Rice production
in Region 1 ups by 1.23% in the first half of 2020
Published August 31, 2020, 5:00 PM
SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – The
Department of Agriculture, Regional Field Unit 1 (DA RFU1) has reported the
increase of rice production by 1.23% in the first semester of 2020.
DA RFU 1 Planning Officer Irene Tactac
confirmed the growth of rice production in the Ilocos region as per data
gathered by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Based on the PSA data, the volume of rice
production in Region 1 had an increment of 6,033 metric tons from 488,855
metric tons production in 2019 to 494,887.85 metric tons production in 2020.
La Union recorded the highest growth at
19.83%, followed by Ilocos Sur at 2.42%, Ilocos Norte at 2.42%, and Pangasinan
at 0.91%.
Pangasinan is the major producer of rice in
the region contributing 69% to the regional aggregate.
As to yield, this year’s record of rice
production per hectare is considered as the highest level in the region as
compared to the more or less 3.50 metric tons per hectare production in the
past years.
The province of Ilocos Sur registered the
highest level yield per hectare at 5.30 metric tons, followed by Ilocos Norte
at 5.21 metric tons, La Union at 4.92 metric tons, and Pangasinan at 4.74
metric tons.
As to area harvested, however, there was a
slight decrease of 0.29% equivalent to 299.7 hectares. Only La Union and Ilocos
Norte posted an increase of 7.78% and 0.61%, respectively.
According to Tactac, the increase in rice
production in Region 1 was achieved through the implementation of key
production and productivity-enhancing technology interventions such as the
utilization of high-quality hybrid and inbred seeds coupled with favorable
weather conditions.
Likewise, the region through the Rice
Banner Program distributed various farm production and postharvest machinery,
equipment, and facilities along with the construction of and rehabilitation of
Small-Scale Irrigation Projects in the region.
She said the increase in rice yield was
also attributed to the implementation of the rice resiliency project under the
“Plant, Plant Plant Program” of the agency amid COVID-19 pandemic.
https://mb.com.ph/2020/08/31/rice-production-in-region-1-ups-by-1-23-in-the-first-half-of-2020/
Kim Jong-un inspects the damage as North
Korea reels from floods and Typhoon Bavi
The reclusive regime is also struggling with the impact of
sanctions and the global pandemic
28
August 2020 • 6:23am
Kim
Jong-un has visited a province badly hit by a typhoon this week CREDIT: AFP
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
has visited a rice-growing area devastated by a typhoon on Thursday, as the
reclusive country reels from back-to-back natural and manmade catastrophes....
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Laura’s wicked
winds twist soybeans, flatten rice, scatter cotton bolls
August 31, 2020
DOWN
— Flattened, or lodged, rice between Crockett’s Bluff and Arkansas Highway 1 in
Arkansas County. Taken Aug. 28, 2020, the day after Tropical Storm Laura came
through the state. (U of A System Division of Agriculture image by Phil Horton)
Little Rock, AR – After a gray
day of gusts and heavy rain that steamrolled crops, Tropical Storm Laura seemed
to save her worst for after sunset, with the nighttime hours punctuated by
tornado warnings from Desha County north to Clay County.
Bryce Baldridge, a Lawrence
County extension staff chair for the University of Arkansas System Division of
Agriculture, heard the warnings Thursday night.
“They said a tornado was headed
for Bono which is where I live,” he said on Friday.
“My daughter got the dog and
headed for the bathtub,” Baldridge said, adding that he was “listening for that
train noise to come out of the black sky.”
Fortunately, that sound never
came.
Assessing past damage, worried
about the next storm
As daylight came Friday, farmers
and extension agents and agronomists were making the rounds, trying to get a
preliminary damage assessment. Laura’s arrival came just as corn and rice
harvest began. At this time of year, soybeans are standing tall in some fields
and cotton bolls are forming.
As these assessments continued
through the day, agents and agronomists say they’re worried about another storm
system expected to hit on Saturday.
Rice
Photos taken by extension
personnel show swaths of flattened, or “lodged” plants in the heart of rice
country. Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist, said Friday that in an early
round of assessments, it seems “rice damage is luckily minimal.”
“The damage appears worse in the
south and lessens as you move north,” he said. However, “the closer to harvest
the field is, the worse the impact, but cultivar, seeding rate and fertility
are all impacting factors.”
With Saturday’s storms looming, Hardke said “lodging will worsen with time and
rain.”
Soybeans
Matthew Davis, extension staff
chair in Jackson County, said soybeans in his county seemed to have been the
hardest hit.
“Soybeans have a lean to them,”
he said. “Some that were 4 feet tall are around 2 feet tall now.”
Jeremy Ross, extension soybean
agronomist, said “What I’ve seen are fields with tall soybean plants have a
severe lean — they’re not completely flat.
“These fields should stand back
up, but not completely,” he said. “They will have a lean the rest of the year.
There shouldn’t be any yield impact, but they will be impossible to
scout.”
ROUGH NIGHT — Corn damage in Ashley County, Arkansas.
Ashley County extension staff chair Kevin Norton estimated that about 60
percent of corn acreage in the county had some degree of damage from Tropical
Storm Laura, ranging from 5 to 95 percent, depending on the area. (Image
courtesy Kevin Norton.)
In White County, Extension Agent
Jan Yingling said she found roads covered with water and patches of fields
leaning, but “my farmers have told me that most everything is still standing
and they feel like they were spared.”
