Government
allots P760 million to boost rice production in Western Visayas
)
- March 9, 2020 - 12:00am
MANILA,
Philippines — The Department of Agriculture is allocating P760 million to
improve Western Visayas’ rice industry.
The
amount represents 13 percent of the Rice Competitive Enhancement Fund being
implemented in the top 57 rice-producing provinces nationwide.
Region
6 is composed of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo and Negros Occidental.
With
the RCEF, the region is projecting an increase of at least one metric ton per
hectare in palay production in the region following the distribution of inbred
seeds.
Starting
October last year, the Philippine Rice Research Institute had distributed
only16 percent of the total 286,522 bags of certified inbred seeds allocated
for Western Visayas.
Some
of the certified seeds distributed were sourced out from Mindoro, which caused
the delay of the distribution.
For
the wet cropping season, PhilRice is set to distribute 359,756 bags of
certified seeds to 179,879 rice farmers in the region.
Meanwhile,
they will start in October the distribution of another 240,356 bags for the dry
season of 2021.
The
Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization will also turn
over this month P623 million worth of farm machinery and equipment to 127
farmers’ cooperatives and associations.
Individual
farmers could also borrow low-interest capital loans under RCEF through the
Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines
Field trials of ‘pest-proof’
cotton variety soon: CSIR
CSIR lab working on drug to
combat COVID-19
MYSURU , MARCH 09, 2020 22:45 IST
The Hyderabad-based Indian
Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), one of the CSIR labs, has started work
on synthesising chemical formulations for the manufacture of drug for COVID-19.
Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) Director-General Shekhar C. Mande said in Mysuru on
Monday that the Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT),
one of the CSIR labs, has started work on synthesising chemical formulations
for the manufacture of drug for COVID-19.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/csir-lab-working-on-drug-to-combat-covid-19/article31026185.ece
BPI issued 801
import clearance for 666,000 MT of rice in January
By
-
March 10, 2020
Rice traders, importers and
farmer organizations were able to secure 801 sanitary and phytosanitary import
clearance (SPS-IC) in January for the importation of over 666,000 metric tons
(MT) of staple, latest Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data showed.
BPI data showed that it issued
801 SPS-IC to 110 retailers, traders, importers and farmers organizations for
the importation of 666,482.062 MT as of January 31.
Tarlac-based Integrated Farmer
Producers Cooperative topped the list with 68 SPS-IC at a total volume applied
for importation of 45,632.75 MT, BPI data showed.
It was followed by Arvin
International Marketing Inc. that secured 30 SPS-IC with a total rice volume
applied of 35,785 MT, according to BPI data.
A separate data released by the
BPI showed that rice imports as of January 24, about 62 rice traders,
importers, retailers, millers and farmers groups brought in 118,641.885 MT of
staple, using 157 SPS-IC.
During the 24-day period, Davao San
Ei Trading Inc. topped the list in terms of total volume imported at 64,636 MT
followed by Puregold Price Club Inc. after bringing in 63,854.828 MT, BPI data
showed.
A year after the rice trade
liberalization (RTL) law took effect, Manila said it is targeting to maintain
imports at around 1.6 million metric tons (MMT)—the estimated shortfall in
local output—to stabilize the farm-gate price of the staple.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary
William D. Dar said the country’s rice production is capable of supplying only
85 percent to 87 percent of the requirements of Filipino consumers.
“That’s the direction [to keep
imports at that level]. Managing importation and enhancing local productivity
equals better opportunity for rice farmers, and they are more productive and
competitive and they have higher income,” Dar told reporters in an interview at
the sidelines of the government’s celebration of the anniversary of the RTL
law.
The Department of Agriculture
(DA) is aiming to ramp up local palay production to a record-high 19.6 MMT this
year via the interventions bankrolled by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement
Fund (RCEF) created by the RTL law.
The law deregulated the local
rice industry, and eased import rules to increase the supply of the staple and
make it more affordable.
Dar said the government expects
the arrival of rice imports to decline during harvest this month after the DA
invalidated thousands of SPS-IC that were unused since last year.
Rice industry traders and
importers told the BusinessMirror that the DA, through the BPI, which oversees
rice importation, has appealed to them in a recent dialogue to cut or, if
possible, totally stop buying imported rice during harvest.
However, a trader noted that
everything will be “business as usual” for them since their operations depend
on importing the staple unless the government will, again, stop issuing
SPS-ICs. The government stopped issuing SPS-ICs in September and October last
year.
“We don’t overpurchase [because]
we just bring in whatever is the demand of our buyers,” a Manila-based trader
told the BusinessMirror.
Another trader based in Metro
Manila told the BusinessMirror that rice imports have been declining due to
lower demand. This could cause the high carry-over stocks to increase further
after harvest.
“There are reports in Vietnam
that the Philippines will stop issuing SPS-IC. What can we do if [Manila will]
stop issuing it?” the trader said.
Data from the Philippine
Statistics Authority obtained by the BusinessMirror indicated that the country
imported 2.76 MMT of rice last year, 38 percent higher than the nearly 2 MMT
recorded in 2018.
