Weak rupee partially contributed to Q1 agri-export
value growth
G. CHANDRASHEKHAR | Updated
on September 07, 2020 Published on September 07, 2020
·
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But lot needs to be done on
tapping the potential offered by export markets, especially pulses export to
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
Increase
of farm goods export by as much as a quarter in value terms during the peak
national lockdown period of April-June quarter is a commendable performance.
Exporters deserve to be complimented for fighting against odds – inadequate
availability of lorry transport, labour and port facilities – to push their
shipments.
Usually,
April-June period is when shipments of agri commodities such as grains and
oilseeds peak because exporters are keen to beat the onset of the South-West
monsoon. During the rainy season, there is the risk of quality deterioration as
also logistics disruption.
Currency depreciation
Be
that as it may, a closer scrutiny of the latest export data reveals something
not communicated. The comparison is between export value realised during
April-June quarter this year and the same quarter last year 2019 in rupee
terms.
Interestingly,
between the first quarter of 2019 and corresponding period in 2020, the rupee
has depreciated by as much as 10 per cent. From an average of around 68.5 to a
US Dollar in Q1 2019, the rupee has moved lower to 76.0 in Q1 this year. No
wonder, when expressed in rupee terms, the export value this year appears
attractively higher; but the reality of currency depreciation cannot be glossed
over.
A
realistic picture of export performance will be known if we compare Q1 2019 and
Q1 2020 export performance in dollar terms. It is also necessary for the
government to share volume data and unit value realisation in both rupee terms
and dollar terms. It would then allow people to come to their own conclusion
about agri-export performance.
Pulses, sugar exports
Close
to 95 per cent of the increase in Q1 export in value terms is accounted for by
two commodities — non-basmati rice and sugar. It is well recognised that sugar
export from the country is not on own merit or intrinsic competitiveness of the
commodity, but is highly subsidised in order to reduce domestic inventory
burden.
It
is interesting that pulses export is beginning to pick up. Shipments of both
chickpea and pigeon pea have shown a sharp rise during the last quarter, albeit
from a low base. However, we are far short of the potential offered by export
markets and have done nothing to consciously promote pulses export.
Slack promotions
Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka together import nearly 20 lakh tonnes of pulses annually. These
two should be our easy target markets; but stakeholders – Commerce Ministry,
promotional agencies and trade bodies – have not bothered to cultivate these
geographically proximate markets. Remotely located origins such as Canada and
Australia happily service our neighbours.
The
bilateral trade agreement with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has remained on paper.
This writer believes, India has the potential to export at least 500,000 tonnes
of pulses annually; but a conscious effort is required to cultivate overseas
markets.
Higher
exports will support domestic prices and bring some relief to beleaguered
growers. More often than not, domestic rates are well below the minimum support
price assured by the government.
The
author is a policy commentator and agri-business specialist. Views are
personal.
Mum, 33, ditches her daily breakfasts of
slurpees and hot chips to shed 20 KILOS - and shares the exact diet behind her
newly shredded physique
Mum, 33, ditches her daily breakfasts of slurpees and hot
chips to shed 20 KILOS - and shares the exact diet behind her newly shredded
physique
·
Sport and
fitness were Kristel Hudson's greatest passions her entire life
·
But that
changed after welcoming her first child and laying her father to rest
·
The
Sydney conveyancer became depressed and sought comfort in junk food
·
Ms Hudson
gained 20kg by eating hot chips and drinking 'slurpees' for breakfast
·
Over the past
four years, she has regained motivation by doing home workouts
·
The single mum
now weighs 57kg and recently won three bikini competitions
PUBLISHED: 05:45
BST, 7 September 2020 | UPDATED: 23:09
BST, 7 September 2020
Fitness was Kristel Hudson's greatest passion her entire
life, but everything changed when she discovered she was pregnant weeks after
her relationship broke down.
One year later in March 2015, her beloved father - who
had raised her as a single parent - died from lung cancer, a devastating loss
that pushed the marketing coordinator from Sutherland, south of Sydney, into a
deep depression.
Grappling with the emotional and financial pressures of
raising daughter Isla alone, Ms Hudson sought comfort in junk food and gained
20 kilos on a diet of chicken shop hot chips, sugar-laced slurpees and Chinese
takeaway.
But after overhauling her lifestyle and toning up with
almost daily workouts, Ms Hudson went on to win one of Australia's top bikini
modelling competitions in October 2019 - a show of gritty determination she
hopes to pass on to her little girl.
Sydney marketing coordinator Kristel Hudson
(pictured left, in 2015 and right, in 2019) went from eating hot chips and
slurpees for breakfast to winning bikini competitions
Ms Hudson resolved to transform her body
after seeing other working mothers getting fit on Instagram
'I was looking at other mums on Instagram with two and
three kids who were just as busy as I was and I thought, if they can do it, so
can I,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
At her heaviest, Ms Hudson tipped the scales at 65 kilos.
While many might see that as a goal weight, for the
pint-sized brunette who stands at 153cm - barely five feet - it was a dramatic
departure from her usual physique which had always sat between 45 and 50 kilos.
Lethargic, unmotivated and stripped of confidence, Ms
Hudson dressed in baggy track pants and loose-fitting dresses to hide her
changing form.
'I didn't look like I was typically overweight, but I had
a really high body fat percentage - I went from being super lean to having over
30 percent body fat,' Ms Hudson said.
Agri dep’t renews push for rice farmers to cultivate other crops
September 7, 2020 | 12:04 am
PHILIPPINE STAR/EDD GUMBAN
RICE FARMERS are being encouraged
to try growing other crops like corn, onion, and garlic to raise their incomes,
the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.
The DA said in a recent
administrative circular that the crop diversification program targets rice
farmers willing to grow alternative crops with market potential.
In a mobile phone interview,
Program Director Milo D. Delos Reyes said: “The crops that will be used in the
program depend on the market situation and the weather in the locality… We are
demonstrating to farmers that it is possible,” he added.
“Eligible beneficiaries are
preferably rice cooperatives and associations or groups composed of smallholder
rice farmers registered in the Registry System for Basic Sectors of Agriculture
(RSBSA) and/or accredited by the DA who are willing to participate in the
program and whose farms are identified by the DA regional field offices in
coordination with respective local government units,” according to the
circular.
The DA’s High-Value Crops
Development Program will be the lead implementor of the program.
Other participating agencies are
the Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau of Soils and Water Management,
Agricultural Training Institute, and National Economic and Development
Authority, among others.
The program will be funded by a
portion of the excess revenue from tariffs generated by Republic Act No. 11203
or the Rice Tariffication Law. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
https://www.bworldonline.com/agri-dept-renews-push-for-rice-farmers-to-cultivate-other-crops/
Can you grow rice in the desert? Sharjah says it can
The UAE is looking to local food propduction by growing rice in
the desert
07September2020
Sharjah is about to start its second experimental rice cultivation
project, that hopes to prove that despite the hot weather, rice can indeed be
grown here in the UAE. The first
experiment – which lasted from November to May 2020 – was a huge success, with
researchers able to cultivate two types of rice in an area of 2,200 square
meters. The rice was capable of withstanding the UAE’s high temperatures, as
well as our local soil. The next stage of the experiment is getting ready
to begin, and is a joint partnership project between the ministry’s
Agricultural Innovation Centre in Al Dhaid, Sharjah, as well as the Rural
Development Administration of the Republic of Korea. The general idea is to
both increase local production of food, and expand the agricultural sector.
Being able to turn parts of the desert into rich farmland would obviously do wonders
for both those factors, as well as increase the UAE’s sustainability when it
comes to food. Rice appears to be the perfect crop to be grown in the desert,
as it is extremely hardwearing. For the second stage of the project,
researchers are going to try and increase production while at the same time
reducing water demand in hopes that it will become easier to grow in future.
The pilot phase of the project created 763 kilograms of rice per 1,000 square
metres of land.
https://www.esquireme.com/content/47753-can-you-grow-rice-in-the-desert-sharjah-says-it-can
Riding on non-Basmati rice,
sugar, agri exports jump 23% in Q1 despite lockdown
NEW
DELHI: Despite Covid-19 and the lockdown, India saw a 23% increase in export of
farm produce from April to June compared to the corresponding period last year,
with rice and sugar dominating the charts. Though Basmati rice tops
the list of exported farm items in terms of value (Rs 8,591 crore) — accounting
for a third of India’s agri export in the first quarter of 2020-21, it’s an
export of non-Basmati rice that contributed the highest rise of Rs 2,392 crore.
Overall, India recorded an increase of Rs 4,818 crore of agri export compared
to 2019 Q1. Rice, sugar contributed over 95% to agri export
increase Export of refined sugar contributed an increase of Rs 1,719 crore
and export of raw sugar Rs 448 crore during the period — this means non-basmati
rice and sugar (refined and raw) together contributed Rs 4,559 crore (over 95%)
in total increase of agri commodities export.
Though
pigeon pea (tur), Bengal gram and raw groundnut oil figure at the top in
percentage term increase, their contribution in value terms in total export is
low compared to rice, sugar and onion during the pandemic-hit period. In fact,
export of Basmati rice recorded minor decline while other key commodities in
India’s agri export basket such as tea and soya meal reported decline of 27%
and 14%, respectively, during the first quarter of current financial year
compared to the corresponding period in 2019. India’s contribution to
sustaining the global food supply chain through increased export amid Covid-19
situation was noted last week during the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s
(FAO) 35th regional conference for Asia and the Pacific, organised by
Bhutan on a virtual platform. The country’s representatives,
including Union minister of state for agriculture Parshottam Rupala,
spoke how the prompt measures during the lockdown period mitigated the impact
of the pandemic at a time which coincided first with the peak harvest season
and subsequently with fast-paced summer sowing operations during the monsoon.
Analysis of the agri export figures of April-June period shows that pigeon pea
recorded highest increase of 440% (from Rs 15 crore last year to Rs 81 crore
this year) while Bengal Gram recorded an increase of 407%, groundnut oil 243%
increase and wheat 148% rise. Incidentally, rice (both Basmati and non-Basmati)
and sugar (refined and raw), which together account for nearly 78% of total
agri export during April-June, are the two biggest water-guzzling farm
commodities — a point which experts on sustainable agriculture invariably raise
while pitching for micro irrigation and diversification towards less
water-consuming nutri-cereals such as millets.
Social Minister Ensures Adequate Rice Supply for Social Assistance
Antara
Editor:
Petir Garda Bhwana
6 September 2020 17:42 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Social Affairs Minister Juliari P Batubara has ensured
adequate rice supply for social assistance to 10 million
beneficiaries of the Family Hope Program (PKH) until October.
"Bulog's (State Logistics Agency's) rice
supply is adequate for 10 million PKH beneficiaries who will receive 15 kg per
household per month in August, September and October," the minister said
in a statement on Sunday.
The rice aid would be disbursed in two stages,
where each household would receive 30 kg in September and 15 kg in October, he
elaborated.
In addition to the implementation of social
safety net scheme, the synergy between the ministry and the State Logistics
Agency will help the distribution of rice stock in Bulog's warehouses, Batubara
said.
"Hence Bulog can absorb more farmers'
rice, and this can improve the farmers' welfare," he added.
Rice assistance is a program under the Social
Safety Net (JPS) scheme to cope with the social impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic.
The program is also aimed at absorbing
farmers' rice production.
Director General of Social Empowerment at the
Social Affairs Ministry Edi Suharto said the ministry has the responsibility to
ensure that beneficiaries will receive qualified rice for consumption.
"We guarantee the rice quality. We have
to monitor this starting from packaging and distribution. We have to check the
process in Bulog's warehouses," Suharto said.
After the packaging process in the agency's
warehouses, the rice will be delivered directly to beneficiaries'
houses. PT. Bhanda Ghara Reksa (BGR) and PT. Dos Ni Roha (DNR) were appointed
to transport and deliver the rice.
Read
also: Minister Says Farmers Ready to
Harvest 19.8mn Tons of Rice
https://en.tempo.co/read/1383386/social-minister-ensures-adequate-rice-supply-for-social-assistance
FAO Cereal Supply and Demand Brief
The Cereal Supply and Demand
Brief provides an up-to-date perspective of the world cereal market. The
monthly brief is supplemented by a detailed assessment of cereal production as
well as supply and demand conditions by country/region in the quarterly Crop
Prospects and Food Situation. More in-depth analyses of world
markets for cereals, as well as other major food commodities, are published
biannually in Food
Outlook.
Monthly release dates for 2020: 6
February, 5 March, 2 April, 7 May, 4 June, 2 July, 3 September, 8 October, 5
November, 3 December.
Cereal supplies to remain ample in 2020/21
despite this month’s cut in global production forecast
Release date: 03/09/2020
FAO lowered its forecast for
world cereal production in 2020 by 25.0
million tonnes (0.9 percent) compared to the previous forecast in July.
Notwithstanding this downturn in prospects, the expected global cereal output
still stands at 2 765 million tonnes, an all-time high and 58 million tonnes
above the 2019 outturn.
This month’s production cutback
results from a reduction in the world coarse grains forecast, now pegged at 1
496 million tonnes, down 23.5 million tonnes from the previous report in July.