In Ashley County, along the
Arkansas-Louisiana border, extension county chair Kevin Norton said that about
90 percent of the county’s cotton and soybean acreage had “some degree of
lodging.”
“Cotton seems to be the hardest
hit,” Norton said. “Corn is all over the board. I would estimate that 60
percent of corn acreage has some degree of lodging, ranging from 5 to 95
percent.”
Other damage
Cross County Extension Staff
Chair Rick Wimberley, said rice and corn in his county was still standing for
the most part, but soybeans were hit hard.
“I saw a lot of fields laying
down. Don’t know if they can stand back up or not,” he said.
Wimberley, who is also a
volunteer firefighter and a storm spotter, said “there was either a small
tornado or straight line winds that broke tree limbs, uprooted trees, and blew
down the city pavilion at Hickory Ridge.
HANGAR, PLANE DAMAGED — Among Tropical Storm Laura’s
victims, a hangar and an ag applicator plane that had been undergoing
maintenance at the hanger in Hickory Ridge, Arkansas. Taken Aug. 28, 2020. (U
of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Rick Wimberley)
“An airplane hangar was heavily
damaged there, along with one aircraft that was undergoing maintenance,” he
said. “The communications tower at the Hickory Ridge Fire Department was blown
down along with a power pole. Many of the fields along a line from Hickory
Ridge to approximately one mile east of Penrose are starting to flood. I expect
floodwater to increase in the lower section of the county in this area the next
couple of days because of poor drainage along a tributary know as Second Creek
that flows into northern St. Francis County. This area has a history of
flooding with heavy rains.”
STORM DAMAGE — Damage to a farm shop near Biggers in
Randolph County, Arkansas. Taken Aug. 28, 2020, the day after Tropical Storm
Laura swept through Arkansas (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by
Mike Andrews)
In Randolph County, extension
staff chair Mike Andrews said Laura destroyed a farm shop near Biggers,
flattened half a field of soybeans and even flipped a few peanut vines out of
the soil. Even so, Andrews said “I think we made it through way better than I
thought the crops would.”
Which way the wind blows
Bill Robertson, extension cotton
agronomist, said that “wind did push cotton over, especially the taller cotton,
but I hope a lot of it will stand back up.” He also noted some plants simply
becoming entangled with one another.
The circular nature of Laura’s
winds across the state left clues in the patterns of field damage; which was
dependent upon how the rows were oriented.
“Where the wind was blowing
across the rows, there were more issues,” Robertson said. “In Lee County, the
winds were more from south, so north-south rows fared better. In Lonoke County,
winds were more from the east, so east-west rows looked better there.”
“The big issue is forecast rain
with upcoming weather fronts,” he said. “We need things to dry. If stays wet,
it will rot a lot of crop.”
Forestry
Forestry was also affected by
Laura. Calhoun County Extension Staff Chair Jaret Rushing was still trying to
work even after the storm killed his power and damaged his home.
“I was actually contacted by a
forester this morning that needed a rain report because they were moving a
logging crew on a tract of land down here on Moro Creek Bottoms,” Rushing said,
amid the sound of generators running. “With the 5-plus inches of rain we
received, that particular tract will probably be put off on harvesting until
2021.
“Historically, when we get the
first flooding rain here in late August or early September it will signify the
beginning of the wet season,” he said.
Laura’s lifecycle
A Category 4 at landfall,
powerful Laura approached Arkansas as a Category 1 hurricane, before weakening
to a tropical storm just before crossing the border.
“It’s kind of crazy, Laura was
barreling up here like a freight train and holding together as the storm passed
through Louisiana,” said Dan Koch, meteorologist for the National Weather
Service in North Little Rock. As it got closer to Arkansas, “it kind of sheared
apart. The top layer sheared to the east and the lower part came toward
Arkansas. We did have some westerly winds aloft and that was enough to shear it
apart and separate top from bottom.”
Koch said the shear was something
that would merit further investigation.
First-time tropical storm warning
Koch said Laura was the first
time the Little Rock office had issued a tropical storm warning for Arkansas.
“We had so many questions about
this yesterday from all walks of life,” he said. He explained that “it’s not
that we never had tropical storm force winds, but it was a National Weather
Service policy that we never issue tropical storm warnings this far inland.
This was the first time we had the chance to issue one of those.”
AGRICULTURE ESCAPED
SEVERE DESTRUCTION FROM HURRICANE
Sat, 08/29/2020 - 5:27pm
Wagons used for harvesting sugarcane sit on high ground
surrounded by floodwaters from Hurricane Laura near New Iberia, Louisiana.
(Photo by Bruce Schultz/LSU AgCenter)
BRUCE SCHULTZ
bschultz@agcenter.lsu.edu(link sends e-mail)
Although definitive results won’t be available for a few days,
the effects on agriculture appear to be less destructive than most people
feared before Hurricane Laura struck, but forests and residences sustained
significant damage.
Blair Hebert, LSU AgCenter agent for sugarcane in the Bayou Teche area, said
cane plants have been blown down, or lodged, throughout the area, and some
plants were submerged in floodwater.
Much of the cane appeared to be laying in one direction, which could make
harvest somewhat less difficult, he said.
Farmers had not completed cane planting, and that process will be even more
difficult because of wet fields and downed cane that will be used for seed.
Sugarcane harvest is expected to begin in mid-September for some mills, and all
mills are scheduled to begin by early October. “It’s going to take longer to harvest
and cost more money,” Hebert said.