BPI issued 801
import clearance for 666,000 MT of rice in January
By
-
March 10, 2020
Rice traders, importers and
farmer organizations were able to secure 801 sanitary and phytosanitary import
clearance (SPS-IC) in January for the importation of over 666,000 metric tons
(MT) of staple, latest Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data showed.
BPI data showed that it issued
801 SPS-IC to 110 retailers, traders, importers and farmers organizations for
the importation of 666,482.062 MT as of January 31.
Tarlac-based Integrated Farmer
Producers Cooperative topped the list with 68 SPS-IC at a total volume applied
for importation of 45,632.75 MT, BPI data showed.
It was followed by Arvin
International Marketing Inc. that secured 30 SPS-IC with a total rice volume
applied of 35,785 MT, according to BPI data.
A separate data released by the
BPI showed that rice imports as of January 24, about 62 rice traders,
importers, retailers, millers and farmers groups brought in 118,641.885 MT of
staple, using 157 SPS-IC.
During the 24-day period, Davao
San Ei Trading Inc. topped the list in terms of total volume imported at 64,636
MT followed by Puregold Price Club Inc. after bringing in 63,854.828 MT, BPI
data showed.
A year after the rice trade
liberalization (RTL) law took effect, Manila said it is targeting to maintain
imports at around 1.6 million metric tons (MMT)—the estimated shortfall in
local output—to stabilize the farm-gate price of the staple.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary
William D. Dar said the country’s rice production is capable of supplying only
85 percent to 87 percent of the requirements of Filipino consumers.
“That’s the direction [to keep
imports at that level]. Managing importation and enhancing local productivity
equals better opportunity for rice farmers, and they are more productive and
competitive and they have higher income,” Dar told reporters in an interview at
the sidelines of the government’s celebration of the anniversary of the RTL
law.
The Department of Agriculture
(DA) is aiming to ramp up local palay production to a record-high 19.6 MMT this
year via the interventions bankrolled by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement
Fund (RCEF) created by the RTL law.
The law deregulated the local
rice industry, and eased import rules to increase the supply of the staple and
make it more affordable.
Dar said the government expects
the arrival of rice imports to decline during harvest this month after the DA
invalidated thousands of SPS-IC that were unused since last year.
Rice industry traders and
importers told the BusinessMirror that the DA, through the BPI, which oversees
rice importation, has appealed to them in a recent dialogue to cut or, if
possible, totally stop buying imported rice during harvest.
However, a trader noted that
everything will be “business as usual” for them since their operations depend
on importing the staple unless the government will, again, stop issuing
SPS-ICs. The government stopped issuing SPS-ICs in September and October last
year.
“We don’t overpurchase [because]
we just bring in whatever is the demand of our buyers,” a Manila-based trader
told the BusinessMirror.
Another trader based in Metro
Manila told the BusinessMirror that rice imports have been declining due to
lower demand. This could cause the high carry-over stocks to increase further
after harvest.
“There are reports in Vietnam
that the Philippines will stop issuing SPS-IC. What can we do if [Manila will]
stop issuing it?” the trader said.
Data from the Philippine
Statistics Authority obtained by the BusinessMirror indicated that the country
imported 2.76 MMT of rice last year, 38 percent higher than the nearly 2 MMT
recorded in 2018.
Cycling
rice and shrimp farming in Vietnam important for food security
Scientists’ findings important for
Mekong Delta farmers
Submitted / Yorkton This Week
MARCH
8, 2020 05:00 AM
A German-Vietnamese research team
has used the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan to
show that cycling rice and shrimp cultivation is a viable, reversible option
for rice farmers affected by climate change in Vietnam's coastal Mekong Delta.
Photo by SUBMITTED
A German-Vietnamese research team
has used the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan to
show that cycling rice and shrimp cultivation is a viable, reversible option
for rice farmers affected by climate change in Vietnam's coastal Mekong Delta.
The
region, sometimes described as Vietnam's Rice Bowl, is facing a land-use shift
from permanent rice to shrimp cultivation as increasing salt water intrusion
(movement of saline water into freshwater aquifers) reaches further inland,
which seriously affects rice production.
“The farmer can lose everything if they cannot
grow rice anymore,” says Jens Kruse from the University Bonn, the lead author
on a Science of the Total Environment paper exploring these changes in land use
and its consequences regarding soil quality.
The
diverse team has members from University of Bonn, United Nations University,
Research Center Jülich GmbH, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research,
University of Würzburg and TerrAquat Consultants and is part of a larger
multi-disciplinary project, DeltAdapt, meant to advance more sustainable and
resilient agricultural systems in Vietnam. Kruse has coordinated the project
since 2014.
"The
Mekong and Red River deltas are examples of such fertile but vulnerable regions
where the production of rice, vegetables and aquaculture products is crucial
for the livelihood of local farmers and the overall development of
Vietnam," explains the DeltAdapt website.
Converting
land from rice to shrimp farming requires a fair investment, and can leave
small farmers in financial peril. The returns from shrimp farming can be as
high as seven times those of rice alone, but the animals are more sensitive to
disease, market price variations, and changing salt levels.
Kruse's
team set out to understand how switching to permanent shrimp cultivation or to
an alternating rice-shrimp arrangement affects the soil properties and
nutrients available in a piece of land. For farmers, knowing how these
land-management decisions impact their future growing options can help them
manage risk.