The bulk of the decline relates to a 26.3 million tonne downward revision to
the maize production forecast in the United States of America (USA), where
plantings, albeit still up year-on-year, are lower than earlier expectations
and recent storm damage in the Midwest caused crop losses and impaired yield
prospects. Overall, however, yields are still expected to recover from the
previous year’s low level and the country’s output is forecast at 380 million
tonnes, 10 percent higher than in 2019. Production forecasts were also lowered
in the European Union (EU) and Ukraine, due to adverse weather that diminished
yield prospects, and in Indonesia, where the historical production estimates as
well as the 2020 forecast were revised downwards in line with recently released
official statistics. These reductions more than offset upward revisions to the
maize production forecasts in Argentina and Brazil, with both countries
expecting record-high harvests. The forecast for global barley production in
2020 has been trimmed by 1.2 million tonnes, driven by lower yield prospects in
the EU, and now stands at 154.2 million tonnes. By contrast, world sorghum
production is now expected to reach nearly 60 million tonnes, 6 percent higher
than the previous year, following increased forecasts for India, Mexico and the
USA. Global wheat production has been reduced by 1.4 million tonnes since July,
which puts this year’s output at 760.1 million tonnes, marginally below the
good outturn of 2019. The recent decrease is mostly the result of cuts to
production forecasts in Argentina, the EU and the USA by 1.3 million, 4.0
million, and 1.1 million tonnes, respectively, which outweighed upward
revisions for Brazil, Canada, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. Small
area-based increases to July forecasts of rice production in Colombia, the
Philippines and the USA compensated for more downbeat expectations of output in
the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam. As a result, global rice
production in 2020 is still projected at an all-time high of 509 million tonnes
(milled basis), up 1.7 percent from the 2019 reduced level.
The forecast for world
cereal utilization in 2020/21 has
been increased by 11.0 million tonnes since July, now amounting to 2 746
million tonnes, up 63.1 million tonnes (2.4 percent) from the 2019/20 level.
The projected growth and upward revision this month mostly reflect a foreseen
increase in total utilization of coarse grains, revised up by 8.4 million
tonnes since July and now surpassing the 2019/20 level by 51.5 million tonnes
(3.6 percent). An anticipated increase in feed use of coarse grains, especially
maize, up 31.4 million tonnes (3.8 percent) from 2019/20 levels, is the biggest
driver of the expected annual growth. However, the recovery of industrial use from
last year’s slump, now seen increasing by 16.4 million tonnes (4.2 percent), as
ethanol demand regains ground, also contributes to the anticipated expansion.
The forecast for total wheat utilization in 2020/21 has also been lifted since
July, albeit marginally (by 2.0 million tonnes), to 756 million tonnes,
representing an increase of 3.0 million tonnes from the 2019/20 level. Higher
food consumption is the main driver behind this increase, while the feed demand
for wheat is likely to remain suppressed and its industrial use to stagnate.
World rice utilization in 2020/21 is pegged at 511 million tonnes, up 600 000
tonnes from July expectations and 1.7 percent above the 2019/20 level. Although
non-food uses of rice are anticipated to recover over the season, the predicted
expansion is forecast to be driven by food intake, rising at a faster rate than
the population growth aided by large supplies and food assistance programmes.
The forecast for world
cereal stocks by the close of the
2021 seasons has been cut by 33.4 million tonnes since July, dropping to 895.5
million tonnes, but still up 14.6 million tonnes (1.7 percent) above their
opening levels and representing an all-time high. This month’s downward
revision of the global cereal stocks and the lifting of world cereal
utilization forecast results in the 2020/21 world cereal stocks-to-use ratio
dropping to 31.8 percent, down slightly from July and the lowest in four years,
but still relatively high from a historical perspective. The bulk of the
downward adjustment to global stocks is the result of an expected 24.0 million
tonne reduction in maize inventories in the USA, triggered by reduced
production prospects since the previous report in July. This cut in maize
stocks lowers the forecast for total global coarse grain stocks to 432.1
million tonnes, down 30.9 million tonnes since July but still 10.8 million
tonnes (2.6 percent) above their opening levels. Despite a slight downward
revision (by 1.6 million tonnes), global wheat inventories at the close of 2021
seasons are also still predicted to increase by 5.7 million tonnes (2.0
percent) above their opening levels and reach 282.2 million tonnes, the second
highest on record. However, most of the forecast increase stems from an
expected 11.0 million tonne rise in China’s wheat inventories from the previous
season. By contrast, following a 1.0 million tonne downgrade since July, world
rice stocks are now seen falling 1.0 percent below their opening levels to 181
million tonnes, which is still the third highest volume on record. This latest
revision primarily reflects lower anticipated reserves in importers,
particularly China, which is also envisaged to account for much of the forecast
annual stock drawdown. Conversely, 2020/21 carry-outs in the major rice exporters
were raised further and are now predicted to reach a seven-year high.
FAO’s forecast for world trade in
cereals in 2020/21 is pegged at 441.4 million tonnes, up 7.1 million tonnes
from the July forecast and 6.3 million tonnes (1.6 percent) above the 2019/20
level. The forecast for world wheat trade in 2020/21 (July/June) has been
raised to 181.5 million tonnes, up 2.9 million tonnes from July and marginally
(0.3 percent) above the 2019/20 record level. The more robust wheat import
demand in 2020/21 will likely be met by larger shipments from Australia and the
Russian Federation, offsetting an anticipated cut in exports by the EU. The
forecast for world trade in coarse grains in 2020/21 (July/June) has also been
lifted since the previous report in July, by 3.9 million tonnes; it now points
to a likely trade expansion of nearly 4.0 million tonnes (1.9 percent) from the
2019/20 level and marking a new record. Higher world trade of maize than
earlier anticipated is responsible for most of this month’s upward adjustment,
reflecting strong import demand, especially in Asia, amid large supplies in
major exporters. Despite a 400 000 tonne downward revision from July, ample
exportable supplies and rekindling African demand are expected to sustain a 6
percent annual expansion in international rice trade in (calendar) 2021 to 47
million tonnes.
Summary Tables
|
|
1/ Production data refer to
the calendar year of the first year shown. Rice production is expressed in
milled terms.
2/ Production plus opening stocks.
3/ Trade data refer to exports based on a July/June marketing season for
wheat and coarse grains and on a January/December marketing season for rice
(second year shown).
4/ May not equal the difference between supply and utilization due to
differences in individual country marketing years.
5/ Major wheat exporters are Argentina, Australia, Canada, the EU,
Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United States; major coarse
grain exporters are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU, Russian
Federation, Ukraine and the United States; major rice exporters are India, Pakistan,
Thailand, the United States, and Viet Nam. Disappearance is defined as domestic
utilization plus exports for any given season.
http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/csdb/en/
Vietnamese rice
takes bite out of global market
Chia sẻ | FaceBookTwitter Email Copy
Link
07/09/2020 15:06
GMT+7
Vietnam’s rice exports have
expanded during the pandemic to surpass rival Thailand in price for
the first time in three decades, leading experts to suggest the sector should
consolidate its position.
|
|
|
In July, Vinaseed – a member of The PAN
Group, exported VJ Pearl Rice and RVT fragrant rice to the Netherlands
and the Czech Republic. — Photo courtesy of Vinaseed |
According to
industry insiders, Thailand is expected to export 6.5 million tones of
rice this year and drop from 3rd to 5th place on the list of global rice
exporters in the next decade.
While other agricultural products
suffered from a decline in exports due to the impacts of COVID-19,
domestic rice export value reached US$2.2 billion in the first eight months of
2020, up 10.4 per cent over the same period in 2019.
According to the Vietnam Food
Association (VFA), local rice export prices had continued
to increase. Specifically, local 5 per cent broken rice was of $20
per tonne higher than Thailand in August.
Earlier this year, Thailand's 5
per cent broken white rice price was between $50 and $60 higher than the
Vietnamese variety. By mid-August, local 5 per cent broken white rice was
trading at $493 to $497 per tonne, while the Thai variety stood at $473-477,
Pakistan was at $423-427 and India was down at $378-382.
A VFA official told local
media: “It is the first time Vietnamese rice export prices have risen
above Thailand in 30 years."
With the European Union – Vietnam
Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), effective last month, Vietnam has a quota of
80,000 tonnes of rice to export per year with a tax rate of zero per cent,
giving the country to the chance to assert its position in the EU market
and also the world, said Le Thanh Hoa, deputy director of the Agro-Processing
and Market Development Authority at the Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development (MARD).
Hoa added that each year the EU
consumes about 2.5 million tonnes of rice, but before the trade
agreement Vietnam was only able to supply 20,000 tonnes due to the high
import tax. In the past Vietnamese rice could not compete with rice from
Thailand, the United States or Australia, which were allocated large
quotas, or Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar which were tax exempt.
The MARD official said rice
consumption in the EU was increasing significantly due to the popularity of
Asian food, so there was still room for Vietnamese exporters, especially
with zero tariffs.
According to the
ministry, local rice exports reached 4.5 million tonnes worth
$2.2 billion in the first eight month of 2020. Export volume decreased due
to the pandemic but the value increased significantly thanks to higher prices,
averaging $488 per tonne.
He detailed that white rice
export value accounted for 38 per cent of total turnover, of which low-quality
white rice only accounts for two per cent.
Boost the brand
Trung An High-Tech Agriculture
Joint Stock Company in Can Tho Province is planning to export
its first batch of rice to the EU after signing contracts to sell 3,000
tonnes to three customers in Germany.
According to the firm, in the
first shipment, it will deliver 150 tonnes of ST20 at more than US$1,000 per
tonne, and jasmine at more than $600 per tonne.
In July, Vietnam Rice Company
Limited (Vinarice) under Vinaseed – a member of The PAN Group,
exported VJ Pearl Rice and RVT fragrant rice to the Netherlands and the Czech
Republic at a price of $1,040 per tonne as the first Vietnamese branded rice
products imported officially into those markets.
Despite a relatively low
quota of 80,000 tonnes tax to the EU, local firms know the requirements
they have to meet to take advantage.
CEO of Vinaseed Nguyen Quang
Truong said: “To meet the demand, Vinaseed has focused on selecting varieties
and investing in modern facilities and quality management systems that
meet international standards for food hygiene and safety, while
developing a sustainable supply and distribution network.”
Even though Vietnam was one of
the top three rice exporting countries in the world, Truong noted that one of
the major challenges was quality.
As CEO of the firm with more than
50 year of experience in the market, Truong said: “Vietnam has yet to nail down
key varieties for export and instead exports many different varieties. This
limits competitiveness and branding.”
“In other countries, they focus
on highly competitive rice for export,” he said, recommending that rice
producers should build sustainable production chains for
safe, organic materials with clear traceability to attract customers
from high-end markets.
Vietnamese rice exports needed to
follow a strict chain from research and development to processing,
packaging and marketing to establish a national brand in the future, he said.
“Building a good and
consistent agricultural product with geographical indications and brand
protection is a must in the branding process,” he added.
According to the MARD
representative, the ministry was applying to register the
brand “Vietnam Rice” under the Madrid System. After completing the
registration, the ministry will then ask the Government to allow the VFA
to manage and certify the Vietnamese rice trademark. VNS
https://vietnamnet.vn/en/business/vietnamese-rice-takes-bite-out-of-global-market-672115.html
Opportune time
for Vietnam to boost rice exports
Export prices of Vietnam’s 5%
broken rice have climbed to USD488-492 per tonne, up US$25 from a month ago and
marking the highest levels for years.
Rice exports increase
sharply with highest price in many years
Photo for illustration
Purchasing prices in the Mekong
Delta also rose significantly against previous crops, up to VND6,200 per kilogram,
generating good profits for rice farmers.
According to the Vietnam Food
Association, Vietnamese rice price rises were partly thanks to many countries
increasing their reserves to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. In addition,
with Vietnam’s ST25 rice named the world’s best rice, global consumers have
paid more attention to Vietnamese rice in general, helping to boost both export
volumes and prices.
In other good news, Vietnamese
rice has begun to penetrate high-quality markets with Vinaseed recently
announcing it will ship 50 tonnes of Japonica rice to Australia. The company
already exported VJ Pearl Rice and RVT fragrant rice to the Netherlands and the
Czech Republic in July at a price of US$1,040 per tonnes.
Such varieties have received
the FSSC 22000 certificate on processing, packaging and shipping from Bureau
Veritas, a world-leading British certification company. This is one of the
comprehensive food safety standards necessary to penetrate demanding markets
such as the EU and the US.
Besides Vinaseed, many
Vietnamese rice exporters are also working to meet the stringent requirements
of the EU, especially as the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement has already come
into force, under which the EU is giving Vietnam an annual quota of 80,000
tonnes of rice with zero tariffs.
This is a special opportunity
for Vietnamese rice exporters to build and promote their image as well as
outlining new strategies for production and export by focusing on speciality
rice varieties designed to target discerning markets with higher prices and
also reduce reliance on traditional markets, which mainly purchase
lower-quality rice at lower prices.