The surge wasn’t as bad as expected, so fields to the north won’t be as
affected by flooding. “It’s not the best-case scenario, but it’s not the
worst-case scenario,” he said.
Hebert is concerned that fields affected by flooding will also be littered with
debris. He recalled that farmers had to deal with butane bottles that were
washed into the fields after previous hurricanes.
Farmer Ricky Gonsoulin, of New Iberia, said he has about 2,500 acres of
sugarcane flooded. The tops of the cane stalks are split “so it’s going to take
sugar to repair itself,” he said.
The flood was about 3 feet lower than the flooding that accompanied Hurricane
Rita in 2005, and it doesn’t have the salinity of the tidal surge from that
storm, Gonsoulin said. It took five to seven years for fields flooded by Rita
to recover from the salt level.
The water level didn’t rise until 4 p.m. after the storm had passed, he said.
Gonsoulin is concerned about his newly planted cane that’s completely submerged.
“Once it goes over the levee, it’s like a bathtub, and we’ve got to let it
out,” he said of the floodwater. He has made cuts in levees and has pumps
working to drain the water, “but the tides are working in our favor,” he said.
Errol Domingue, a farmer near Erath, has 800 acres of sugarcane where water has
to be pumped off. But because the water was still above the levee, he has to
wait for it to recede.
The sugarcane plants have been pushed over, but the tops don’t appear to be
broken. “It’s down all one way, and not mangled up,” Domingue said.
“There’s still a great crop out there,” Gonsoulin said, adding that harvest
will be more of a problem in fields that also have debris.
Todd Fontenot, AgCenter agent in Evangeline Parish, said damage is scattered in
his area. “Pretty decent-sized trees are knocked down,” he said.
Some rice that had not been harvested yet or was planted for crawfish showed
little damage. “The rice around here seemed to have fared pretty well,” he
said. Soybeans in the area didn’t appear to be damaged either.
“A lot of rice was cut over the weekend and up until Tuesday,” Fontenot said.
One farmer, with help from neighbors, managed to harvest 350 acres of rice in
one day.
Farmer Adlar Stelly, of Kaplan, evacuated his family and returned to his home
south of Kaplan to discover everything was ok except for 190 acres out of 2,000
acres of rice that he is unable to harvest.
“I thought I was coming back to a flooded house and every acre of my farm
underwater,” he said.
The rice was flooded by freshwater, and Stelly expects to start pumping off the
floodwater in a day or two.
He will be making freezer space available to nearby residents who, unlike him,
don’t have power.
More than 90 percent of the rice in Acadia Parish had been harvested before the
storm, said Jeremy Hebert, AgCenter agent in Acadia Parish. What rice was left
in the field was knocked down and is under water.
“We’ve got great farmers, and they banded together and teamed up to help get as
much rice out of the field as they could the week before the storm,” Hebert
said.
Hebert’s parents’ home is a total loss. This is the second time they lose a
home to a hurricane.
Andrew Granger, AgCenter agent in Vermilion Parish, said most of the rice still
in fields is not under water. He doesn’t think the water pushed many fences
over because it rose so slowly.
The water only reached 5 feet above normal at Intracoastal City.
Shrimp processing facilities at Intracoastal City had flooded, said AgCenter
and Louisiana Sea Grant aquaculture agent Mark Shirley. But water was receding,
and the businesses were starting the cleanup process.
While agriculture damage wasn’t as significant as farmers feared, high winds
uprooted trees, causing losses for forest landowners and residences.
Jimmy Meaux, AgCenter agent in Calcasieu and Jefferson Davis parishes, said
residential damage is extensive, including to his own home.
After returning from Pineville, Meaux found trees had fallen on his house, and
the roof was partially ripped off. “Everybody’s house is damaged,” he said.
“The whole area in the LeBleu Settlement is like a war zone.”
Kyle LeBoeuf, cattle producer a cattle producer at Holmwood, had significant
damage to his home. The roof on one side of his house was demolished and torn
away, and a horse barn was destroyed.
His cattle behind his house were ok, but “I had some in Creole that got lost,”
he said.
This is the second time LeBoeuf has had a house destroyed by a hurricane; the
first was in Creole. “We lost everything” then, he said.
On Friday his family and friends were trying to get a water pump working and
get an ice machine running.
LeBoeuf’s neighbor, Blake Trimeaux, said he rode out the storm in a nearby
cinderblock building “where you could feel the cinderblocks breathing when the
wind would blow. When the roof would go up, the doors would open, and you could
feel the wall breathe,” he said.
Trimeaux said all his 25 cattle and home survived, but all his sheds are
demolished.
AgCenter forestry agent Keith Hawkins in Beauregard Parish reported significant
downed timber in the Deridder area. Many parish roads were inaccessible due to
fallen trees, and some homes have been heavily damaged by downed trees.
Hurricane Laura had a major impact on forest landowners in southwest and
central Louisiana said AgCenter forestry agent Robbie Hutchins, located in
Alexandria.
“Trees have been uprooted and snapped off from the hurricane and associated
tornadoes,” Hutchins said. Forest landowners are in the process of assessing
the extent of the damage. In addition, tens of thousands of shade trees near
homes and business have been downed or damaged.
https://www.eunicetoday.com/news-agriculture/agriculture-escaped-severe-destruction-hurricane
Iraq to
fill rice supply gap with U.S. agreement: Trade Ministry
BAGHDAD
(Reuters) - Iraq’s trade ministry will buy rice under an agreement with the
United States to supply its rationing programme, it said on Saturday, and it
will strike deals next week with local companies for sugar and vegetable oils.