"One
of the important questions is with phosphorous and sulfur, is it still
available to plants or not and in which chemical form is it accumulated,"
says Kruse. Plants can only use nutrients in certain forms, which may change
depending on the chemistry of the soil.
The
CLS offers soil scientists techniques to study the nutrient profiles of soil in
detail, including the speciation or type of available nutrients. Coupled with
nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers could build detailed
profiles of soils from permanent rice farms, alternating rice-shrimp farms and
permanent shrimp farms.
Their
results show that shrimp farming does permanently alter the land's nutrient
profile, which only gets more pronounced with more intensive shrimp farming.
Although the overall nutrient profile improved due to shrimp cultivation
relative to the former rice cultivation, the soil is no longer suitable for
crop farming as a result of drastic salt accumulations and changes in the field
topography.
Alternating
rice and shrimp, however, leaves farmers with more flexibility, both to cycle
between rice and shrimp in any given year and allowing farmers to return the
land to permanent rice cultivation if desired.
“This
can be a good opportunity for the farmer to adapt to the changing conditions in
these coastal areas – they can make a bit more money but keep the land
flexible,” says Kruse.
Short supply of power hits rice
mills in Mannachanallur
TIRUCHI, MARCH 08, 2020 22:25 IST
The current problem is said to
have started after a transformer burst in the area
The operation of rice mills has
been severely hit due to short supply of power in Mannachanallur and adjoining
areas.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/short-supply-of-power-hits-rice-mills-in-mannachanallur/article31016919.ece
Field trials of
‘pest-proof’ cotton variety soon: CSIR
MYSURU, MARCH
10, 2020 08:16 IST
The variety has been developed by a Lucknow-based research
laboratory
In continuation of CSIR’s
‘farmer-centric’ approaches, a new pest-resistant cotton variety developed by a
Lucknow-based research laboratory is ready for field trials which are expected
to be done soon at Nagpur in Maharashtra.
Low-salinity brine injected into crude oil
Low-salinity brine injected into crude oil forms nanoscale
droplets that help separate oil from rock in reservoirs, according to Rice
University engineers. The black ring around the droplets, seen in a cryogenic
electron microscope image, is asphaltene. Source: Wenhua Guo/Rice University
It’s always been pretty common
knowledge that water and oil don’t mix, but a group of researchers at Rice
University’s Brown School of Engineering are proving otherwise.
The team recently found that
microscopic saltwater droplets emulsify crude oil when each as the right
composition. Furthering the understanding of how they combine could help to
enhance oil recovery, they say. The work was published in the open-access
Nature Journal Scientific Reports.
Lead by Sibani Lisa Biswal, Rice
chemical and biological engineer, the team confirmed that wells are more
productive when water with the right salt concentration is matched to both the
water and rock, carbonate or sandstone formation from which the crude is being
pulled. If the low-salinity brine creates emulsion droplets in a specific
crude, the brine appears to also alter the wettability of the rock, which in
turn, determines the ease at which the rock will release oil, they report.
Co-lead author and researcher at
Shell Jin Song says that although hints of seawater’s effect came from wells in
the North Sea, research on the impact has been limited. “Oil companies found
that when they injected seawater, which has relatively low salinity, oil
recovery was surprisingly good,” he says. “Usually, in the oil and gas
industry, when they’re looking into low-salinity water, they tend to focus on
the effect of the brine and ignore the effect of the oil.
“So, people haven’t been able to
find a good indicator tor any correlation between the effectiveness of
low-salinity water and experimental conditions,” he continues. “Our work is the
first to identify some of the properties of the oil that indicate how effective
this technique can be in a specific field.”
The team tested how injected brine
is dispersed and how it affects oils’ interfacial tension and electrostatic
interactions with rock.
“How to characterize wettability
accurately is a challenge,” Biswal says. “Oftentimes, we assume that reservoir
rock underground are under a mixed-wet state, with regions that are oil-wet and
regions that are water-wet.
High-salinity brine mixed with crude oil
High-salinity brine mixed with crude oil does not appear to
emulsify like low-salinity brine does, according to Rice University engineers
studying the phenomenon. Their results have implications for enhanced oil
recovery. Source: Wenhua Guo/Rice University
“If you can alter your oil-wet
sites to water-wet sites, then there’s less of a driving force to hold the oil
to the mineral surface. In low-salinity water injection, the brine is able to
displace the trapped oil,” she continues. “As you change from oil-wet to
water-wet, the oil is released from the mineral surface.”
For their research, the team tested
two brines, one high-salinity and one with a quarter of the salinity of
seawater, on Indiana limestone cores against six crude oils from the Gulf of
Mexico, Southeast Asian and the Middle East, and a seventh oil with added
asphaltene. From this, they found that high-salinity brine inhibited water
droplets from emulsifying in the crude, unlike the low-salinity samples.
To further their understanding of
the emulsion, Rice research scientist Wenhua Guo took cryogenic electron
microscope images of 100 oil-water mixtures. The images showed droplets ranging
from 70 to 700 nanometers.