It is a fact that Vietnamese
rice accounts for small market share in European supermarkets while the rice of
Thailand and Cambodia dominates. In order to expand their market and raise the
value of rice, Vietnamese enterprises, therefore, need to change their mindset
from creating safe growing regions to forging closer links with farmers in
order to achieve high level domestic and international certificates regarding
agricultural practices and food safety./.
http://en.dangcongsan.vn/economics/opportune-time-for-vietnam-to-boost-rice-exports-560010.html
Vietnamese
rice export price hits 9 year high
CHRISTIAN
FERNSBY ▼ | September 7, 2020
The
average export price of Vietnamese rice in the first seven months jumped to
$487.2 per tonne, the highest level since 2011.
SEVEN MONTHS Vietnam rice
This marks a
year-on-year increase of 12.5 percent, according to the Agriculture Products
Processing and Development Department (Agrotrade).
Topics: VIETNAM RICE
The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed many countries to increase rice purchases for
bolstering reserves, leading to higher prices, it said.
Vietnam’s 5-percent broken rice is currently priced at around $480 per tonne
and is forecast to continue rising until the next harvest which falls in next
month.
In the first seven months, the Philippines was the top importer of Vietnamese
rice, accounting for 35.3 percent of total export volume. Some markets that
boosted their rice purchases from Vietnam were: Senegal, up 19.8 times,
Indonesia, up 3.1 times and China, up 84 percent.
The country has exported 4.5 million tonnes of rice worth $2.2 billion in the
first eight months, up 10.4 percent in value year-on-year. ■
https://www.poandpo.com/agrifish/vietnamese-rice-export-price-hits-9-year-high/
Rice federation seeks more
opportunities
The Cambodia Rice Federation
(CRF) is seeking more business opportunities for Cambodia’s rice sector
by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bank of China (Hong
Kong) Ltd on the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) project to
promote the industry.
The MoU was signed by Song Saran,
president of the CRF, and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd Phnom Penh branch
(BOC), represented by Liu Zheng.
“As the strategic partner of the
third CIIE, BOC acknowledges the CRF as an important business association in
Cambodia with the advantage of having many corporate members,” Saran said.
He said it will actively
introduce corporate members to BOC, having the intention to participate in the
CIIE for CRF’s members to get opportunities in global trade and expand
business.
Saran said the MOU is an
essential key principle to further facilitate the implementation of the third
CIIE project, in which both the CRF and BOC have agreed to leverage their
respective strengths to further deepen a strategic alliance.
Cambodia’s rice exports rose
31.05 percent, reaching 448,203 tonnes, in the first eight months of the year,
according to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
China is still the top market for
Cambodian rice exports with around 159,253 tonnes in the first eight months,
followed by France with 56,964 tonnes. However, In Asean countries, Malaysia
imported about 23, 201 tonnes from Cambodia, Vietnam 12,836 tonnes and Brunei
10,500 tonnes.
According to the announcement
from CIIE, the third CIIE will be held as scheduled from Nov 5-10 in Shanghai,
China.
“The CRF strongly expects to
actively participate in this event as well as aiming to promote Cambodia’s rice
brand on the international stage. It is also seeking more business opportunities
in the rice sector and related sectors from the event,” he said.
Saran said that the sector needs
about $300 million to buy rice paddy during this year to reach the target of
800,000 tonnes in exports.
“With the target of exporting
800,000 tonnes of rice this year, the government needs to inject between $80
million to $100 million while the private sector needs to have reserves of
about $200 million,” he said.
He added both state and private
sectors will also need to inject more money to reach the ultimate target of 1
million tonnes.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50761312/rice-federation-seeks-more-opportunities/
CRF,
China-owned bank ink MoU to promote rice sector
Hin Pisei | Publication date 06 September 2020 |
21:26 ICT
The Kingdom exported 448,203 tonnes of milled rice to
international markets in the first eight months of this year. Heng Chivoan
Cambodia milled-rice export
market is expected to widen next year after the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF)
and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd (BoC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) on cooperation and support tied to the upcoming 3rd China International
Import Expo (CIIE) in November.
The MoU was signed on Friday
between CRF president Song Saran and BoC Phnom Penh Branch representative Liu
Zheng and aims to shore up the Kingdom’s rice industry. BoC is a subsidiary of
the Chinese State-owned Bank of China Ltd.
Both parties will further
strengthen cooperation between banks and enterprises, and “effectively and
efficiently” provide services and financing for Cambodian companies that are
interested in attending the CIIE.
As a “strategic partner”, BoC
will actively provide comprehensive financial services to the corporate members
of CRF as part of the greater CIIE project.
CRF secretary-general Lun Yeng
told The Post on Sunday that through the MoU, the BoC would make it easier for
CRF members to attend the CIIE, held in Shanghai, China from November 5-10.
He said the event is taken very
seriously by the Chinese leadership, and stressed the importance for the Kingdom’s
rice sector to capitalise on the opportunity and expand its export market.
“Every year at the event, CRF
leaders meet Chinese vendors to discuss and sign supply agreements. This is an
opportunity for exporters for the coming year,” Yeng said, adding that the CRF
has signed MoUs and rice sale agreements at both prior iterations of the CIIE.
Cambodia exported 448,203 tonnes
of milled rice to international markets in the first eight months of this year,
an increase of more than 31.04 per cent compared to 342,045 tonnes in the same
period last year.
The General Directorate of
Agriculture reported this, citing data from the General Department of Customs
and Excise that was extracted from phytosanitary certificates.
Yeng said the exports were worth
between $298 and $300 million.
The directorate said jasmine and
fragrant rice accounted for 352,802 tonnes, equivalent to 78.71 per cent of
total milled-rice exports, while white long-grain rice accounted for 89,699
tonnes (20.01 per cent).
Long-grain parboiled rice
accounted for 5,679 tonnes (1.27 per cent) and red rice 23 tonnes (0.01 per
cent).
China topped the list of 59
destination markets for Cambodian milled rice with 159,253 tonnes imported (up
19.79 year-on-year), accounting for a 35.53 per cent market share.
Exports to Europe, ASEAN
countries and other destinations reached 149,848 tonnes, 60,933 tonnes and
78,169 tonnes, up 24.81, 42.49 and 68.92 per cent year-on-year, accounting for
33.43, 13.59 and 17.44 per cent of total milled-rice exports for the period.
But milled-rice shipments slipped
34.97 per cent to 22,130 tonnes last month, from 34,032 tonnes in August last
year.
The CRF attributed the drop in
dry-season milled-rice exports to climate change and the rescheduled Khmer New
Year holiday last month.
Contact author: Hin Pisei
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/crf-china-owned-bank-ink-mou-promote-rice-sector
Bridging
agricultural livelihoods and energy access - Barriers and opportunities for
rice and rice husk value chains in Labutta, Myanmar
Format
Analysis
Source
Posted
5
Sep 2020
Originally
published
4
Sep 2020
Origin
Attachments
Executive Summary
This report presents the results of a one-year collaborative research
project between Mercy Corps Myanmar, Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar
with Biomass Energy Association of Myanmar and the Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research at the University of Manchester. The project explored the
intersection between agricultural livelihoods and energy access through an
investigation of social networks in rice and rice husk value chains in rural
farming communities of Labutta in Myanmar’s Lower Delta.
Rice production is an important agricultural activity in Myanmar,
significantly contributing to its economy by providing income and employment to
half of the country’s population. However, because of lack of access to
electricity in many rural areas, rice farmers have limited opportunities to
increase their income. For many off-grid communities, heat and electricity for
household lighting and livelihood activities are provided through steam and
electricity produced from combustion or gasification of rice husk – a by
product of rice milling. With an estimated over 3 million tonnes of rice husk
produced every year, Myanmar has potential to utilise rice husk for
income-generating activities and energy generation in order to support
agricultural production and rural livelihoods.
Focusing on case study sites in Bi Tut and Kan Bet in Labutta, this
research mapped social networks in rice production and rice husk value chains.
This allowed us to identify actors and network structures that could play
important roles in supporting energy access and increasing livelihood
opportunities for smallholders. In addition to this, interviews and focus group
discussions with farmers and millers also revealed important challenges and
opportunities for rice husk bioenergy within rural farming communities.
Among the challenges identified are:
·
Access to credit and
financing. This is one of the most urgent requirements to enable smallholder
farmers and millers to adopt value-adding activities such as access to high
quality inputs (e.g., seeds and fertilisers) or mechanised drying, and so
increase their income.
·
Small-scale millers in
off-grid areas offer an important service to smallholder farmers and need
financial and technical support to upgrade their facilities.
·
A rice husk market
exists but mostly for traditional biomass uses, e.g., as briquettes or fuel
sticks or direct burning for rice husk cook stoves; these can lead to pollution
and negative impacts on health.
·
Medium-scale millers
are willing to participate in new or additional rice husk value added
activities, but only if other actors or businesses can manage rice husk
collection and transportation for them.
There are a number of opportunities for both farmers and millers that can
address these challenges, including:
·
Building or
strengthening connections between medium-scale millers and local businesses
that use rice husk • Supporting market development for rice husk use in energy
generation
·
Empowering local
partnerships within communities to manage husk-to-energy business models •
Linking groups of farmers to service providers in order to lower costs of
production
Reflecting on these, results from this research suggest that in order to
bridge agri-livelihods and energy access:
·
Farmers and millers
need access to credit under fair financing schemes. It is also particularly
important to address issues in rice trading (e.g., differences in trading
price) to increase farmers’ income.
·
Investments are needed
to support facilities and activities that add value to rice husk, especially by
using it for modern bioenergy. This requires financial support for millers,
especially small-scale and husk-to-energy operators to allow them to invest in
zero-effluent husk-to-energy facilities.
·
Capacity building and
partnerships strengthening initiatives are needed, which could be enabled by
collaboration between local businesses, communities, and civil society organisations.
·
More policy focus on
rice husk bioenergy is needed to encourage investments and upscale existing
initiatives. This includes a consideration of stricter implementation of rules
preventing rice husk or wastewater disposal into river systems.
These findings draw on learnings from our case study sites and may not be
applicable to other rice farming communities or regions. Nonethless, taken
together they encourage thinking about the role of energy in poverty
alleviation, particularly in consideration of urgency and justice – what is
needed now and what is fair, especially for smallholders in rice production.
Future work on this subject should undertake an economic analysis to further
strengthen the case for value chain development for rice husk, including for
rice husk gasifiers which have been valuable in powering off-grid farming
communities, but are beyond the scope of this research.
Natural pests’ management becomes popular in Aman rice farming
Published
at 05:39 pm September 7th, 2020
File photo of farmers reaping paddy in a field in
Moulvibazar Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka Tribune
Adopting perching methods, farmers have set up
bamboo poles on 4.72 lakh hectares of growing Aman rice fields out of the total
cultivated land area of 5.99 lakh hectares so far in all five districts of the
region
The natural methods of pests’ management like
perching and light trap are becoming popular among farmers while farming
Transplanted Aman rice in Rangpur agriculture region.
The farmers are applying live and dead
perching and light trap methods innovated by agriculture researchers and
scientists to increase more hygienic Aman rice output minimizing the cost of
insecticide.
Additional Director of the Department of
Agricultural Extension (DAE) for Rangpur region Agriculturist Muhammad Ali said
farmers are reaping benefits by adopting perching and light trap methods in
preventing pests’ attacks on Aman rice plants.
Adopting perching methods, farmers have set up
bamboo poles on 4.72 lakh hectares of growing Aman rice fields out of the total
cultivated land area of 5.99 lakh hectares so far in all five districts of the
region.
“Of them, farmers have brought 1.86 lakh
hectares of land under the live and 2.86 lakh hectares of land under dead
perching methods in the region till Saturday while cultivating Aman rice this
season,” Ali said.
At the same time, farmers have set up light
traps on 655 hectares of Aman rice fields, including permanent light traps on
605 hectares and temporary light traps on 50 hectares of their croplands.
“The process of adopting live and dead
perching and light trap methods still continues on Aman rice fields in all five
districts of Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, and Nilphamari in the
region,” he said.
The DAE is conducting motivational and
training activities to inspire farmers in using these eco-friendly methods for
saving growing Aman rice plants from pests’ attacks at different stages to get
more rice yield.
“Random application of pesticide and
insecticide are threatening the ecosystems causing the extinction of indigenous
species of fishes, beneficial insects and birds while many other species of
them are on the verge of annihilation,” Ali said.
Farmers are erecting bamboo poles on Aman rice
fields so that birds could perch on those in search of food and eat harmful
pests’ for rice plants to protect the crop reducing the use of pesticides.
Farmers Ariful Haque, Manik Miah, and Azizul
Haque of different villages here said the adoption of the perching and light
trap methods minimizes the cost of insecticide and saves the environment and
ecosystems.
Farmers Mozammel Haque, Aiyub Ali, and Mohsin
Ali of village Kathihara in Rangpur Sadar upazila said many birds perch on the
poles on growing Aman rice fields to eat insects protecting the growing rice
plants
“Now, we know how to protect growing Aman rice
plants and save money using effective natural methods of perching and light
traps,” Aiyub said, adding that application of these methods have really been
productive and profitable.
Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and
Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Agriculturist Mamunur Rashid said the adoption
of perching and light trap methods are reducing the arbitrary use of pesticide
while Aman rice cultivation.
