save time and move right along to get the jobs done.”

With the lean flow system — a hodgepodge of approaches used to maximize productivity — team members are able to reduce extra travel, manual labor and wasted time that may have occurred otherwise.

Since the farm is divided into seven sections, Rosado says they’ve organized crops based off their bloom time to minimize unnecessary walking. For example, since forsythia blooms in early spring, he says 95% of that crop is sold early. Because of that, Ridge Manor has that crop at the furthest point of the nursery. Crops that are sold each week, like boxwood, spirea or roses, he says, are positioned closer to one another.

“We don’t have the down time to go back and forth, back and forth,” Rosado says. “If I had the popular plants at the furthest part of the nursery, we’re going to waste twice as much time just walking.”

Equipment-wise, their use of machines has cut down on unnecessary work as well, but most importantly, on labor costs.

“We bought two rice hull machines once that were $16,000 a piece, but it freed up four guys to do other things,” he says. “The machines basically paid for themselves before the end of the season.”

Although machinery is very helpful, Rosado notes some cons. According to him, horticulture equipment falls into 1 or 2% of the available machinery, and since companies aren’t making a lot of equipment for the industry, he says the biggest problem is being the “guinea pig,” and lacking a user’s manual when issues arise.

Even so, Rosado recommends equipment to every large grower.

“They’ll still need a personal touch but since labor costs go up every year and it’s hard to find help in this industry, we’re constantly looking at ways to make things easier — easier on ourselves and easier on the guys too. We don’t want anyone hurting themselves or breaking their backs. In the same sense, if this machine can do this, where else can I put this guy? And, machines are exactly that — machines. They can turn all day, they don’t each lunch, they aren’t slow at the end of the day and there’s no worker’s comp,” he jokes. “It’s definitely worth it.”