“This is the first time anyone has
seen these water droplets inside crude oil,” Biswal said. “They spontaneously
arise inside the crude oil when you expose it to a low-salinity brine.”
Biswal says that the right brine
could be a low-cost alternative to chemical surfactants.
“You can change the salt
concentration to modify the composition of the brine and get the same effect as
in including the detergent,” she says. “So, it’s basically a low-cost technique
trying to achieve the same goal as detergent.”
The research was supported by the
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., and Rice’s Consortium for Process in Porous Media.
Madhya Pradesh plea seeking GI tag for Basmati rice dismissed
Chennai, Mar 9 (PTI) Madhya Pradesh''s attempts to join the elite
''Basmati'' league has failed once again as the Madras High court has dismissed
the state''s plea seeking geographical indication (GI) tag for Basmati rice
grown in areas falling under the state. A division bench of Justices R Subbiah
and C Saravanan also refused to quash an order passed by the Intellectual
Property Appellate Board (IPAB) granting GI certificate for basmati to
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
The court noted that for a same produce, two GI certificates of registration
cannot be issued and precisely that is the reason why Madhya Pradesh has
approached the court. "At the same time, we have to observe that the
petitioners have an alternative and efficacious remedy available by filing an
application to the registrar of trade mark seeking to cancel or vary the GI certificate
issued to APEDA," the bench said. The issue pertains to an order passed by
IPAB on February 5, 2016 granting GI certificate for basmati in APEDA''s
favour. Aggrieved, Madhya Pradesh contended that such GI tag cannot be awarded
to APEDA as some regions falling under MP which also produce Basmati has been
omitted in the list provided by APEDA. However,the IPAB rejected its claim
observing that the documents and evidence filed by Madhya Pradesh show the
importance, special characters of rice cultivated in the state but not Basmati
cultivation in the traditional growing area. Challenging the rejection and the
order granting GI for basmati in favour of APEDA, Madhya Pradesh moved the
present appeal. In May 2010, GI status was given to basmati grown only in Punjab,
Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and parts of western Uttar Pradesh
and Jammu & Kashmir. Madhya Pradesh moved a statutory opposition demanding
that its 13 districts be recognised as traditional basmati growing regions. The
13 districts of Madhya Pradesh which have been excluded from the tag are
Monera, Vidisha, Bhind, Raisen, Gwalior, Sehore, Sheopur, Hoshangabad, Datia,
Jabalpur, Shivpuri, Narsinghpur and Guna. According to Madhya Pradesh, these 13
districts had been growing basmati for several decades and they were located in
the Indo-Gangetic plains having climatic condition favourable for cultivation
of basmati. Non-inclusion of the state in the basmati growing areas would have
an adverse effect on the lives of farmers who mainly depend upon basmati
cultivation, it said. BN BN
Rice, know thy enemy: NSF grants $2.6M to study weedy
invader
Biologist Kenneth M. Olsen tends rice in the
Jeanette Goldfarb Plant Growth Facility at Washington University in St. Louis.
(Photo: Joe Angeles/Washington University)
Many farmers struggle with an enemy that looks
like a friend. Agricultural weeds that are close relatives of crops present a
particular challenge to farmers because their physical similarities to the
desirable species make them difficult to detect and eradicate. Along the way,
the imitators compete with crops for water, nutrients and space — often
depressing crop yields.
More than half of the top 10 crops worldwide
are shadowed by some kind of weedy mimic. Weedy rice (Oryza sativa) is
chief among them. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has just awarded $2.6
million to a team led by a Washington University in St. Louis plant
evolutionary biologist so researchers can determine what makes weedy rice such
a fierce competitor.
Olsen
“Weeds that infest crop fields are a primary
factor limiting agricultural productivity in the United States and globally,”
said Kenneth M.
Olsen, professor of
biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University and principal
investigator for the new award. “In the case of weedy rice, the weed is
essentially domesticated rice that’s gone feral.
“One of the things that always stands out to me
about weedy rice is just what an aggressive competitor it is,” Olsen said. “A
handful of these weedy plants per square meter can vastly decrease the
productivity of the crop. If a rice field is infested with these weeds, it can
reduce yields by 80% or more.”
In the U.S. alone, weedy rice costs the
industry more than $45 million annually.
The three main rice-growing areas are the
Mississippi Delta region in Arkansas and Mississippi, the coastal regions of
Texas and Louisiana and the Sacramento River Delta region in California. (Image
courtesy: USDA)
The new NSF funding will support research to
characterize the genetic basis and origins of the traits that allow weedy rice
to invade rice fields, reduce yields and contaminate harvests. The team
includes investigators from the University of Massachusetts, the USDA’s Dale
Bumpers National Rice Research Center and the Donald Danforth Plant Science
Center.
The researchers will characterize three key
features of weedy rice growth and reproduction.
First, they will investigate the patterns of
root system growth that allow the weed to outcompete rice for soil nutrients.
Previous research among the team members helped reveal how weedy
rice repeatedly evolved “cheater” root traits. The scientists used new imaging techniques,
including a 3D optical tomography approach developed by Christopher
Topp at
the Donald Danforth Plant
Science Center, to peek
underground while roots grow.