Floods
washed away more than 25% of Nigeria’s rice harvest
Bloomberg September
7 | Updated on September 07, 2020 Published on September
07, 2020
Floods
washed away at least two million tonnes of rice in Nigeria, the second-largest
importer of the grain. That is more than 25 per cent of the previously
projected national output of 8 million tonnes (mt), according to estimates by a
farmers’ organisation.
At
least 450,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) were destroyed in Kebbi, the
country’s main rice-growing state, according to Mohammed Sahabi, the state
chairman of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria. Planters had targeted a
2.5 mt contribution to the national basket, but will now meet less than 20 per
cent of the target. Farmers in five other states — Kano, Nigeria, Enugu, Jigawa
and Nasarawa — also reported damage.
“Although
we heard the forecast of flooding this year, we didn’t expect that the damage
will be of this magnitude,” Sahabi said by phone from the northwestern city of
Birnin Kebbi. “Our target at state level was 2.5 million tonnes this year, but
now we are looking at only 500,000 tonnes of harvest.”
Nearly
50 people died in Nigerian floods this year as torrential rains caused Africa’s
most populous country’s two main rivers to overflow, according to the National
Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The agency had warned that at least 28 of
36 states of West African nation were at risk of flooding due to heavy
rainfall. Other crops such as sorghum, millet and corn were also affected.
“There
is this trepidation that we might have food problems on flooding and existing
insecurity challenges,” Kabir Ibrahim, head of the All Farmers Association of
Nigeria, said by phone from Abuja, the nation’s capital. “It will be too soon
to know how devastating the impact is.”
Nigeria’s
rice production was about 6.7 mt in the last three years, with imports seen
declining by 200,000 tonnes in 2020 from 1.2 mt last year as price-sensitive
consumers switch to local staples, according to the US Department of
Agriculture.
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us on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Linkedin. You can also download our Android App or IOS App.
UAE prepares for second run of local
rice-growing project after successful harvest
Pilot
phase yielded 763kg of rice per 1,000 square metres of land in Al Dhaid,
Sharjah
Published: September 06, 2020 18:10
The UAE's first rice field in Al Dhaid, Sharjah. Image Credit: Gulf News Archives
Sharjah: Preparations are underway for the launch of the second
experimental phase of a landmark rice cultivation project in the UAE after a
successful first harvest in June, officials announced on Sunday.
In its first phase that ran from November 2019 to May 2020, the
project achieved success in cultivating japonica and indica rice on an area of
2,200 square meters. The two varieties proved capable of withstanding UAE’s
high temperatures and local soil conditions.
The pilot phase had yielded 763kg of rice per 1,000 square metres
of land, Gulf News had reported in
June.
Sunday’s announcement of a second phase followed a recent tour by
Dr Abdullah Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment
(MOCCAE) of the ministry’s Agricultural Innovation Centre in Al Dhaid, a region
of Sharjah.
He inspected preparations for the latest phase of the rice
cultivation project at the centre, in cooperation with the Rural Development
Administration (RDA) of the Republic of Korea.
Watch: Rice crop in the
UAE
Expanding rice
footprint across UAE
In talks with the Korean team, the minister explored possibilities
of developing rice cultivation projects in the UAE to increase production and
reduce water demand in order to expand the footprints of this staple crop
across the country.
Dr Al Nuaimi said: “Building innovation capabilities is one of the
basic pillars of developing the agricultural sector and achieving food security
and sustainability — currently a top priority for the UAE. Therefore, MOCCAE
seeks to strengthen cooperation with all UAE entities active in the
agricultural sector as well as independent innovators to identify solutions to
increase the volume of local agricultural production and raise its efficiency.”
Boosting food
security
He also toured Al Foah’s date receiving centre and the Sharjah
Seed Bank and Herbarium at Sharjah Research Academy. The visit was part of the
ministry’s efforts to enhance food security in the UAE.
Sultan Alwan, acting undersecretary of MOCCAE, and Saif Al Shara,
assistant undersecretary for the Sustainable Communities Sector, accompanied
the minister during his visit.
During his visit to Sharjah Research Academy, Dr Al Nuaimi
reviewed advancements in the research and development of high-yielding crop
varieties that can adapt to the country’s climatic conditions, in addition to
climate-resilient varieties.
During his visit to the date receiving centre of Al Foah, the
UAE’s flagship date producer, the minister examined the requirements for
increasing date production in the country and boosting the global
competitiveness of the product.
Shortfall fear
makes rice market volatile
Market operators suggest prompt public-sector import
DOULOT
AKTER MALA AND YASIR WARDAD | Published: September 06, 2020
09:37:25 | Updated: September 06, 2020 15:47:22
A three-phase
natural calamity, COVID-19 pandemic and the perceived fear of production shortfall
are making the country's rice market volatile.
The fear of
staple shortage deepened after multiple natural disasters hit the crops.
Excessive
rainfall in March-April, cyclone Amphan in the month of May and consecutive
floods in June- July damaged crops, of which 70 per cent is paddy.
Already prices
of rice in the local market showed an upward trend during the last three weeks,
compounding the hardship of the limited income people.
Prices of all
kinds of rice rose by 10-20 per cent in a month across the country, according
to the Department of Agricultural Marketing and the Trading Corporation of
Bangladesh.
Rice prices
started increasing at a time when the government agency revealed that
production of the key staple was all-time high amounting to 20.26 million
tonnes in Boro season.
But people
involved in the sector said the two-month flood has severely affected Aman
farming, triggering the fear of further spike in rice prices.
Millers said
traders and big farmers are storing the paddy following flood fearing crop loss
during the Aman season.
According to
the Food Department under food ministry, the government's procurement of rice
was below requirement by the end of August, for which it extended the rice
purchase period until mid-September.
Until August
31, the government procured less than 60 per cent of its target.
Mohammad
Moniruzzaman, additional director of food department, said the government
procured 656,000 tonnes of boro rice (parboiled and white rice) against its
target for 1.15 million tonnes from May 7 to August 31.
He, however,
said although the procurement remained poor the government has sufficient stock
around 1.0 million tonnes of the staple.
About the
procurement price for farmers, he acknowledged it is one of the major reasons
for poor procurement.
The government
is buying rice at Tk 35-36 a kg when the price of coarse rice is Tk. 38 a kg at
the mill-gate now.
Prices of rice
varieties like Swarna, Brridhan-28 and 29, Miniket, Jeera, Najirshail showed a
Tk 250-275 hike per 50-kg sack at mill gates in Naogaon, Kushtia, Rangpur,
Dinajpur in a month, according to the Bangladesh Auto Major Husking Mill Owners
Association (BAMHMOA).
BAMHMOA
secretary K M Layek Ali, said high paddy prices as well as flood in many
milling hubs had caused the hike. He said Brridhan-28 paddy prices have
increased to Tk 1,200-1,250 a maund, which was Tk 900-950 a maund a month back.
A Bangladesh
Rice Research Institute (BRRI) study said there will be no shortage of rice
until November as the country will have 5.55 million tonnes of surplus rice
during the period.
BRRI, in its
latest study, said rice production increased by 3.54 per cent in Boro season
despite decline in acreage as per hectare yield rose notably.
The Institute
also found that farmers have stored 29 per cent of total paddy they produced in
Boro season, which was 20 per cent last year.
Agricultural
economist and former research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development
Studies (BIDS) Asaduzzaman said it is assumed that there is a shortfall in rice
and the procurement target to be not met.
He said the
government should go for import immediately, not depending on the private
sector alone. He said already prices of rice have gone up in the market so
there is no time to make any delay.
However,
international prices of the staple are surging in recent times. The FAO Rice
Price Index said prices surged by 2.7 per cent in August from that of July and
the current price is 8.7 per cent higher than the corresponding period of last
year. Indian, Thai and Vietnamese parboiled rice are now trading at prices
between US $ 385 and $ 508 a tonne. The prices were between $330 and $440 a
tonne before the pandemic.
A study,
released on Saturday by Disaster Management Watch, said farmers have been
facing problems. About 56 per cent of them do not have sufficient cash for the
next cropping season, some 54 per cent find the prices of input high, and 56
per cent are facing labour shortage.
Underscoring
the need for ensuring fair price for farmers, report said COVID coupled with
flood has led to such problems. It estimated that there could be 22 per cent
crop loss due to the floods.
doulot_akter@yahoo.com
tonmoy.wardad@gmail.com
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/trade/shortfall-fear-makes-rice-market-volatile-1599363445
Rice has special significane in Asia.
Updated 08 Sep 2020
ARTICLE: Rice has special
significance in Asia, where about 90% of the rice is produced and consumed as
staple food. Though in Pakistan it is the second most favorite food after
wheat, even then increasing mouths to feed in the country and decreasing land
and water resources available for rice cultivation needs serious and concrete
efforts through research & development to come up with such rice
technologies that will result in higher yields.
Pakistan's total population is
slightly over 220 million and at current growth rate of over 2.1 percent it is
expected to become the 4th most populous country of the world in 2050.
Involvement of seed companies from
private sector is crucial to meet the increased demand for hybrid seed.
Realizing the importance of private
seed research, Guard Agricultural Research & Services (GUARD) established
in 1989 launched research to develop new hybrid seed in collaboration with
Hunan Rice Research Institute (HRRI) Hunan, China in 1999. Later on for
commercialization of hybrid rice we made joint venture with Yuan LongPing
High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd, China which is off shoot of HRRI, having share
holding of eminent scientist and breeder, Professor Yuan LongPing who is
inventor of hybrid rice technology and is also known as "father of hybrid
rice", with special focus on looming water scarcity and climate change
threats which are posing serious threat to national food security.
So far, Guard alone has introduced
10 new hybrid varieties for general cultivation all over Pakistan. These all are
coarse varieties generally sown in Sindh and South Punjab having tolerance
against heat and water scarcity. The company is also on the way to introduce a
basmati hybrid having an average yield up to 80 mounds per acre with an average
grain length of 8 mm. We are very near to achieving this target after hard work
of five to six years; our scientists in collaboration with our Chinese partners
have developed basmati hybrids out of which one variety is giving 75 mounds per
acres and average grain length of 7.4 mm, slightly short of the target of 80
mounds per acre. Our scientists have been tasked to develop heat, drought
tolerant and salinity resistant varieties.
Guard commercialized Super Basmati
in 1991, which was eventually approved by Government in 1997 for commercial
cultivation after 40 percent of Punjab area came under its cultivation. The
Company after introduction of coarse hybrid has also started local production
of hybrid rice seed. We are the leading company by developing such a large
number of hybrids and starting local commercial hybrid rice seed production.
The need to bring new hybrids of
rice is because the yield of rice varieties is low and stagnant. Low rice
yields do not match with increasing cost of inputs; due to increase in cost of
production Pakistan is becoming un-competitive in international market. Land
resources are declining, water shortage is becoming a problem, solution is
adoption of hybrid rice.
Since the introduction of hybrid
rice in Sindh, income of rice farmers has doubled due to double yield of hybrid
rice as compared to IRRI varieties, doubled income of farmers, resulted in
poverty alleviation, socio-economic changes in rural areas of Sindh and South
Punjab. Due to early maturing hybrid rice crop, timely sowing of Rabi crops is
ensured. Timely sown Rabi crops give positive and significant increase in per
unit production / per acre yield which consequently increase farmer income. Due
to shorter maturity period, hybrid rice crop can be planted in late season.
Further to shorter maturity period, hybrid rice crop consumes less irrigation
as compared to traditional rice varieties. Hybrid rice crop can be successfully
grown in stress areas like saline, drought and water logged as compared to
inbred.
Success in getting more per acre yield
has paved the way for producing more non-basmati rice and increasing its
exports thus fetching more revenue for the cash strapped country. There is also
a need of more production and supply to explore new markets and achieve the
target of US 5 billion dollars export in the next five years, hybrid seeds can
make this possible.
High yielding hybrid rice area is
going to cross 50 percent in three years from present 25 to 30 percent paddy
coverage, yielding additional two million tons output.
All efforts of introducing hybrid
rice seed in Pakistan is being commanded by national seed companies mainly in
collaboration of Chinese leadership in research & development with 'Guard
Agri' having the lion's share. Several multinational seed companies did try to
introduce hybrid rice seed but could not outperform national seed companies.
Their varieties were less rewarding for farmers due to lack of jump in
production while seed cost was also high when compared to what local seed
companies were offering.
Being founding chairman of Seed
Association of Pakistan (SAP) and Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP)
and former President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI), I
believe with untiring efforts of local scientists, the role of private sector in
seed research and development is increasing day by day, as I have closely
worked with Government and Private researchers.
With doubling of hybrid rice seed
coverage from present 25-30 percent to over 50 percent in next three years,
national rice production is potentially expected to be increased by hefty two
million tons. At present yield is 6.9 million ton from 2.79 million hectares.
By doubling the area from 25 percent to 50 percent, the expected increase in
yield will be around 2 million tons and total yield will be around 9 million
tons.
In total rice hybridization, around
90 percent area of long-grain paddy is in Sindh province while 10 percent in
South Punjab. As aromatic basmati rice is first choice for farmers in Punjab,
coarse varieties area is still low. However, with production of hybrid rice
seed in central Punjab, paddy area in Punjab is likely to increase
significantly in coming years, he observed.