The
existing agreement has seen Iraq in recent years invite companies to present
offers for U.S. origin only rice.
The
country needs around 1-1.25 million tonnes of rice a year to support the
programme. In May, the ministry said Iraq had only 190,000 tonnes of rice
available in its coffers and renewed pleas for a greater allocation of funds
from the state budget.
Iraq’s
food rationing programme, created in 1991 to combat U.N. economic sanctions,
covers flour and rice as well as cooking oil and sugar.
Reporting by Moayad Kenany;
Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Alex Richardson
Golden rice season in northern Vietnam
village Nam Hong
By Xu Kien
August 30, 2020 | 11:04 am GMT+7
When fall
begins towards the end of September and start of October, Nam Hong Village in
Ha Giang Province radiates the amber hue of autumn.
Its sensual curves of staircase
rice terraces send visitors into a trance.
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Rice terraced fields in Nam
Hong Village. Photo by Xu Kien. |
Propped against the mountain at an
altitude of 800 m, Nam Hong Village encompasses 38 red Dao ethnic households.
The village in Thong Nguyen Commune, Hoang Su Phi District is located 33 km
from National Route 2 and 77 km from Ha Giang Town, capital of the eponymous
province.
A few years ago, Nam Hong villagers
relied mainly on agriculture, tea cultivation, and fish farming to survive.
Today, the Nam Hong community-based tourism village has become a leading draw
in Hoang Su Phi District.
The first evening was a memorable
one, after a hearty dinner of northern highlands specialties like boar,
junglefowl, vegetables, and fragrant corn wine, I participated in the Nam Hong
mid-autumn festival.
In the glow of campfire, I was
unable to tear my eyes away from the supple and graceful moves of red Dao
dancers. After a spiritual ceremony, barefooted red Dao men danced on burning
coal.
This is a red Dao ritual that
traditionally takes place in the Lunar New Year festival to thank the Fire
Deity for warmth, safety, prosperity, and a good harvest, and for chasing away
ghosts, devils, and diseases. Nowadays, the dance is performed regularly for
tourists. That night, I fell into a deep, rejuvenating sleep.
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A barefooted red Dao man danced
on burning coal. Photo by Xu Kien. |
Typically, rice harvesting is
divided into four parts: bailing out water and catching fish, reaping,
stacking, and threshing. That morning, I woke up very early to follow my tour
guide Kinh to the fields.
From Hoang Su Phi Bungalow, I
tightly held onto a bucket whilst chasing after Kinh up vast terraced fields.
The paddies were yellow and ripe with droopy panicles ready to be harvested.
Kinh led me to the top of Doi Mong
Ngua (Horseshoe Hill), the most scenic location for photos in Nam Hong. From
the hilltop, fluffy clusters of white clouds floated around like frothy foam in
a cappuccino, covering parts of glistening verdant terraces that rose one after
another to the sky.
The arresting landscape brought
about a light and tranquil feeling. I deeply inhaled the Highlands’ crisp pure
air. Here’s to a new day.
Kinh’s rice field lay near the
Horseshoe Hill. After a short trek, we arrived at the paddies. Kinh and his
wife first released and directed the water in their rice field to others nearby.
With a skilled hand, Kinh detected and caught large and robust fish swiftly
swimming around rice plant roots and placed them in a bucket.
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Sunrise in Nam Hong Village.
Photo by Xu Kien. |
To ensure the fish are in the
healthiest state when caught, locals release them into paddy fields after
sowing at the end of April and beginning of May. In September and October when
rice fields ripen, the fish reach full maturity. Locals then catch and bring
them home.
Since the fish develop in a natural
state, bred without fertilizer and around rice plants, they are organic and
fresh. A gastronomical must-try when visiting Nam Hong is fish freshly caught
from paddy fields paired with entirely clean, safe rice.
Dehydrated fish tend to stick
around the plant roots and when I dipped my hand underwater to catch them,
their slippery and slimy scales completely threw me off at first but I quickly
adapted and found it fun.
I caught a carp that lay snugly
inside my palm, its mouth wide open until I gently dropped it into the bucket.
That little fish was going to be a part of our dinner that night.
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Catching fish that stick around
the rice plant roots. Photo by Xu Kien. |
Foreign tourists visiting Nam Hong
also excitedly rolled up their sleeves and waded through the field to hunt
carp. Excitement and laughter resonated across the fields.
A week passed by since our fishing
mission, with the fields now teeming with toiling Nam Hong locals. That
morning, I woke early and with my sickle joined villagers for the harvest.
The way Nam Hong locals reap rice
is very unique, severing half the rice stalk instead of cutting from the root,
then placing those halves back onto reaped plants. Every harvest, locals form a
‘V’ shape with the plants to prevent panicles from dropping. Three days later,
they head back out to the fields to harvest and thresh rice crops that have
dried.
We worked from one side of the hill
to another. I labored alongside villagers for a week. They exchanged many
stories and bantered while reaping, filling the air with hearty laughter.
Needless to say, it was a memorable week.
Among the villagers, an older lady
energetically reaped whilst softly lulling a baby strapped onto her back to
sleep. Seeing my fierce and rapid movements, a red Dao fellow turned to me and
jokingly said: "You’re very strong, would you want to marry a red Dao lad
and stay here?"