Previous applications of this technology were
limited to tracking growth of individual plants — not the silent underground
battles waged between rice plants and their weedy neighbors. The new study will
line up competitors root to root for their close-ups.
“Then we can see in a more biologically
realistic context how these root morphologies are playing a role in the weed
competitive strategy,” Olsen said.
The new grant also will explore the genetic and
developmental basis of seed dispersal mechanisms that allow the weed to rapidly
invade and proliferate in rice fields. Researchers also will examine weedy rice’s
differential resilience against rice blast, a common fungal disease of rice
fields.
The research effort will also include training
opportunities for K-12 science teachers and educational experiences for
students, including deaf students — a minority group that is underrepresented
in STEM careers.
Understanding how competitiveness evolves is
important not only for countering noxious weeds, but also because this
knowledge might someday be used to improve rice itself.
“This work could also potentially be useful for
breeding more resilient crops,” Olsen said. “When these competitive traits are
in weeds, we don’t like them. But if we can use some of what we learn about
weedy rice for rice breeding down the road — increasing crop productivity from
this information — that could be hugely valuable.”
Customs seizes contraband rice hidden in
Yola residential building
Published
18 hours ago
on
March 9, 2020
By
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS)
has seized over a hundred 50kg bags of foreign rice traced to a residential
building in a remote community in the Adamawa State capital, Yola.
Operatives of the Adamawa/Taraba
Command of the NCS on Monday drove in eight pickup vans from the command
headquarters in Kofare, Jimeta, to the house in which the bags of rice were
kept several kilometres away in the Doubeli area of Jimeta, and loaded the rice
which they took back to their headquarters.
The seizure from the private home
came as a departure from the past when the NCS routinely entered market places
in their undertaking of ensuring that foreign rice do not get sold to consumers
in line with federal government’s ban on it.
Spokesman of the Adamawa/Taraba
Command of the NCS, Mu’awuya Abubakar, who addressed newsmen in Doubeli as the
rice was being moved into NCS vans, said his men and officers were alerted of
the contraband rice by an informant.
“We got to know about this place
from information that some individuals now at large were smuggling foreign rice
and hiding it in this private residential building.
“As you can see, we’ve been
removing the bags of rice into our vehicles and we are taking them to our
warehouse. We’ll keep striving to see that smuggled rice that get past the
borders don’t get to the market.”
He warned landlords to always check
that people do not use their properties for illicit activities such as storing
contraband goods in them, as they would always be liable in such offences.
He said the house from which the
bags of rice were taken would be locked up while the NCS continued with its
investigations.
He added that the NCS was yet to
determine the exact quantity of rice found in the private building as counting
was yet to be done, but that they would be in hundreds of bags.
He also said no arrest had been
made yet as the owner of the rice was understood to be on the run.
Photosynthesis
Varies Greatly Across Rice Cultivars
By
-
March 9, 2020
Rice is a direct source of
calories for more people than any other crop and serves as the main staple for
560 million chronically hungry people in Asia. With over 120,000 varieties of
cultivated rice (Oryza sativa) across the globe,
there is a wealth of natural diversity to be mined by plant scientists to
increase yields. A team from the University of Illinois and
the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) examined how 14
diverse varieties photosynthesize — the process by which all crops convert
sunlight energy into sugars that ultimately become our food. Looking at a
little-studied attribute of photosynthesis, they found small differences in
photosynthetic efficiency under constant conditions, but a 117% difference in
fluctuating light, suggesting a new trait for breeder selection.
“Photosynthesis has traditionally
been assessed under ‘constant conditions’ where plants are exposed to constant,
high levels of light, but field conditions are never constant, especially
considering the light that drives photosynthesis,” says RIPE
Director Stephen Long, Ikenberry Endowed University Chair of Plant Biology
and Crop Sciences at Illinois’ Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic
Biology. “We looked at 14 cultivars of rice that represent much of the crop’s
diversity and asked the question: could there be variability in photosynthesis
in fluctuating light that we might be able to capitalize on?”
Published in New
Phytologist, this work is part of Realizing Increased
Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that
enables crops to turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently to increase
global production sustainably with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the U.S. Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), and
the U.K. Government’s Department for International Development (DFID).
“If you look within the canopy of
leaves of any crop, you will see that the light is fluctuating by one or two
orders of magnitude,” Long says. “A plant’s access to light is not only
impacted by clouds intermittently obscuring the sun but much more commonly by
its own leaves, or those of a neighboring plant, as the sun’s angle changes
throughout the day. Calculations show that the photosynthetic inefficiency
imposed by these leaves slowly adjusting to each fluctuation in light may cost
crops 20 to 40% of their potential productivity.”
The researchers compared results
from constant and fluctuating light conditions and found no correlation, which
supports findings from a 2019 study on cassava. In other words, varieties
that do well in fluctuating light might not do well in constant light and
vice-versa, suggesting that selection for these traits should be conducted
independently.
“This lack of correlation, which
seems to be consistent across species, calls for us to flip how we think about
studying photosynthesis,” says first-author Liana Acevedo-Siaca, a
graduate student in the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and
Environmental Sciences (ACES). “Moving forward, we need to incorporate
more dynamic measurements into the way that we understand photosynthesis,
especially in an agricultural setting, because realistically those plants are
never in a steady-state.”