The major factor behind success of
national seed companies in large-scale acceptance of rice hybrid seed has been
development of heat-resistance and drought tolerant varieties. Multinational
seed companies had varieties that could not perform well in harsh summer
weather of Sindh and Southern Punjab. Long grain hybrid rice that substituted
IRRI-6 in the coastal belt and central Sindh is a major success as its export
market is rapidly evolving in the favor of farmers and exporters.
Consequently, our long grain rice
is gaining grounds globally with much ease by competing major producers and
exporting countries of the world like Vietnam and Thailand.
Our company has emerged as a leader
in demand driven research in agriculture, challenging the monopoly of public
sector institutions and multinationals.
With great passion to increase
productivity of farming sector, we are actively striving to achieve food
security in an untiring effort spanning over past 30 years. We successfully
pioneered the introduction of hybrid rice seed in Pakistan with collaboration
of Chinese scientists for which Government of Pakistan honoured me
Sitara-e-Imtiaz for contribution in revolution of rice production which doubled
the income of farmers, resulting in changing socio-economic conditions and
poverty alleviation in rural Sindh. The surplus rice production resulted in
increased rice (non-basmati) exports bringing in valuable foreign exchange.
Shahzad Malik (SI) Chief Executive,
Guard Agriculture Research & Services (Pvt.) Ltd
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
https://www.brecorder.com/news/40017079
Researchers isolate responses of crop yield and production to
climate disasters in China
The response of crops yield and production to climatic disasters
and the frequency of drought and flood disasters in different provinces of
China. Credit: Prof.SHI Wenjiao’s group
Climate disasters have disrupted
food production and caused yield losses in recent decades. These disasters have
threatened food security at both local and global scales. Quantitative
identification of the impacts of climate disasters on crop yields and
production is conducive to ensuring food security and formulating effective
measures to deal with climate disasters.
In the past, crop models and
statistical models were mostly used in research, and could well separate the
impact of climate change on the yield and production of different crops. However,
both models extensively used the climatic indices (such as extreme temperature
and extreme precipitation) to identify the relationship between crop yield and
climate disasters, and the impact of extreme weather disasters on crop yield
and production cannot be completely separated.
Considering the limitations of
crop models or statistical models, Prof. Shi Wenjiao's team at Institute of
Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of Chinese Academy of
Sciences defined the actual-occurred composited series (AS) and control
composited series (CS), and quantitatively separated the losses of yield and
production of the major grain crops (maize, rice, soybean, and wheat) resulting
from droughts and floods across China and major grain-producing areas (MGPA)
during 1982–2012 using the superposed epoch analysis (SEA) method, which is
suitable for analyzing the losses of crop yield and production caused by
climatic disasters such as droughts and floods.
The research showed that between
1982 and 2012, various responses of droughts and floods were found for main
crops; specifically, responses varied throughout China, and among the three
MGPA.
The flood disaster reduced the
yield and production of major crops by 4.4-6.8%, while the impact of drought
disaster was significant and widespread, with the yield loss of major crops
being 4.5–11.6%, especially maize and soybean, with the yield and production
decreasing by 7.8–11.6%. Wheat yield was affected by both droughts and floods,
with significant decreases of 5.8% and 6.1%, respectively.
Moreover, rice yield and
production were sensitive to both droughts and floods, with reductions of
4.5–6.3%. In the three MGPA, crops cultivated in the Northeast China (NEC) and
the Huang-Huai-Hai plain (HHH) were more sensitive to drought; the yield and
production of only early rice were significantly affected by floods in the
mid-lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLYR).
They developed the new method for
directly determining the response of crop yield and production in different
regions to climate disasters and hope to provide scientific support for
agricultural solutions of climate disasters in the future.
https://phys.org/news/2020-09-isolate-responses-crop-yield-production.html
Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa free from locust menace: NLCC
The National Locust Control
Centre says that an anti-locust survey and control operation is now in progress
to ascertain the progress of anti-locust drive
-
September 7, 2020
The National Locust Control
Centre (NLCC) on Monday declared Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa free from
locust. According to a statement released by the NLCC spokesperson, the locust
is now only present in Balochistan.
The statement further said that
an anti-locust survey and control operation was in progress and at least 201441
hectares area was surveyed in a day. During the last 24 hours, about 280
hectares of area in Lasbella was sprayed.
The control operation had been
completed on 1,125,777 hectares of land across the affected areas in the
country during the last six months, reads the press release by NLCC.
It is pertinent to mention here
that Prime Minister Imran Khan, on July 10, granted approval to Phase-II of the
National Action Plan for Locust Control to eradicate the menace of ravenous
pests posing risk to the country’s food security.
“Pakistan suffered its worst
locust attack”
A few months ago, GVS reported
that the threat of a locust flare-up comes as summer crops of cotton, sugar
cane, and rice are being sown in Pakistan, while fruit and vegetables are ready
to be harvested.
The latest FAO situation report
warns that desert locust breeding is ongoing across 38% of land area in
Pakistan, with the entire country under threat of an invasion if the pest is
not contained. Pakistan suffered its worst locust attack in nearly three
decades in 2019, for which the country was ill-prepared at the time.
China, meanwhile, is also
assisting Pakistan in its locust efforts. The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad said
in a statement that Beijing has already sent teams of agricultural experts to
advise Pakistani farmers, donated 300 tons of malathion, and 50 air-powered
high-efficiency remote sprayers to combat the insects.
India’s proposed trilateral
response
As Pakistan is almost free from
locust, it confirmed that India proposed a trilateral response in partnership
with Iran to counter the worst locust attack. “We have received a proposal from
India,” Pakistan’s then Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aisha Farooqui told VOA.
“We believe that a
well-coordinated response is critical to deal with the challenge posed by
desert locusts,” she stressed. She would not say what Islamabad’s possible
response to the Indian proposal would be.
Farooqui, however, noted that
Pakistan was “working closely” with regional countries, including India and
global partners, particularly the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), to address the looming locust threat.
The ongoing wider regional
cooperation is happening under FAO’s Commission for Controlling the Desert
Locust in Southwest Asia (SWAC), established in 1964 with Afghanistan, India,
Iran, and Pakistan as its members.
Under the proposed trilateral
response, New Delhi has reportedly suggested to Islamabad that both countries
“coordinate locust control operations along the border and that India can
facilitate the supply of malathion, a pesticide, to Pakistan.”
Keith Cressman, FAO’s senior
locust forecasting officer, told reporters that India and Pakistan face an
“imminent threat of several waves of spring-bred swarms” from southwest
Pakistan and southern Iran during May and June.
Earlier, BR Kadwa, deputy
director of the agriculture department of India, said that “swarms of locusts
are entering Rajasthan from adjoining areas in Pak every 2-3 days for a month.
Pakistan has become the new breeding ground of the locusts and hence we are
seeing the repeated attacks of locusts in the state. Four swarms have entered
Jaipur recently”.
Notably, according to a report in Times of India,
locust swarms have reached as far as Vidarbha in Maharashtra and caused crop
damage. This, according to the report, has not happened since 1974.
https://www.globalvillagespace.com/punjab-sindh-and-khyber-pakhtunkhwa-free-from-locust-menace-nlcc/
Did You Know: White Rice May
Increase Diabetes Risk – A 21-Nation Study Finds
The researchers analysed data on rice
consumption of 132,373 individuals from the 21 nations for a span of 10 years.
Somdatta
Saha | Updated: September 08, 2020 13:18 IST
Chawal with dal defines comfort
for all. A staple in almost every part of India, it is probably one of the
easiest foods to make and eat. White rice is versatile and has various recipes
to its credit. From its inclusion in a dosa batter to whipping up a bowl of
appetising biryani and kheer, white rice has several culinary usages. But did
you know that this all-rounder ingredient is linked to an increased risk of
diabetes? A new study claims so. An international research, conducted in
collaboration with 21 nations, has found that white rice is not as healthy as
it seems. This large-scale study was a part of the multinational Prospective
Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.
The researchers analysed data
on rice consumption
of 132,373 individuals from the 21 nations for a span of 10 years. The nations
include India, China, North America, South America, Europe and more. The
participants were aged between 35 to 70 years.
White rice linked to diabetes,
claims a 21-nation study
By -
TIMESOFINDIA.COM
Created: Sep 7, 2020, 17:14 IST
White rice has gained a bad
reputation over the past few years. Not only has it been linked with weight gain but also high blood sugar
levels. Though there are many studies that say it's not the case and white rice
is not as bad as it's presented to be.
A recent study
done on 1,30,000 adults, over 10 years in 21 countries also shows some not so
favourable results about white rice.
As per the
study's result, the consumption of white rice is linked with a high risk
of diabetes. And the risk was found to be
more common among the South Asian population.
The study was
done on a large scale and was an international collaboration between
researchers from various countries, including China, Brazil, India, North and
South America, Europe and Africa and was led by Bhavadharini Balaji of the
Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster
University, Canada. The study was published in the Diabetes Care journal.
The milling and
polishing process of white rice removes nutrients from it like Vitamin B and
its high glycemic index leads to a spike in the blood sugar level.
An old study
conducted in 2012 found that each extra serving of rice increases the risk of
diabetes by 11 per cent.
However, the
findings changed depending on the countries they were conducted in. A study
conducted on 45,000 participants found no substantial increase in diabetes with
the consumption of white rice.
To beat this
barrier, the authors of the new study included 21 countries in this study.
The study
The South Asian
people were found to be genetically predisposed to diabetes, due to both
lifestyle and biological reasons.
To understand
this data, the findings from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan were compared.
Findings
The participants
in the study were aged between 35-70. Out of the 1,32,372 people, 6,129 people
developed diabetes over the course of nine and a half years. The average
consumption of rice was 128 mg.
However, the
highest consumption of white rice was seen in South Asia at 630 grams a day,
followed by South East Asia and China with 238 grams and 200 grams per day
respectively.
The higher
consumption of rice was linked with lower consumption of other foods like
fibre, dairy products and meat.
It was also
found that carbohydrates make up for nearly 80 per cent of calories consumed in
many South Asian countries.
But over time
carbs have become increasingly polished and refined, the process which makes
them lose nutrition.
But it's not
necessary that everyone who eats white rice is prone to get diabetes. It does
not just depend on the consumption but also on the quality of rice and what it
is consumed with makes a difference.
China and India
are the world's two largest countries where white rice is the staple food. But
the researchers have found there is no significant association between white
rice consumption and diabetes in China.
This might be
because of their other lifestyle factors. The sticky rice that Chinese eat
could also be the reason for this difference, said researchers.
What can one
do?
Studies have
shown that replacing white rice with unpolished brown rice decreases the
glycemic index by 23 per cent and fasting insulin response by 57 per cent
overweight Asian Indians.
People who consume white
rice as a staple, the risk of increased diabetes can be lowered by substituting
white rice with a healthier option and also pairing it up with legumes, pulses
and green vegetables. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/white-rice-linked-to-diabetes-claims-a-21-nation-study/articleshow/77978399.cms
Can seeds survive 100 years: Agri-researchers begin
Arctic experiment
An
experiment has begun in the Arctic at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to find to
how long seeds live. This seed longevity experiment will last a century, and
Hyderabad-based ICRISAT has made its contribution to the experiment as well.
By
: Sahitya P Poonacha
Sep
6, 2020 15:22 IST
The Global Seed Vault in Svalbard (Photo: ICRISAT)ICRISAT
Ever wondered how long seeds in fact live? Well, researchers
in the Arctic are taking on the mantle to find out exactly that. As of
September, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault has become the site of this
intriguing quest. 6 global research institutions and genebanks including the
Hyderabad-based ICRISAT have contributed seed specimens for the research.
This experiment, which will carry on for the next 100
years, will observe the conditions and how long seeds may be preserved.
ICRISAT joins seed experiment in the Arctic
The International Crops Research Institute for the
Semi-Arid Tropics based in Hyderabad will be joining in the fascinating
research on seed longevity. The ICRISAT will be providing four of the 13 crops
that will be tested through the research. The other participating institutions
are -- The National Rice Seed Storage Laboratory for Genetic Resources
(NRSSL) in Thailand, Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária, (INIAV)
in Portugal, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa) in
Brazil, The Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research
(IPK) in Germany and Nordic Genetic Resource Centre (NordGen) in
Sweden.
100-year experiment begins at Svalbard Global Seed Vault.ICRISAT
In a genebank, many frozen seeds that are well-dried can
be preserved for a long time. Exactly, how long 'after germination under
optimal conditions' however, isn't quite well-researched. What's more, it has
been assumed that many seeds can survive centuries and some more than thousands
of years at length.
Speaking about the experiment, and ICRISAT's role,
"ICRISAT will bring seeds of chickpea, groundnut, pearl millet and pigeon
pea to the experiment during 2022-23. The seeds will be tested initially before
being put in the vault for storage at -18 degree Celsius. They will be taken
out for testing once every decade during the course of the next 100 years to
determine longevity," said Dr Vania Azevedo, Head of ICRISAT's R S Paroda
Genebank.