Right then and there, elation
rushed through me as I felt like I belonged to this captivating ethnic
community, participating in ordinary daily activities that perhaps I would
never get a chance to enjoy again.
Locals here don’t thresh rice crops
at paddies. After the crop has dried, they use a red fabric string to gather it
into bouquets and piles for transport to a communal shanty. The climb from the
fields down to the shanty is arduous since the ground is uneven and the bearer
has to bow, maintain their balance, straighten their legs and manage a heavy
pile of rice crops on their back. Beads of sweat quickly gathered on the
farmers’ head as they firmly moved forward, the familiar look of perseverance
flashing on their faces.
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Farmers bring rice crops to the
communal shanty. Photo by Xu Kien. |
After successfully transporting the
thresher to the communal house, they began the threshing process and collected
the final product into sacks. That harvest Kinh’s family collected in total 20
hefty sacks of rice, bringing a huge delighted grin to everyone’s face.
The red Dao community has a
tradition that whichever household harvests that day has to host the village
for lunch and dinner. Thus, that evening all the villagers convened at the
harvester’s place to feast and celebrate.
In the afternoon sunshine of the
following days, I strolled around emptied paddy fields in my trusty honeycomb
rubber sandals and watched red Dao locals revel in buffalo wrestling matches.
If possible, I fell even more
deeply in love with the land and its people. When harvest season came to an
end, it was also my time to conclude my northern highlands adventure and return
to Ho Chi Minh City.
If one gets infatuated with a
region, it must be due to the intense love and appreciation one harbors for its
people, animals, and scenery.
Before traveling:
Transportation
Motorbike: Explore the magnificent
landscapes of Nam Hong Village on the back of a motorbike for a hands-on,
unrefined experience. To save time, you can buy a limousine bus ticket from
Hanoi to the Tan Quang intersection in Ha Giang Province then rent a bike to
complete the trip. It is important to note the route has many dangerous bends.
In return, the glistening rice terraces lining the road compose a breathtaking
view.
Limousine bus: Nam Hong is located in the west
of Ha Giang. Since the route is less frequented, there are not many shuttle
buses that run through the region. If departing from Hanoi, you can consult
Ngoc Cuong, Cau Me, Quang Nghi, Quang Giang, or Dang Quang bus services for a
ride to the Tan Quang intersection. From here, you can hop on a second ride to
reach Nam Hong. This ride is offered by Thong Nguyen bus service that can be
reached by this number: 0966 212 213.
Accomodation: Nam Hong has a variety of
accommodation options. Hoang Su Phi Bungalo boasts seven high-end, cozy, and
air-conditioned cabins. The nightly rates for a two-bedroom and a single room
is VND1.15 million ($50) and VND980,000 ($42), respectively. In addition, you
can also opt to stay at a traditional red Dao house, which can accommodate up
to 50 people. Some recommended homestays: Kinh Homestay (0988 070 619), Dao
Homestay (0948 052 889), Trieu Ta Quyen Homestay (038 286 6054), Son Pu
Homestay, and Hao Thu Homestay. A night in a communal room costs VND100,000.
Motorbike renting: Motorbike renting is available at every homestay. A motorbike
costs VND250,000 for a day. If you want someone to drive you, a full day costs
VND500,000.
Food: In Nam Hong, you will have the
chance to relish in red Dao specialties like wild boar, prairie chicken, unique
vegetables, forest bamboo sprouts, paddy field carp, meat jerky, corn wine, and
goat liquor.
Other attractions: In addition to the terraced fields, you can also visit other
tourist attractions like Thong Nguyen marketplace, Giang Ha Waterfall, Thong
Nguyen tea plantation, the 600-year-old tea tree in Nam Ty Village, other
staircase rice fields in Nam Ty, Nam Dich, and Nam Khoa villages, or climb
Chieu Lau Thi, part of the Tay Con Linh mountain range.
Ideal time to visit: The most ideal time to visit Nam Hong is during harvest season,
which takes place towards the end of September, beginning of October when the
rice terraced fields are golden and glimmering. From April to May is irrigation
and sowing season, in preparation for the annual harvest, with a lot of
interactive activities offered to tourists. Winter lasts from the end of
December until January, which is not as recommended as the former since the
weather gets brutal and foggy. However, it is also during this time that the
majority of local red Dao festivals occur, if you want to get a taste of ethnic
culture and colors.
Herbal bath service: The red Dao’s medicinal herbs consisting of over 40 herbal
leaves including calamus, lemongrass, cinnamon, and anise harvested from tall
mountains could be very effective in curing grave wounds, sprains, broken
bones, and respiratory problems. Herbal concoctions are used in a popular bath that
even post-partum mothers can enjoy. A herbal bath costs VND100,000.
Local festivals: The red Dao have many festivals like the coming-of-age
celebration, traditional red Dao wedding, annual Pan Wang Festival, and light
night abstinence ritual.
Souvenir gifts: Shan Tuyet Tea is the prime specialty of Nam Hong and makes for
a thoughtful gift. Other souvenirs include but are not limited to tribal-print
bags and clothing handmade by local red Dao.
Other notes: If you visit Nam Hong in winter,
remember to bring adequate clothing for the cold weather since the temperature
can drop pretty low in the mountains, hitting sub-zero at times.