The team also evaluated how these
plants cope with fluctuations in light intensity across the five major rice
groups, sometimes considered to be subspecies. While no group appeared better
than the other overall, the team believes that variation could be found in
future research.
In this study, three
photosynthetic parameters were of particular interest: the speed of induction
(how quickly photosynthesis activates, or starts), speed of assimilation (how
quickly the plant physically fixes carbon into sugar), and how efficiently
these rice plants use water.
After switching from low light to
high light, one variety activated (or began photosynthesizing) 117% faster than
the slowest. In fluctuating light conditions, another variety from the Indica group
assimilated more than double that of the “worst” variety (also an Indica),
which was found to be the most water-use efficient variety.
“Surprisingly, after making a
more detailed analysis of these accessions, along with a well-studied control
called IR64 from the Philippines, we found that biochemistry is the biggest
limitation to efficiency as leaves transition from shade to sun,” Long says.
“Biochemistry is a different limitation altogether than that found in a
parallel study of cassava, illustrating the need to fine-tune photosynthesis
separately in different crop species — despite the fact that the photosynthetic
process is generally well-conserved and consistent across most food crops.”
According to Acevedo-Siaca, the
next step is to identify how to breed for (or engineer) rice with faster
induction responses.
“At the end of the day, the goal
would be to have plants that can respond more quickly to light fluctuations to
enable them to be more productive,” says Acevedo-Siaca, a 2016 recipient of
the U.S. Borlaug Fellowship in Global Food Security that supported
her to conduct much of this research at IRRI. “I am interested in ways that we
can improve this process while preserving some of the germplasm we have out
there. There’s so much diversity with which we could work. I think it would be
a shame if we didn’t examine all of our options more deeply.”
Long also published
a landmark study in Science that showed crops are
not fully adapted to deal with the dynamic light conditions in fields — and
helping them can increase crop productivity by as much as 20%. The RIPE project
and its sponsors are committed to ensuring Global Access and making
the project’s technologies available to the farmers who need them the most.
Mediated by Mold: Bengaluru
researchers show how fungi can make rice crops tolerant to salinity
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Bengaluru Mar 9, 2020, (Research Matters):
Bengaluru Mar 9, 2020, (Research Matters):
Among all the calamities caused by climate change, an increase
in the salinity of the soil is one. It is projected that, by 2050, about half
of today’s arable land across the world will be affected by salinity. This
increase would also hit India’s rice bowl, the Indo-Gangetic plains, which is
projected to lose about 45% of the crop yield. When salinity increases, plants
respond by absorbing less water, which affects their growth. How then do we help
agriculturally vital crops cope with high salinity? A new study by researchers from various institutes in Bengaluru may
have found an answer in microbes.
In parts of coastal Kerala, there exists an interesting
relationship—one between prawns, rice plants and microbes. A local variety of
rice, known as the Pokkali rice, grows in
brackish water by deriving nutrition from the excrements of the prawns. After
the rice grains are harvested, baby prawns feed on the leftovers, devouring a
tasty meal. Interestingly, a unique mix of bacteria and fungi that grow in the
plant helps the Pokkali rice thrive despite
the high salt content. These microbes are collectively called endophytes.
Endophytes are ‘good’ microbes that do not cause diseases, and
instead, promote the plant’s growth. In a new study, researchers from
University of Agricultural Sciences, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural
Research, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, in
collaboration with scientists in the Institute of General Botany and Plant
Physiology, Germany, have shown how one such endophyte, found in Pokkali rice,
can turn salt-sensitive rice varieties into salt-tolerant ones. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, was funded by
the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR).
“We wanted to explore the larger role of endophytes in
modulating plant responses to abiotic stresses, and if they can be extended to
confer stress tolerance to stress-sensitive plants of agricultural importance,”
says Dr Uma Shaanker, the corresponding author of the study. He is a professor
at the Department of Crop Physiology and School of Ecology and Conservation,
University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru.
Harnessing the power of fungi
Studies in the past have shown that the use of endophytes in
plants like tomato and chickpeas induces salt tolerance.
“Bacterial endophytes have been reported to confer salt
tolerance to chickpea while the fungal endophyte, Aspergillus
flavus, has been shown to mediate salinity tolerance in soybean,”
says Dr Shaanker.
However, the current study is the first to show how endophytes
from a salt-resistant variety of rice could be used to induce salt-tolerance in
other types.
The researchers isolated several species of bacteria and fungi
from two varieties of rice— the salt-tolerant Pokkali rice and the
salt-sensitive IR-64. After analysing the growth of these plants in different
salt conditions in the presence of microbes, they identified a type of fungi,
called Fusarium, which thrived in salty
conditions. The researchers then treated the seeds of IR-64 with this fungus
and observed their growth in high and low salinity conditions.
Fusarium verticillioides - Image for representational purpose only.
The study found that the seeds treated with the fungus had
better growth of roots and shoots even under salty conditions than those that
were not. Interestingly, when the treated seeds were grown under low salt
concentrations, the fungus did not influence their growth. The treated seeds
also had high amounts of chlorophyll—the vital pigment for photosynthesis—in
salty and normal conditions. The stability of the cell membrane, which usually
reduces under high salt conditions, was found to be significantly higher in
plants with the fungi.