The seeds being collected from the six participating
research institutes are:
·
Rice – The
National Rice Seed Storage Laboratory for Genetic Resources (NRSSL) in Thailand
·
Groundnut,
chickpea, pearl millet and pigeonpea –
ICRISAT in India
·
Maize –
Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária, (INIAV) in Portugal
·
Soybean –
Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa) in Brazil
·
Barley, pea,
wheat, lettuce and Brassica oleracea (of the cabbage family) – The
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Germany
·
Timothy –
Nordic Genetic Resource Centre (NordGen) in Sweden.
So far, the first test sets deposited in the vault for the
experiment on Thursday were-- barley, pea, wheat and lettuce produced by the
German genebank IPK in Gatersleben. Over the next three years, these six
institutions will be placing seeds of other crops into the vault for the
experiment.
100-year experiment on seed longevity.ICRISAT
How this experiment will help is that a lot of data on the
preservation of seeds would be valuable to future generations. Moreover, it'll
help preserve species for regeneration as genetic resources. This will
considerably help the world's genebanks. While many genebanks are as old as
five decades and have accumulated some knowledge, the ICRISAT said in its
release. However, it's far from complete and that is the gap this experiment
will try to fill.
"This experiment will provide future generations with
valuable information about seed viability and more precise knowledge of how
often seeds need to be regenerated," said Dr Asmund Asdal, Seed Vault
Coordinator at NordGen, the genebank responsible for managing the project.
Dr Azevedo adds, "In this experiment, all the
variables that cannot be measured or recorded during the normal course of
genebank operations will be measured using advanced techniques when learning
about seed longevity. Seeds from multiple harvest years of different crops and
different varieties produced under varying conditions in diverse geographies
are subject to extensive testing for germination and gene expression once a
decade over a very long time. This kind of testing hasn't been attempted
before."
How the experiment will pan out
While the experiment on seed longevity is surely a long
one, there are numerous variables in the process that can barely be pre-empted.
ICRISAT told IBTimes about how data will
be recorded and how the research will be conducted in 100 years, "A sample
of a few hundred seeds will be tested before being put into the vault and then
taken out every 10 years for testing including germination. The RNA will also
be extracted for analysis. The RNA analysis can help compare genetic
differences over baseline and over time. The operations involved before the
experimental seeds enter the vault are production of seeds in the field,
packaging and shipping to Svalbard Seed Vault. The seeds are stored in the
vault under – 18 degree Celsius. ICRISAT will be taking seeds from its genebank
to the vault. These seeds in the genebank will have to be regenerated i.e.
planted and harvested because we want to take freshly produced seeds to the
experiment in order to correctly understand longevity. The planting and
harvesting will happen in 2022-23."
When asked about the challenges in conducting the
experiment, the organisation says, "The conduct of the experiment itself
is not a challenge as genebanks have been depositing their seed accessions in
the vault for about a decade now. However, the experiment is expected to
produce information to better manage one of the biggest challenges to
conservation – maintaining genetic purity and diversity at the same time.
Conserving a seed over long term means that it has to be taken out periodically
and regenerated (sowing, growing and harvesting) so that only viable seeds are
conserved. With every cycle of regeneration, however, some divergence from the
parent seed is likely. To keep such divergence to a minimum, scientists plant a
certain number of seeds per accession. Despite this, natural selection can
bring about undesirable changes when regenerating that over a period of time
can lower genetic purity, result in loss of some rare alleles and thus affect
diversity."
The Svalbard Global Seed VaultICRISAT
They add, "Knowing just how long seed of a particular
crop is desirably viable will help in determining how many regenerations are
needed and thus help improve conservation. This can also increase the
cost-effectiveness of conservation."
Speaking about how the Svalbard Global Seed Vault's
location in the Arctic will benefit the experiment ICRISAT says, "Svalbard
is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic. The cold is needed for long-term
conservation. The Global Seed Vault is the only facility of its kind and it
works with genebanks from across the world, and already conserves the world's
crop resources. It is best poised to conduct the experiment."
It'll be exciting to see the outcomes of this ambitious
experiment over the next hundred years.
Promote
local products, regulate imports: exec
BY CARMELITO FRANCISCO ON
SEPTEMBER 7, 2020
THE
Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) has pushed for the strengthening of
regulations on imports while of promoting local products of Mindanao.
In a press statement Sunday,
Secretary Emmanuel Pinol, MinDA chair, said that there is a need to help local
producers, especially those producing agricultural products like meat who have
been drastically affected by the coronavirus pandemic, by also ensuring that
importing these products is tightly regulated.
“This was the recommendation I
submitted during the meeting of the Mindanao Regional Development Council (RDC)
chairmen headed by Agusan del Norte Governor Dale Corvera earlier this week,”
he said.
The heads of the councils, Pinol
said, told him about the appeal of the stakeholders of the agricultural sector,
especially rice farmers, who have sought for government support as prices have
gone down.
“At the height of harvest, rice
farmers in Mindanao say that farm gate prices have dipped to as low as PHP12
per kilo which is equivalent to the production cost. Corn prices have also
fallen to as low as PHP10 per kilo from a high of PHP16 before harvest,” the
MinDA chair added.
“I recommended that the importation
of rice and other products which the local farmers could easily produce and
benefit from, should be regulated as we address the economic slowdown brought
about by the pandemic,” he said, adding taht the agency has also been urged to
submit a comprehensive report on the situation in the agricultural sector in
relation to the economic recovery of the island.
“That process (of formulating the
report), however, will take months and by the time it is completed, harvest
season would be over and the farmers would have lost their shirts again,” he
said, adding that there is a need for the sector to take advantage of the
present opportunities, like promoting local products, to trigger the economic
recovery.
To jumpstart the economic recovery,
he explained, is for local producers to be able to gain access to the market
instead of allowing imported products to flood it.
He also urged local government
officials to also help prompting the “Buy Local” movement to s support the
local producers as this will also result not only in better economic
opportunities to small and medium enterprises, but will also provide better
employment opportunities to their constituents.
“These are suggested solutions
which will not cost government anything and will certainly be welcomed by the
agriculture and fisheries sector,” he said.
How to avert a
looming global food crisis on top of pandemic woes?
Greater openness and collaboration in global agriculture and
food trade is called for in the post-pandemic era, said Luan Richeng, president
of China National Association of Grain Sector, during a summit that addresses
food insecurity held on Monday during the ongoing 2020 China International Fair
for Trade in Services in Beijing.
Due to the uneven distribution of agricultural resources – some
countries are endowed with more fresh water and arable land while others aren't
– a global food supply chain is thus of crucial importance to even out the
distribution of food, he added. In the past ten years, the international trade
in grain has increased over 40 percent and that of soybean over 50 percent,
thanks to a resilient supply network.
But the pandemic has wreaked havoc on that global food supply
chain. Lockdowns, closed borders, trade restrictions, and a public health
crisis have resulted in a system breakdown. Large-scale industrial farms and
meat operations were forced to closed down, culling and then discarding the
animals as their routes to market were lost.
The International Forum for
Development and Investment of Modern Supply Chain of Food held on September 7,
2020. /VCG
As the virus further spread, countries have resorted to
stockpiling food and limiting exports. For example, both India and Vietnam, two
of the world's largest rice exporters, halted their rice exports in the middle
of the pandemic which quickly led to price surges, threatening to trigger a food
security crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa, the world's largest rice importing
region.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the
United Nations, 820 million people regularly go to bed hungry, of whom 135
million suffer from acute hunger. The pandemic may add an additional 83 to 132
million people to the ranks of the undernourished in 2020, which means the
number of people suffering from chronic hunger could double.
Even before the pandemic, there were signs that global food
prices would surge. The worst locust blight in 70 years, climate change-induced
extreme weather, on top of African Swine Fever, all drove up global food prices
to record highs.
A vegetable vendor sells tomatoes
in a public market, October 16, 2011 in Quezon City, Philippines. /VCG
There are fears that China, with one-fifth of the world's
population, may find it hard to feed its people with one-tenth of its
agricultural farmland, as the pandemic inflicted heavy woes on the global food
system.
"China has ample grain reserves and the current stock of
rice and wheat exceed one year's annual consumption," said Zhang
Xiaoqiang, executive vice chairman of the China Center for International
Economic Exchanges, during the summit. Data suggests that China's summer grain
output reached a historic high of 142.81 million tonnes this year, up 0.9
percent from last year.
China imported around 12.6 million tonnes of corn in the first
half of this year, an increase of 34 percent compared with the same time last
year. Soybean imports stood at around 45 million tonnes, an increase of 18
percent, according to Zhang.
"It shows the strong demand China has for food imports and
its commitment to global trade in food supply," he said. Openness to
global trade on the part of China amid pandemic-driven upsets in the food
supply chain would help food exporting countries and their farmers, he added.
A child works outside Aweil,
Northern Bahr al Ghazal, South Sudan, a region with a high level of food
insecurity. /VCG
The pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of smallholder
farmers who lack the buffer of large agricultural businesses. Nearly 98 percent
of farmers cultivate farms smaller than two hectares in China, and the country
is home to more than half the world's small farms.
Restrictions of movement and road closures cut farmers' access
to both buy and sell products. Many perishable goods, like fruit and vegetables
were thus wasted, which resulted in a significant loss of income, and affected
future cultivation seasons.
Chinese e-commerce companies have relevant policies to support
smallholding farmers, said Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, during the summit. He noted
that the Chinese government also took measures to stabilize food production and
supply with a focus on small farmers and consumers.
A series of financial support measures were carried out in China
to mitigate the financial losses of smallholder farmers, including establishing
fiscal emergency funds, supporting cold storage and preservation of
agricultural products and waiving fees on farmers' loans and extending payment
deadlines.
An advertisement that calls for
food saving is held at a canteen in Hebei, China, August 2020. /VCG
The paradox of today is, while food is wasted in some places,
others see empty shelves in their market. Food loss and waste can take place at
various stages of the food supply chain, resulting from low-efficiency
production and processing, to waste in consumption. A nationwide "Clear
Your Plate" campaign is recently launched in China against food waste, as
35 million tons of food is wasted annually in the country.
"Regulatory changes are called for to address food losses
and waste, and more public education campaign should be launched to alter
cultural attitudes toward food," said Zhao Yi, chief engineer of China
National Association of Grain Sector, announcing an initiative at the end of
the summit that aims at strengthening food security.
Clear regulations, supervision and enforcement mechanism need to
be in place to foster an environment in which wasting food is shunned, she
noted.
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Nigeria see 200, 000 tons slump in rice imports as
price-sensitive consumers switch to local staples
By
-
September
7, 2020
10
·
·
Nigeria’s
rice production was about 6.7 million tons in the last three years, with
imports seen declining by 200,000 tons in 2020 from 1.2 million tons last year
as price-sensitive consumers switch to local staples, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
Even
as notorious climate change has washed away at least two million tons of rice
in Nigeria, the second-largest importer of the grain. That is more than 25% of
the previously projected national output of 8 million tons, according to
estimates by a farmers’ organization.
At
least 450,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) were destroyed in Kebbi, the country’s
main rice-growing state, according to Mohammed Sahabi, the state chairman of
the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria. Planters had targeted a 2.5 million
ton contribution to the national basket, but will now meet less than 20% of the
target. Farmers in five other states — Kano, Nigeria, Enugu, Jigawa and
Nasarawa — also reported damage.
“Although
we heard the forecast of flooding this year, we didn’t expect that the damage
will be of this magnitude,” Sahabi said by phone from the northwestern city of
Birnin Kebbi. “Our target at state level was 2.5 million tons this year, but
now we are looking at only 500,000 tons of harvest.”
Nearly
50 people died in Nigerian floods this year as torrential rains caused Africa’s
most populous country’s two main rivers to overflow, according to the National
Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The agency had warned that at least 28 of
36 states of West African nation were at risk of flooding due to heavy
rainfall. Other crops such as sorghum, millet and corn were also affected.
“There
is this trepidation that we might have food problems on flooding and existing
insecurity challenges,” Kabir Ibrahim, head of the All Farmers Association of
Nigeria said by phone from Abuja, the nation’s capital. “It will be too soon to
know how devastating the impact is.”
Winners and losers from the rice
tariffication law
By: Raul Montemayor - @inquirerdotnet
10:26 PM September 06, 2020
It would seem that planting rice would
never be fun, especially for hundreds of thousands of farmers who had stopped
the backbreaking work in the field because of falling prices of the staple
resulting from import liberalization. —WILLIE LOMIBAO
In recent weeks, several
staunch advocates of the liberalization of the rice sector released a
series of opinion pieces, touting the alleged gains from Republic Act No. 11203
or the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) and debunking the claims of critics of the
law and its implementation. This paper seeks to set the record straight by
assessing what really happened, using mutually acceptable assumptions and more
precise calculations, with the hope that the findings will point policy makers and stakeholders in the
rice industry to a more realistic and productive way forward.
Recap
To review, RA 11203 was signed
by President Rodrigo Duterte on February 14 and took effect on March 5, 2019. The law removed government limits, called
quantitative restrictions (QRs) on rice importation. Traders could now bring in unlimited volumes
of rice at any time. RA 11203 far exceeded Philippine commitments
to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by deregulating the rice industry and
eliminating practically all regulatory and trading functions of the National
Food Authority (NFA) and reducing it to a buffer stocking and calamity relief
agency. Aptly, the formal title of RA 11203 is “An Act
Liberalizing the Importation, Exportation and Trading of Rice”.
