Tuesday, March 10, 2020

10th March,2020 Daily global regional local rice e-newsletter


Government allots P760 million to boost rice production in Western Visayas
Louise Maureen Simeon (The Philippine Star 
) - 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
UPDATED: MARCH 10, 2020 08:16 IST
CSIR lab working on drug to combat COVID-19
MYSURU , MARCH 09, 2020 22:45 IST
UPDATED: MARCH 10, 2020 08:13 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.
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BPI issued 801 import clearance for 666,000 MT of rice in January

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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
 -

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
UPDATED: MARCH 09, 2020 07:49 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.
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Field trials of ‘pest-proof’ cotton variety soon: CSIR

MYSURU, MARCH 10, 2020 08:16 IST
UPDATED: MARCH 10, 2020 08:16 IST
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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.

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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
By Talia Ogliore  March 9, 2020
Description: riceBiologist 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.
Description: Kenneth M. OlsenOlsen
“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.
Description: US MapThe 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.
Description: Washington University in St. Louis GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY
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


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Description: https://dailypost.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IMG_20200309_133343-scaled.jpg
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

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Description: https://seedworld.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Rice-1-696x466.jpg
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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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. 
Credits -Via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain 
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
Description: Photosynthesis varies greatly across rice cultivars--natural diversity could boost yieldsA 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."
Description: Photosynthesis varies greatly across rice cultivars--natural diversity could boost yieldsUniversity 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.

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.
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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.

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