The researchers also noticed several differences at the genetic
level in IR-64 plants treated with the fungi.
“The endophyte treatment significantly altered gene expression”,
says Dr Shaanker, adding that some genes were overexpressed and others were
underexpressed. “The genes that were differentially expressed due to the
treatment were linked to traits imparting salt tolerance,” he says.
Although the mechanism through which these differences are
caused is not yet completely known, the researchers have observed changes in
the perception of signals raised due to high salinity and the production of
related proteins.
“The approach offers an exciting alternative to conventional
plant breeding and genetic engineering-based solutions to ameliorate stress
adaptations in plants,” explains Dr Shaanker, in a nutshell.
Endophytes - Our hope towards a food-secure future?
The findings of the study show how tiny microbes can help agriculturally important crops to adapt to stress
conditions like high salt content. Although studies have shown that bacteria
can help in salt tolerance and that genetic engineering can be used to design salt-tolerant varieties of plants, the approach used in this study is
much simpler. “Treating seeds with endophytes can be easily done at the farm
level,” says Dr Shaanker.
As a next step, the researchers are experimenting with plants
like capsicum and maize to improve their salt tolerance with encouraging
results. Salinity is a vital driver of plant growth, and the changes in salt
levels due to the vagaries of the climate is now creating a need for developing
crops that are climate-sensitive, and tolerate these changes. The approach used
in the current study is a step in this direction.
“Our approach could accelerate crop improvement programmes and
stress mitigating strategies relevant to Indian agriculture,” signs off Dr
Shaanker.
This article has been run past the researchers, whose work is
covered, to ensure accuracy.
Photosynthesis varies greatly across rice
cultivars—natural diversity could boost yields
MARCH
9, 2020
A team from the University of Illinois examined 14 rice varieties
to discover natural differences in how the plants harness light energy to fix carbon
dioxide into food. In a recent study, they found a 117 percent difference in
fluctuating light conditions, suggesting a new trait for breeder selection.
Credit: Liana Acevedo-Siaca
Rice is a direct source of calories for more
people than any other crop and serves as the main staple for 560 million
chronically hungry people in Asia. With over 120,000 varieties of cultivated
rice (Oryza sativa) across the globe, there is a wealth of natural
diversity to be mined by plant scientists to increase yields. A team from the
University of Illinois and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
examined how 14 diverse varieties photosynthesize—the process by which all
crops convert sunlight energy into sugars that ultimately become our food.
Looking at a little-studied attribute of photosynthesis, they found small
differences in photosynthetic efficiency under constant conditions, but a 117
percent difference in fluctuating light, suggesting a new trait for breeder
selection.
"Photosynthesis has traditionally been
assessed under 'constant conditions' where plants are
exposed to constant, high levels of light, but field conditions are never
constant, especially considering the light that drives photosynthesis,"
said RIPE Director Stephen Long, Ikenberry Endowed University Chair of Plant
Biology and Crop Sciences at Illinois' Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic
Biology. "We looked at 14 cultivars of rice that represent much of the
crop's diversity and asked the question: could there be variability in
photosynthesis in fluctuating light that we might be able to capitalize
on?"
Published in New Phytologist, this
work is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an
international research project that enables crops to
turn the sun's energy into food more efficiently to increase global
production sustainably with support from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, the U.S. Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR),
and the U.K. Government's Department for International Development (DFID).
"If you look within the canopy of leaves
of any crop, you will see that the light is fluctuating by one or two orders of
magnitude," Long said. "A plant's access to light is not only
impacted by clouds intermittently obscuring the sun but much more commonly by
its own leaves, or those of a neighboring plant, as the sun's angle changes
throughout the day. Calculations show that the photosynthetic inefficiency
imposed by these leaves slowly adjusting to each fluctuation in light may cost
crops 20 to 40 percent of their potential productivity."
University of Illinois Graduate Student Liana Acevedo-Siaca
examined 14 diverse rice varieties to discover natural differences in how the
plants harness light energy to fix carbon dioxide into food. In a recent study,
she found a 117 percent difference in fluctuating light conditions, suggesting
a new trait for breeder selection. Credit: International Rice Research
Institute
The researchers compared results from constant
and fluctuating light conditions and found no correlation, which supports
findings from a 2019 study on cassava. In other words,
varieties that do well in fluctuating light might not do well in constant light
and vice-versa, suggesting that selection for these traits should be conducted
independently.
"This lack of correlation, which seems to
be consistent across species, calls for us to flip how we think about studying
photosynthesis," said first-author Liana Acevedo-Siaca, a graduate student
in the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES).
"Moving forward, we need to incorporate more dynamic measurements into the
way that we understand photosynthesis, especially in an agricultural setting,
because realistically those plants are never in a steady-state."
The team also evaluated how these plants cope
with fluctuations in light intensity across the five major rice groups,
sometimes considered to be subspecies. While no group appeared better than the
other overall, the team believes that variation could be found in future
research.