Following WTO’s tariffication
procedure, rice QRs were replaced by tariffs, most notably the 35% preferential
duty that the Philippines had previously imposed on imports from ASEAN
countries. RA 11203 also created the Rice Competitiveness
Enhancement Fund (RCEF), amounting to Php 10 billion annually for six years, to
assist rice farmers with seeds, farm machineries, credit and technical
extension.
In the lead up to RA 11203,
many RTL proponents prophesied that import liberalization would significantly
lower domestic rice prices, tame inflation, and moderate malnutrition and
poverty. While acknowledging that farmers would get
hurt in the immediate term, they promised even larger benefits to consumers,
including those farmers who were net rice buyers.
The question now is: Did this trade-off, described as a “no
brainer” by then Director-General Ernesto Pernia of the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA), actualy happen during the first year (March 2019
to February 2020) of RTL’s implementation?
In brief, no! This analysis shows that rice farmers suffered
drastic losses, which far surpassed any gains to consumers. In addition, a few importers and big-time
traders cornered tremendous profits from rice trade liberalization at the
expense of millions of farmers, millers and other market players, who were
swamped by the deluge of cheap and undervalued rice imports. RTL came out to mean “Rice Traders Liberated,
at last!”
In 2019, with nearly three
million tons of imported rice, the Philippines overtook China and received the
dubious honor of being the world’s biggest rice importer.
As stated previously, RTL
seriously clipped government’s supervision over the rice industry and
effectively ceded control to the private sector. By doing so, it has undermined its capacity to
stabilize the rice market, safeguard producer and consumer welfare, ensure food
safety, and sustain efforts aimed at food security.
How did farmers fare in the
first year of RTL?
Analyzing the situation
further, let us first tackle the impact of trade liberalization on farmers. Earlier, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF)
and other groups had estimated that rice producers lost around Php 80 billion
in 2019 due to palay prices plumneting from a high of Php 23.14 per kilo in
September 2018 to a low of Php 15.36 in 2019. A more precise recalculation, using monthly
price and production data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA),
yields practically the same outcome. (See Annex A.) Coincidentally, the results are close to PSA’s
own computation of a Php 87 billion reduction in the palay sector’s value
of production in 2019 compared to the previous year.
Why did palay prices drop so precipitously? To address the rice crisis in late 2018, the
government allowed NFA and the private sector to import an additional 1.5
million metric tons, of which some 1 million entered the country in January and
February 2019. Although these imports normalized inventory
levels, they immediately pressed rice, and inevitably, palay prices downward. By February 2019, palay farmgate prices had
dropped by 16.5% to a monthly average of Php 18.40 per kilo, from their high of
Php 22.04 in September 2018.
With RTL in place in early
March, another 2 million tons arrived during the next seven months. This created a serious glut that, by September
2019, raised national stocks to 42% over historical levels. (See Annex B.) The oversupply coincided with the peak of the
main harvest season in October and November, making it difficult for traders to
dispose of their stocks in a market flooded with imported rice. Some suspended their operations; others
continued buying palay, but at deeply discounted prices. Prices plunged further to an average of Php
14.40 per kilo in October.
Prompted by farmers groups, in
September 2019, the DA initiated an investigation on possibly imposing
safeguard duties to stem the flow of imports. Inexplicably, the DA ended its study and
refused to apply a provisional safeguard duty allowed by law. Instead, it tightened the issuance of sanitary
and phytosanitary import clearances. Meanwhile, the NFA and local government units
intensified their palay buying operations. By then, however, most of the damage had
already been done.
Pro-RTL proponents have
criticized the estimates of farmers’ losses as exaggerated, noting that the
latter used an annual (January to December) data series, instead of a March to
February data cycle that would match the implementation period of the RTL. They added that prices should not be compared
to rates in 2018, which was a crisis year during which rice prices were
abnormally high. Further, they argued that only the 83% of
production thatfarmers actually sold in the market, called marketable surplus,
should be used in the computations, since the 17% that they kept for their own
consumption was not affected by any movement in market prices.
Before responding to these
observations, it should be emphasized that the Php 80 billion loss estimate was
accurate and real if palay prices during the first year of RTL were compared to
prices in the same 12 month period of the previous year. Farmers did incur a drop in their income
equivalent to Php 80 billion compared to what they earned in the preceding 12
months. Furthermore, the palay that farmers did not
sell commercially was an asset whose value could go up or down while in
storage. This change in value could still be reasonably
treated as an imputed gain or loss.
Nevertheless, we proceeded with
our recalculations, using March 2017-Feb 2018 (instead of March 2018-February
2019) as the reference period and recognizing only the marketable surplus of
farmers. With these adjustments, farmers’ losses during
RTL’s first year will be halved to about Php 40 billion. This number is still significantly large. Notably, it approximates the Php 38.4 billion
in losses estimated by NEDA’s Philippine Institute of Development Studies
(PIDS) when using a similar reference period.
RTL defenders further argue
that farmers’ net losses would just be Php 6 billion if government support to
them is taken into account. However, their idea of fully crediting the Php
10 billion RCEF for 2019 is illogical, because only about Php 3 billion were
actually given to farmers, mainly in the form of free seeds. Oddly, they also want to deduct in full the
RCEF, SURE-Aid and other soft loans, which farmers have to pay back. If ever, only the interest subsidy should be
considered a benefit, and this will be minimal since only around Php 4 billion
were actually lent out to farmers. While Php 3 billion were given separately as
partial compensation for lost income under RTL, only one-fourth of all farmers
qualified for this Php P5,000 assistance. Overall, the creditable subsidies actually
received by farmers would amount to about Php 6 billion. Farmers would still end up with a consolidated
loss of Php 34 billion. The RTL proponents are duty-bound to show how
they arrived at a considerably smaller net loss figure of Php 6 billion.
Clearly, farmers were worse off
in the first year of RTL. On average, palay prices under RTL were Php
4.28 per kilo lower than those in the preceding 12-month period (March 2018 to
February 2019). Even against the more “normal” period from March 2017 to
February 2018, farmgate prices were still by Php 2.60 per kilo. Cumulative losses from gross palay production
amounted to about Php 80 billion when comparing pre- and post-RTL prices; and
half of that (Php40 billion) when using 2017-18 prices as reference and
counting only marketable surplus. Compared to the 12-month period preceding RTL,
farmers’ incomes dropped by 21%, or Php 17,355 per cropping per hectare on the
average.
Did consumers gain due to RTL
as promised?
This, however, is only half of
the story. Pro-RTL advocates had theorized that consumers
would be the biggest winners under rice liberalization. The question is: were they?
In recent opinion posts, the
Department of Finance (DoF) was cited as having determined that consumers
gained around Php 21 billion from lower rice retail prices following RTL’s
enactment. However, DoF must explain how it reached this
figure.
Our own analysis, using monthly price and rice
consumption data, indicates that consumers may have enjoyed a much larger
benefit of Php 38.6 billion during the first year of RTL, as compared to the
preceding 12-month period. Retail prices fell by a weighted average of
Php 3.90 per kilo from a peak of Php 46.10 for regular-milled rice (RMR) and
Php 49.43 for well-milled rice (WMR) in September 2018.
But even with the higher
estimates, the Php 38.6 billion gain of consumers in terms of lower rice prices
still pales in comparison to the Php 80 billion that farmers lost due to
depressed palay prices when using the same reference period. Additionally, the Php 38.6 billion translates
to a measly saving to each rice consumer of only about Php 1.00 per day.
To be consistent, however, we
also compared prices during the first year of RTL against prices in March 2017
to February 2018, given that the 12 months immediately preceding RTL were
abnormal times as maintained by RTL proponents. We likewise excluded the rice
equivalent of the palay output that farmers kept for their own consumption,
since this quantity was not directly affected by the movement in rice prices.
Results show that benefits to
our 108 million consumers totaled only Php 232 million, inasmuch as retail
prices for both RMR and WMR rice hardly changed relative to prices during the
comparative period. (See Annex C.) In effect, each rice-consuming Filipino was
able to save a measly Php 2 in one whole year of initial RTL implementation.
Given these analytical
findings, the “no brainer” theory about consumers’ gains far outweighing rice
farmers’ losses under RTL appears to have been disproven resoundingly. Even with the computational adjustments
prescribed by RTL adherents, farmers still lost Php 34 billion, or more than
150 times what consumers gained from rice liberalization.
The DoF has also reportedly
claimed that, aside from cheaper rice prices, consumers gained another Php 42
billion due to lower overall inflation. It is unclear why this should enter the
discussion. Rice consumption accounts for only about 10%
of the consumer basket. Lower rice prices help lower the overall
inflation rate and result in savings to consumers which have already been
quantified above. The other 90% of the inflation rates comes
from purchases of fish, meat, and other consumer products and services. The movement in the prices of these items is
not dependent on the prices of rice. Therefore, any additional benefit to consumers
arising from the lowering of prices of non-rice items cannot be attributed to
the RTL.
Even before the rice crisis in
late 2018, many government officials and economic advisers were already
predicting that rice prices would go down by Php 7 to 10 per kilo once imports
were liberalized. One NEDA official boldly announced that
private importers would be selling rice below the NFA-subsidized price of Php
27 per kilo. PSA data confirm that retail prices for both
RMR and WMR decreased significantly from their peak in September 2018. But when matched against prices during a more
normal period (March 2017 to February 2018), retail prices hardly moved under
RTL. In other words, consumers were no better off
under RTL.
Official PSA data also reveal
that much of the drop in retail prices from their peak in September 2018
actually occurred before RTL took effect in March 2019. After government allowed additional imports
during the rice crisis in late 2018, WMR prices immediately dove by 9.4% to Php
44.37 per kilo by February 2019. In the next twelve months coinciding with the
first year of RTL, prices fell further, but only by an additional 6.7%. Similarly, 60% of the reduction in RMR retail
prices occurred before RTL took effect.
So, why did the rosy
projections for RTL not materialize?
First, the claims that
Filipinos were paying twice or triple what consumers in other countries were
spending for rice were deceptive and overblown. Free on Board (FOB) export prices cannot be
compared to domestic wholesale rates because the foreign rice still has to be
shipped, taxed, warehoused, handled and sold before reaching local wholesalers. Moreover, major exporters like Thailand and
Vietnam have to sell their surplus stocks at a relatively low price so that
they unload their inventories before new harvests come in. Consumers in these countries do not enjoy
these discounted export prices. One Internet publication suggests that
rice retail prices are actually higher in Thailand and only about 20% lower in
Vietnam compared to the Philippines. Even imported fancy varieties like Thai
Jasmine rice are sold locally for as much as 40% more than our local Dinorado
or Sinandomeng rice.
Secondly, NFA and its
subsidized Php 27 rice disappeared from the retail market soon after RTL’s
passage. The agency is now limited by its RTL mandate
to keep most of its stocks in reserve for emergencies and has decided to
service only the needs of LGUs and government offices during the current
COVID-19 crisis. Private traders and importers did fill in the
gap left by NFA in the market, but the equivalent rice grade they supplied was
sold at an average of Php 37.29 per kilo. This was almost the same as the price two
years back, and Php 10 more per kilo than NFA’s former selling price.
Thirdly, around 85% of total
rice imports during the first year of RTL were WMR with 5% brokens. Few importers ordered the RMR with 25% brokens
that NFA used to import and sell to poorer buyers. Although WMR was around Php 1.50 more
expensive per kilo to import, it could be sold for an average of Php 5 per kilo
more than RMR in the domestic market. Understandably, importers brought in more
expensive grades that could be sold with a higher profit margin, unlike the NFA
which was willing to forego profits and even lose money in order to serve needy
consumers with lower quality but cheaper rice.
Fourthly, there was excessive
profiteering in the market, and the government, particularly the NFA (whose
power to license, monitor and regulate private traders had been eliminated by
RTL) was helpless about it. The analysis in the next section on traders’
profits indicates that there were huge variances between import and wholesale
prices and between wholesale and retail prices, but a large portion of the
difference was not passed on to consumers and was instead pocketed by the
traders.
The government’s attempts to
impose Suggested Retail Prices (SRPs) on both local and imported rice appear to
have been ineffective. Not much has been heard about the publicized
commitments of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), the local price
councils, and other government agencies to run after cartels and price
manipulators. It appears therefore that, contrary to what
RTL proponents predicted, traders and importers did not openly compete with
each other to bring down prices. Instead, they likely agreed not to outprice
each other and collectively shoot for the highest prices that consumers could
bear.
So, if farmers lost a lot, and
consumers gained almost nothing, who won?
Rice Traders Liberated (RTL),
At Last!
An additional analysis looked
into what happened to market players in between the farmers and the consumers;
namely, a) the trader-millers who bought palay from farmers, milled them into
rice then sold the rice to wholesalers, b) the importers who brought in stocks
from abroad and unloaded them to wholesalers, and c) the wholesalers who passed
on the rice to retailers who then sold the staple to final consumers.