All homestays offer food, local
guides, and motorbike taxis and are more than willing to help you throughout
your stay. For more information, please contact the local Nam Hong cooperative
via its hotline 0373 541 936.
Global collaboration needed to regulate embryo and
embryoid research, says Baker Institute paper
The
world’s scientific community must engage with a broad range of stakeholders to
develop guidelines on embryo and embryoid research, according to a new paper from Rice University’s Baker Institute for
Public Policy.
Human
embryo and embryoid research has expanded in recent years due to technological
advances. But inconsistent or ambiguous restrictions among the 22 leading
research and development nations causes confusion about what is allowed, the
authors argue.
“The
views of the human embryo and embryoids as a research tool vary internationally
from permissive to completely prohibitive,” wrote Kirstin Matthews, fellow in science and technology policy at
the Baker Institute, and Daniel Morali, a research associate at the institute.
Among
the top R&D-investing nations, Matthews and Morali found 12 countries have
a 14-day limit on embryo research after fertilization, one has a seven-day
limit, five have less restrictive prohibitions and four have no laws or
guidelines at all.
The
14-day limit is a “boundary that prohibits scientists from culturing or
conducting research on an in vitro human embryo beyond 14 days after
fertilization or after the development of the primitive streak (a faint streak
on the embryo that establishes bilateral symmetry and potential further
development),” according to the paper.
When
the 14-day limit was established for the United States in 1979 by its
Department of Health, Education and Welfare, it was “technologically infeasible
to culture human embryos beyond 14 days; thus, it imposed no limits on
research,” according to the paper. Now the U.S. is one of four countries
without a 14-day limit or other restrictions on human embryo research.
Two
developments have encouraged global scholars to revisit embryo research
polices.
First,
two independent research groups in the U.S. and U.K. were able to culture human
embryos in vitro “to understand early human development, including how embryo
cells organize, differentiate and generate tissues to allow proper implantation,”
according to the paper. The two groups did not expand their research beyond the
14-day limit out of respect to international norms (in the U.S.’s case) and
laws (U.K.).
Second,
scientists are now using organized pluripotent stem cell models – embryoids or artificial embryos – to study early human
development. However, most national laws and guidelines are ambiguous about
embryoid research, leaving what is and is not permitted unclear, according to
the authors.
“Several
countries limit research on cells with the potential to become a human embryo,”
they wrote. “This affects researchers’ ability to conduct embryoid research
when potential is not defined.”
Matthews
and Morali argue that embryoid research will need its own set of guidelines,
separate from human embryo research policies, since it addresses a different
set of ethical and scientific issues.
To
encourage research in these areas, “scientists will need to engage with
invested and interested stakeholders, such as funders, religious leaders
(concerned about the use of embryos in research), donors, patients and others
who might gain from knowledge obtained from human embryo and embryoid
research,” they wrote.
“Working
with stakeholders to develop thoughtful and appropriate guidelines would
acknowledge the sensitive nature of the work, provide an opportunity for public
engagement and promote high-quality science,” they added. “Otherwise,
scientists run the risk of losing public trust and seeing more restrictive
regulations being instituted.”
/Public
Release. The material in this public release comes from the originating
organization and may be of a point-in-time nature, edited for clarity, style
and length. View in full here.
Tags:authors, Baker Institute, community, culture, Department of Health, education, health, religious, research, Rice University, science, Scientists, stem cell, technology, United States, university
Japan seeks facilitation at ports to increase imports from
Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Japanese government on
Tuesday urged Pakistani authorities to improve facilitations at the ports to
increase exports to Japan.
Japan’s Ambassador to Pakistan
Kuninori Matsuda said Japan intends to extend business relations with Pakistan
and wishes to import mangoes, rice, fish and textile products from Pakistan. He
called for arrangements at the ports that could facilitate agriculture product
exports.
“Japan will extend help to Pakistan
in providing debt relief and after the preliminary work on the initiative an
MOU (memorandum of understanding) will be formally signed with Pakistan,”
Matsuda said during a meeting with the Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and
Revenue Hafeez Shaikh.
The ambassador assured all possible
help and assistance to the government of Pakistan. “With the regional peace and
stable political situation regional trade will flourish and offer better
opportunities to Pakistan,” he said.
Pakistani government is trying to
get permission from the Japanese government to export fruits and vegetables
after getting clearance for its mangoes. Mango export to Japan was a
complicated process due to the coronavirus outbreak. Japan is a high-value
market of mangoes. Market shares in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Norway,
Sweden, Italy, Belgium and Netherlands are rising steadily. Considering an
expected reduction in exports this year, Japanese market should further be
tapped, according to analysts.
Japanese traders are trying to
import medical equipment and surgical instruments directly from Pakistan. In
the past, these devices came to Japan via Germany. Shaikh said Japan is a time
tested friend of Pakistan and has always supported the country.
“Pakistan’s relationship with Japan
will continue to become stronger with every passing day,” he said in a
statement.
The finance adviser apprised the
ambassador on the state of the economy during the past year and how the
government had made efforts to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shaikh said Pakistani economy started to move in the right direction before Covid-19
pandemic. “We had been successful in increasing our tax revenues, controlling
our current account deficit, have generated a primary surplus, controlled our
expenditures, put a ban on borrowing from the central bank and had been
successful in creating a conducive environment for exports,” he said. “I am
very hopeful that Pakistan would regain stability and equilibrium as the number
of active cases of Covid-19 is declining.”