In this study, three photosynthetic parameters
were of particular interest: the speed of induction (how quickly photosynthesis
activates, or starts), speed of assimilation (how quickly the plant physically
fixes carbon into sugar), and how efficiently these rice plants use water.
A team from the University of Illinois examined 14 rice varieties
(shown here) to discover natural differences in how the plants harness light
energy to fix carbon dioxide into food. In a recent study; they found a 117
percent difference in fluctuating light conditions; suggesting a new trait for
breeder selection. Credit: RIPE project
After switching from low light to high light,
one variety activated (or began photosynthesizing) 117 percent faster than the
slowest. In fluctuating light conditions, another variety from the Indica group
assimilated more than double that of the "worst" variety (also
an Indica), which was found to be the most water-use efficient
variety.
"Surprisingly, after making a more
detailed analysis of these accessions, along with a well-studied control called
IR64 from the Philippines, we found that biochemistry is the biggest limitation
to efficiency as leaves transition from shade to sun," Long said.
"Biochemistry is a different limitation altogether than that found in a
parallel study of cassava, illustrating the need to fine-tune photosynthesis
separately in different crop species—despite the fact that the photosynthetic
process is generally well-conserved and consistent across most food
crops."
According to Acevedo-Siaca, the next step is to
identify how to breed for (or engineer) rice with faster induction responses.
"At the end of the day, the goal would be
to have plants that can respond more quickly to light fluctuations to enable
them to be more productive," said Acevedo-Siaca, a 2016 recipient of
the U.S. Borlaug Fellowship in Global Food Security that
supported her to conduct much of this research at IRRI. "I am interested
in ways that we can improve this process while preserving some of the germplasm
we have out there. There's so much diversity with which we could work. I think
it would be a shame if we didn't examine all of our options more deeply."
Long also published a landmark
study in Science that showed crops are not fully
adapted to deal with the dynamic light conditions in fields—and helping them
can increase crop productivity by as much as 20 percent. The RIPE project and
its sponsors are committed to ensuring Global Access and making the project's
technologies available to the farmers who need them the most.
Angola spends
US$26 million per month on importing rice
9 March 2020
Angola spends US$26 million per
month in foreign currencies with the import of 15,000 tonnes of rice from
several countries, said on Saturday, in Camacupa, the Secretary of State for
the Economy, Mário Caetano Júnior.
The Secretary of State, who concluded
a visit to the “Arrozal” farm, located in that municipality 82 kilometres east
of the town of Cuito, Bié province, said that the company in question intends
to produce exactly the tonnage of grain the country imports every month –
15,000 tonnes of rice.
Caetano Júnior, who spoke within
the scope of the provincial meetings focused on understanding local capacity to
supply the products in the basic basket in 14 provinces that his ministry is
conducting, said work was underway to transform Bié province into one of the
storehouses of production in the country.
The director of operations of the
farm, Ana Paula Lopes, said on that occasion that 600 of the 750 hectares of
rice remain, and that the 150 hectares lost were due to the heavy rainfall in
the region in February.
The yield per hectare is
estimated at seven tonnes, said the director of operations, adding that the
rice produced is being marketed to Angolan wholesalers and to the markets in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, where it is sent via the
Benguela Railroad. (macauhub)
Telangana
grows ‘golden’ rice that’s fit for diabetic diet, soft on heart
Sribala Vadlapatla | TNN | Updated: Mar 10,
2020, 07:54 IST
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HYDERABAD:
Diabetics are generally told to avoid having large quantities of rice given
that it is rich in carbohydrates. But a new variety of rice developed and
cultivated by Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agriculture University may not only help in
reducing blood glucose, it may also help in fighting cardiovascular diseases.
According to the researchers, the new variety — ‘Telangana Sona’ — has only 51.6% glucose when compared to other varieties which have between 55% and 62% glucose. Another important finding about this variety is that it has less carbohydrates than even millets, according to National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Secunderabad.
According to the researchers, the new variety — ‘Telangana Sona’ — has only 51.6% glucose when compared to other varieties which have between 55% and 62% glucose. Another important finding about this variety is that it has less carbohydrates than even millets, according to National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Secunderabad.
A paper on Sona has now been published in a recent issue of the reputed American Journal of Food Nutrition as useful variety with low glycemic index (GI). The researchers say the variety is effective in reducing type 2 diabetes.
“In conclusion, it can be reported from the study that the low GI rice RNR 15048 can be useful therapeutic diet that helps in reduction of blood glucose and elevation in plasma HDL Cholesterol levels in patients with type 2 diabetes,” the paper states. Food low on GI release glucose slowly and steadily. Foods high on GI release glucose rapidly.
Top Comment
Good news for
Diabetics Patients :D now they can enjoy all kind of Biryanies made from this
rice :D
Om One
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Sona was developed by the university three years ago along with another variety named after Bathukamma, Telangana’s floral festival celebrated during Dasara. “Since then, we have been promoting this variety. A few lakh hectares in Telangana have been converted into Sona cultivation,” professor Pravin Rao, vice chancellor of the university, told TOI. “I can say this is the most authentic diabetic-friendly developed in the country.”
Officials say that the variety is also farmer-friendly as it gives yield in very short span when compared to other varieties. Farmers can expect the yield within 120 to 130 days.