Changes in palay buying prices
(converted to rice equivalent) were compared to changes in wholesale prices to
determine the gains or losses of trader-millers, For WMR, the equivalent prices for palay went
down by Php 0.73 per kilo more than the decline in wholesale prices, thus
giving trader-millers some extra margin. However, trader-millers lost Php 0.98 per kilo
in buying palay then selling the rice output to RMR wholesalers, resulting in
an overall loss of almost Php 4 billion for the sub-sector. (See Annex D.)
These findings validate field reports that
many trader-millers who had bought palay from farmers at relatively high prices
in the first half of 2019 had to dispose of their stocks at a loss in the
second semester when cheap imports flooded the market. Some of them reportedly had to downscale or
suspend their operations, lay off workers, leave their mills, trucks and other
equipment idle, and restructure their bank loans while waiting for the supply
glut to subside. Some reportedly left the rice business and
moved on to other ventures.
Importers, on the other hand, appear to have
made a gross profit of Php 14.5 billion when comparing the cost of their
imports with prevailing wholesale prices for rice.. On the average, imports of rice with 5%
brokens, deemed equivalent to WMR rice, were Php 6.48 cheaper per kilo than
wholesale prices. In turn, importers enjoyed a gross margin of
Php 5.34 per kilo from dealing rice with 25% brokens, equivalent to RMR rice. (See Annex E.)
Some of the computed gains may
not yet have been realized by importers if a portion of their imported stocks
were not yet sold at the end of the first year of RTL. Still, the sizeable margins per kilo and the
continued arrival of large volumes of imports indicate that rice importation
was a lucrative business. Aside from this, importers were able to save
some Php 2.5 billion in tariffs by understating the value of their imports.
Among all the market players
however, the big winners were the wholesalers and retailers.
An analysis in the movement of
rice prices indicates that while wholesale prices went down due to the inflow
of imports in the first year of RTL, only about half of the decrease was passed
on to consumers in the form of cheaper retail prices. In the case of WMR for example, wholesale
prices went down by Php 6.17 per kilo on the average during RTL, but retail
prices declined by only Php 3.11 per kilo. Poorer consumers who bought mainly RMR were
worse off since retail prices dropped by only Php 3.90 per kilo even as
wholesale rates fell by Php 7.57 per kilo. Using consumption figures between March 2019
and February 2020, this implies that the value chain segment between
wholesalers and retailers earned an extra Php 37 billion in windfall
profits during the first year of RTL. (See Annex F.)
The results of the analysis expose the faulty
logic that RTL proponents, including renowned institutions like the World Bank
and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), use in espousing their “no-brainer”
theory – that consumer gains will surely outweigh producer losses because there
are simply many more consumers than producers.
On the average, each Filipino
consumer bought and consumed around 100 kilos of rice during the first year of
RLT implementation. (This excludes the volume that farmers did not
sell commercially and used for their own family consumption.) Of this quantity, 90 kilos came from local
farmers while 10 kilos were imported. If the price of local rice goes down by Php 1
per kilo, and trading margins and costs did not change, the value of the palay
needed to produce one kilo of rice should also go down by Php 1. Hence, consumer gains would cancel out farmers
losses overall. The only variation would come from the 10
kilos of imports, from which consumers gain because of the lower price, but
farmers are not affected because they did not produce and sell this quantity. Even then, total consumer gains would not
exceed producer losses by a significant amount despite the fact that consumers
outnumber farmers by ten to one.
In reality, traders and market
intermediaries can distort the parity between consumer gains and farmer losses
either by withholding some of the price reduction from consumers or lowering
palay buying prices much more than necessary. This is effectively what happened in the first
year of RTL wherein farmers lost Php 40 billion while consumers gained a measly
Php 232 million. While wholesale prices decreased by an average
of 11.4% (when compared to 2017-18 prices) with the arrival of cheap imports,
palay prices went down by a larger 14%. Retail prices, on the other hand, hardly
budged. In the process, importers, wholesalers and
retailers earned a windfall profit of Php 51.5 billion.
Even in the unlikely event that
traders donated all of their extra profits to consumers, the latter’s gains
would exceed farmers losses by only about P15 billion, admittedly still a
significant amount, but nowhere near the huge net gains that RTL proponents had
predicted.
It is therefore logical to
conclude that any variation in the gains of consumers vis-Ã -vis losses of
farmers arising from trade liberalization will not be influenced by the
proportion of consumers to producers. Rather, it will depend on the volume of
imports that come in and the relative greed of market intermediaries who will
decide how much of the gains they will pass on to consumers and how much of the
costs they will ask farmers to absorb.
Did government gain anything
from RTL?
Government probably emerged a
winner too. It was able to collect around Php 12 billion
in tariffs in 2019, despite the undervaluation of import prices, and recoup the
Php 10 billion it allocated for the RCEF. It also trumpeted its “success” in bringing
down rice prices and overall inflation rates significantly after the 2018
crisis and thereafter keeping rice prices more stable. Still, it was more or less an empty victory
because rice prices actually just reverted to their levels before the
pre-crisis period.
The fate of NFA is a little
harder to figure out. In the past, the agency usually received
budgetary support only for its overhead costs and had to borrow from banks to
fund its rice imports and local palay purchases. But because it was instructed to buy high from
farmers and then sell low to consumers, it usually ended up in huge losses,
which it covered by increasing borrowings. As a result, NFA’s debts reportedly
ballooned to Php 170 billion.
After RTL took effect, NFA was
prohibited from importing rice and was mandated to source its buffer stocks
only from local farmers. It was given a higher procurement budget of
Php 7 billion annually and still allowed, to some extent, to borrow from banks. However, while NFA sometimes made money and at
other times lost about P2 per kilo from past rice imports, it now stands to
lose up to Php 10 for every kilo of rice that it sells, if it buys the palay
from farmers at Php 19 per kilo. This means that NFA will lose nearly half of
its Php 7 billion annual procurement fund after a single buy-palay-sell-rice
cycle. After two cycles, the money will be gone, and
the agency must resort to bank loans again in order to replenish its buffer
stocks. Notably, Php 7 billion can buy the equivalent
of only 2% of the country’s rice requirement for one year and can finance only
half of the country’s 15-day minimum buffer stock requirement.
The possibility that NFA’s
financial condition will not improve, and might even worsen, appears
paradoxical, considering that it was its rising indebtedness and continued
losses that were highlighted to justify its decapitation under RTL. Critics had further chastised the agency for
being inefficient and graft-prone, and questioned its simultaneous role as
market regulator and player. These arguments became the basis for
transforming RTL from a mere tariffication bill to a unilateral and
indiscriminate liberalization statute, whereby the government relegated NFA to
the sidelines and surrendered to the private sector the supervision and control
of rice importation and the local rice business.
It is worth mentioning that the
debate over NFA’s proper role in the rice market helped trigger the rice crisis
in 2018 and RTL’s eventual passage. Earlier, the country’s economic
managers who sat in the NFA Council had grown increasingly at odds with
management, accusing the latter of inefficiency and corruption, especially in
the handling of rice imports. They repeatedly denied management’s requests
to replenish the agency’s dwindling stocks, until the NFA actually ran out of
inventories, and domestic rice prices spun out of control. The Council somehow managed to shift the blame
to the Administrator, who was replaced.
Following these developments,
there was speculation that the 2018 rice crisis had been orchestrated to pave
the ground politically for NFA’s dismemberment and the termination of rice QRs
through the RTL.
In sum, there is little to
celebrate after one year of RTL’s existence. The promised benefits have not come about,
farmers are in dire straits, consumers have practically gained nothing, NFA is
still losing money, and government has effectively lost control over the
market. Only the importers and traders are smiling,
happy to have been “liberated” at last from competition and regulation from the
NFA, and free to amass profits with minimal government intervention.
What has to be done?
Clearly, this is neither the
result that the government wanted, nor what both farmers and consumers
expected. What has to be done, to set things aright?
Several groups have proposed
the repeal of the RTL and its replacement with a new law. Others have suggested a major review and
amendments to accommodate the following changes:
Strengthen the trade remedy
provisions to equip government with WTO-legal tools to address import surges
and other injuries that cheap imports can inflict on farmers and local market
players. This could include an automatic imposition of
special safeguards and a mandatory application of general safeguards once
certain conditions are met. The option to temporarily reimpose QRs as a
last resort to address serious situations should be approved.
Restore the power of the NFA or
any other appropriate government agency to license importers and other players
in the rice market, monitor their activities and stocks, and enforce quality,
sanitary, phytosanitary, and related market standards.
Adopt stricter measures to
prevent the undervaluation and misdeclaration of rice imports; and allow third
parties to freely access BoC import data and monitor the entry, pricing, and
taxation of imported rice.
Reconfigure the utilization of
RCEF to make it more flexible and effective in addressing site-specific needs
and emerging priorities of farmers; return control and accountability over RCEF
funds and program implementation to the DA proper, while taking steps to improve
program delivery and impact.
Reinstate stakeholders’
participation in the planning and monitoring of RCEF and DA Rice Program
activities, and establish an on-line implementation monitoring and impact
assessment system for programs and activities.
Partially restore the NFA’s
role in price stabilization and functions other than buffer stocking when
deemed necessary and provide the corresponding budgetary or fiscal support to
enable the agency to accomplish its tasks.
While the foregoing analysis
shows that the RTL’s performance leaves much to be desired, some RTL proponents
have unfortunately tended to brand RTL critics as anti-reformists who just want
a return to the QR regime with all its alleged deficiencies and costs. In a recent opinion piece, Dr. Fermin Adriano
wrote that his kindest description of RTL’s detractors was “foolish”
since they were allegedly offering “no better alternative than to revert
back to the old ways”.
Indeed, some RTL critics are
demanding a repeal of RA 11203. Others are pushing for its amendments. For sure, all parties do not want to go back
to the time when QRs were in place but were used in exchange for government
neglect and complacency. But neither will these groups accept the
current situation under the RTL. They are not against making farmers more
productive, efficient and competitive. However, this will take time because
government has long neglected the sector. Opening up the rice market must be calibrated
so that farmers can survive while striving to become competitive.
At the same time, it will be
foolhardy to be too dependent on foreign suppliers for our rice requirements in
the future. Climate change, food safety concerns,
pandemics, the rise in trade protectionism, and emerging regional conflicts
over water and natural resources can easily constrict the amount of rice that
we can buy, or afford to buy, from the international market. In turn, continued land conversion,
deforestation, and price volatility brought about by excessive imports will
only reduce our capacity to feed ourselves. A more nuanced and strategic approach to
liberalization is crucial.
There is nothing “foolish”
about this thinking.
Recall that in 1994, highly
paid “expert” consultants — employing wrong past analysis, faulty assumptions
and economic variables – issued a grievously wrong econometric forecast that
Philippine agriculture would be a big winner upon joining the WTO.
Academics like Dr. Adriano tend
to go into a denial mode, when actual events go against their pet theories and
ideological beliefs. Loath to admit mistakes, they will shrug off
any aberration from their predictions as “birth pains” and argue that “it
is too early to make conclusions”. They may even resort to childish name calling. Hopefully, they can become humbler, better
attuned to the real world, and more open to civil discourse with people they
disagree with.
READ NEXT
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1332019/winners-and-losers-from-the-rice-tariffication-law
COVID-19
vaccine update: China's Sinovac coronavirus vaccine candidate appears safe,
slightly weaker in elderly
By -
Reuters
Updated: Sep 8, 2020, 09:08 IST
Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech Ltd said on
Monday its coronavirus vaccine candidate appeared to be safe for older people,
according to preliminary results from an early to mid-stage trial, while the
immune responses triggered by the vaccine were slightly weaker than younger
adults.
Health officials have been
concerned about whether experimental vaccines could safely protect the elderly,
whose immune systems usually react less robustly to vaccines, against the virus
that has led to nearly 890,000 deaths worldwide.
Sinovac's candidate CoronaVac did
not cause severe side effects in a combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials launched
in May involving 421 participants aged at least 60, Liu Peicheng, Sinovac's
media representative, told Reuters. The complete results have not been
published and were not made available to Reuters.
Four of the world's eight
vaccines that are in the third phase of trials are from China.
For three groups of participants
who respectively took two shots of low, medium and high-dose CoronaVac, over
90% of them experienced significant increase in antibody levels, while the
levels were slightly lower than those seen in younger subjects but in line with
expectation, Liu said in a statement.
CoronaVac, being tested in Brazil
and Indonesia in the final-stage human trials to evaluate whether it is
effective and safe enough to obtain regulatory approvals for mass use, has
already been given to tens of thousands of people, including about 90% of
Sinovac employees and their families, as part of China's emergency inoculation
scheme to protect people facing high infection risk.
The potential vaccine could
remain stable for up to three years in storage, Liu said, which might offer
Sinovac some advantage in vaccine distribution to regions where cold-chain
storage is not an option.
Such estimation is extrapolated
from the fact that vaccines readings stayed within acceptable ranges for 42
days at 25 Celsius (77 Fahrenheit), 28 days at 37C (98.6 F), and five months
for 2-8C (35.6-46.4 F), Liu said, without disclosing complete data.