Will Your
Spouse Be a Good Parent? There’s a Test for That
A five-minute test that involves two wannabe parents and a bag of rice
can make all the difference.
Sep 01 2020, 4:05 PM
As a nurse
hands a faceless sack of rice to an expectant dad,
researchers take detailed notes. Does he cradle it carefully and give one of
their little hands a gentle squeeze? Does he smile and let loose in some
high-pitched “baby talk”?
How do he and his partner
interact with the faceless sack? Do they argue about
whether they might be cold, or hungry? Do they seem like they’re on the same
page? Do they look at and coo into this “baby’s” face at the same time? That
is, do they coo into where a face would be, if the baby was an actual
infant and not some weird sack?
All told,
the note-taking session takes about five minutes. Months later, the
researchers met with the same couples. This time, however, the faceless sack
was gone, replaced by the couples’ new infant. As the
now-parents interacted with their baby, the researchers spent another five
minutes observing coos and couple dynamics and taking notes. While the sessions
were extremely short, the researchers — who were from Ohio State University
— concluded that, among other things, how dads
behaved with the stand-in infant (the faceless sack) accurately predicted how
they’d later behave with their real-life babies.
The test in
question was known as the Prenatal Lausanne Trilogue Play method (LTP),
and was developed by University of Lausanne professors Joelle Darwiche, Elisabeth Fivaz-Depeursinge, and
Antoinette Corboz-Warnery to assess the “family alliance” within the
father-mother-baby triad. Schoppe’s research echoed what these researchers
have previously noted in more than a decade of study — that parents’
interaction with a doll in this five-minute exercise is amazingly predictive of
parenting quality once their children are born.
The body of
research exploring the magnitude of the transition to parenthood is growing,
and particularly new is the research of what the transition is like for dads.
The LTP work, in part, has helped researchers highlight an important discovery:
the process of becoming parents actually begins during pregnancy.
Thanks for the
feedback!
In other
words, parents are mentally building the scaffolding for how they’ll parent
together long before the baby is born. Although behaviors described as
“intuitive” sound pretty fixed and unchangeable, researchers are also learning
that some of the indicators of positive parenting seen in these studies can, in
fact, be learned or molded. The focus now, the researchers say, is to use data
gleaned from the LTP to develop programs to make parents more confident and
competent parents.
Parenting
behavior is complex and hard to predict. Any single factor is at best only able
to explain a small amount of the differences between parents in their behavior.
Most attempts — by partners or experts alike — to predict what kind of parent
an individual will be are based on a lot of guesswork.
This is
why Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan,
a professor of psychology and director of the Children and Parents Lab at the
Ohio State University and Regina Kuersten-Hogan, at Assumption University in
Worcester, Massachusetts, are so interested in a test like LTP. Since the test
is only five minutes, it’s easy to tack onto other research she and her
colleagues were already conducting and to gain a more robust idea of what a
parent will be like.
“From my
standpoint as a researcher, the five-minute aspect is notable or interesting
just because it’s so short,” says study co-author Schloppe-Sullivan. “Like,
wow, we can take this small amount of behavior with a doll and predict behavior
regarding the interaction between a man and his kid a year later.”
Parents need
to work together. Their ability to do so — called “family alliance” by experts
— leads to good things for their kid. The way two parents are or are not able
to co-parent effectively is more important to children’s well-being than even
the relationship between the parents. “Coordinating while interacting and
conversing with children reduces confusion and promotes a sense of security,”
says Leela R. Magavi, MD, psychiatrist and regional medical director of
Community Psychiatry in Newport Beach, California. She adds that it may
also expedite children’s language development as it emphasizes certain sounds
and phrases in addition to associated facial expressions.
This isn’t
all that surprising, but it is important to know — and hard to predict.
Joelle
Darwiche’s more recent LTP studies, which combine two
elements: parents’ prenatal intuitive
behaviors, such as smiling at and talking directly to the baby
and expressing concern for the baby’s well-being, aim to do just
that. Studying first-time parents during their fifth month of pregnancy,
Darwiche and her co-authors evaluated parents’ intuitive behaviors toward the
doll while coordinating their interaction with each other, such as holding the
doll together and both parents talking to the doll at the same time.
“Previous
research had seen parents-to-be using high-pitched and rhythmic voice while
interacting with a doll or holding the puppet at dialogue distance in the LTP,” Darwiche
says. “We wanted to see if and how they coordinated their behaviors toward one
another to get involved with the doll, or ‘future baby.’”
There’s a
lot of variation in what that might look like. Some parents showed positive
prenatal parenting behaviors both interacting individually with the baby (such
as talking softly to the baby) and with the other parent (such as looking at
the baby together). Other parents did well on their own but were unable to
coordinate with the other parent. Still other parents weren’t able to show positive
parenting behaviors either individually or as a co-parent.
The
researchers also have seen evidence of gatekeeping — which can happen with any
gender-identifying parent but is more common among mothers — in these
experiments. Even if one parent is willing to engage with the baby and the
other parent at the same time, the other parent might reject the effort,
subconsciously or consciously, and shut out their partner. Some couples were
critical of each other, with one partner, for instance, telling the other that
they weren’t supporting the baby’s head properly.
There are
plenty of individualistic characteristics that are just as important as how
parents work together. When researchers talk about “high-quality”
parenting behaviors, they mean generally positive and supportive stuff such as
sensitivity and noticing and responding appropriately to babies’ signals. If
babies notice something in the environment, for example, you follow their gaze,
and maybe comment on it. Or if they look upset, you calm them down.
