Wednesday, August 19, 2020

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

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

Tue 18th August 2020 | 08:38 PM

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

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

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

Pritam Kashyap 18 August, 2020 3:24 PM IST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

· By Fred Miller University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Rice Varieties – Xueyan Sha, professor and rice breeder

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

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

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

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

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

· By Fred Miller University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Rice Varieties – Xueyan Sha, professor and rice breeder

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BY JOSEPH OPOKU GAKPO

AUGUST 18, 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rice farmers hope cash infusion spurs Iraqi imports

08/18/20 3:45 PM By Bill Tomson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Agri trade gap widens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Deborah Willenborg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

India facing flash droughts during monsoon: Study

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intense droughts

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

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

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

Impact on agriculture

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Fred Miller University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Rice Varieties – Xueyan Sha, professor and rice breeder

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

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

COVID-19PODCASTBLOGRICE DOGS

Wildlife-Friendly Farming a California Rice Hallmark

By Luke Matthews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AUGUST 17, 2020 9:48PM (UTC)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MATTHEW ROZSA

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

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

NASA Goddard Scientists Map Out Global Losses of Mangrove Habitats

Hannah C.Aug 19, 2020 02:19 AM EDT

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

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

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

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

Vital Role of Mangroves

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

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

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

(Photo: Getty Images)

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

Mapping Mangrove Losses

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

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

(Photo: NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens)
This map shows the location and severity of mangrove habitat loss, measured in kilometers, caused by natural and humans from 2000 to 2016. Darker areas experienced more loss in the period.

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

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

Independent Science News

Kervin Bonganciso/MASIPAG

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

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

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

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

Dangers

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

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

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

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

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

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

Malnutrition

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

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

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

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

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

Insecurity

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

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

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

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

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

Trojan horse

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

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

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

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

Diet

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

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

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

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

This Author

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

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

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

July rice inventory falls by a fifth year on year

August 18, 2020 | 6:41 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NFA held no corn during the month.

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

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

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

July rice inventory falls by a fifth year on year

August 18, 2020 | 6:41 pm

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