“We noted
‘positive regard,’ which is basically warmth,” Schoppe-Sullivan says. “Is dad
laughing, talking, and smiling with the child?”
They also
like to see an absence of detachment. “Detachment is when dad is checked out,
not responding to the child,” she says. “They’re not engaged, or maybe they’re
playing and so focused on the task, such as putting shapes together, that
they’re not really focused on the child.”
Of course,
warmth and sensitivity are also important to kids’ development.
“When the
infant is well held (in a seat or in the arms), he can use all his energy to
pay attention and to communicate,” says France Frascarolo-Moutinot, the retired
former head of research and professor of psychiatry at Lausanne University.
“One learns to communicate by practicing communication, not only by observing
people communicating. In this kind of dialogue with a baby, the adult is
mirroring the baby’s facial expressions and emotions, which [teaches the baby
how to regulate them].”
Schoppe-Sullivan
and study lead author, doctoral student Lauren Altenburger, also looked at
expectant fathers’ personality traits that were associated with lower-quality
parenting behaviors. Dads who were low on “conscientiousness” and low on
“openness to new experiences” tended to score lower on postpartum parenting
evaluations as well.
“Conscientious
is the extent to which you’re goal oriented,” Schoppe-Sullivan says. “The idea
is that, maybe you’re more in the mindset of what you need to do in order to be
a good parent. Conscientiousness is associated with better adjustment in
general. So it’s not entirely surprising.”
People who
are open to experiences are essentially open-minded and tend to be inventive
and imaginative. “So maybe you’re just open to parenthood, and have an easygoing
attitude like, whatever happens, happens,” she says.
At this
point, the LTP is just a research tool and not a test parents can take at
their OB-GYN’s office. But the researchers hope their findings could contribute
to the development of prenatal parenting education programs to help moms and
dads-to-be become more confident in their parenting ability and learn to work
together more effectively. Prenatal parenting classes and even groups for new
dads — in person or online — can help increase confidence about the basics as
well as comfort with the loving behaviors that help babies thrive.
“The
prenatal stage is still a time when one can act calmly, whereas after the
birth, there will be fatigue and stress, especially if it’s the birth of a
first child,” Darwiche says.
Ideally, it
would be helpful if men got more experience caring for or even being around
young children and infants before they ever become parents, Schoppe-Sullivan
adds.
“Anecdotally,
some men are really hesitant to interact with babies, so some sort of more
universal experience and guidance would go a long way,” she says.
She suspects
that for a lot of dads, it’s more a fear of doing something wrong than a lack
of desire or motivation.
“Some moms
pick up on that hesitation, and that leads them to wanting to take over,” she
says. “Increasing that confidence would be great, for both parents.”
Back to basics: How to make perfect rice
31 AUG 2020 - 11:05AM
·
It should be easy, but it's not... (Digital Vision / Getty Images)
Who knew there were so many ways to cook rice? Most
of them aren't correct, of course.
By
Bron Maxabella
28 AUG 2020 - 9:50 AM
UPDATED 31 AUG 2020 - 11:05 AM
For such a humble ingredient,
rice sure can stir the pot. There's a small cultural war happening across the
socials and everyone's mum knows how to make it 'the right way'.
It all started in the Facebook group Subtle Asian Traits,
where someone shared a video of Hersha Patel of BBC Food showing how to cook
rice. Cue social media pile-on, with one of the group members sharing the video
with Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng, aka Uncle Roger. Ng's YouTube response,
entitled "DISGUSTED by this Egg Fried Rice Video," quickly
went viral. More than 10 million views kind of viral.
"There are so many different
ways people swear by for cooking rice it should be obvious that it's actually a
very easy thing to cook."
"What she doing? Oh my god.
You're killing me, woman. Drain the - she's draining rice with a colander! How
can you drain rice with a colander? This is not pasta!" he exclaimed. He
then went on to list the many ways Patel was "ruining" the rice: she
hadn't washed it before cooking, she boiled it, she overcooked it, she used a,
gasp, colander.
Later, London-based
Asian-American celebrity Jenny Yang jokingly called Patel's method "a hate
crime".
Both Ng and Yang have since made friends with Patel (Ng and
Patel are said to be working on a collaboration), but it's fair to say that
people are very upset about rice.
World's
best: 10 rice dishes you need in your life
We've
rounded up some of our favourite rice recipes from around the globe.
#nopassportrequired
Ask the experts
To get to the bottom of things
(preferably without ruining the pan), we talked to a few rice-cooking experts
to finally decide the 'correct' method for cooking rice.
Adam Liaw - There's only one person
who could possibly diffuse this ticking time bomb: the affable Adam Liaw.
"There are so many different
ways people swear by for cooking rice it should be obvious that it's actually a
very easy thing to cook," he tells SBS Food. We're ready for all that
ease.
Winnie Chu - Chu is from Sha Tau
Kok in Hong Kong and emigrated to Australia in 1975 at age 20. She got a job as
a kitchen hand in a Chinese restaurant and within three months she became an
oil wok cook, a role she kept for over 40 years, becoming one of the best in
the Perth industry.
Debbie Tsang - Winne's daughter, owner
of The Creative Laser and
renowned home cook.
The SBS Food Facebook Group -
barring the fact that many of the group mentioned using the microwave to cook
their rice (hopefully Ng and Yang never hear about that), these guys had lots
of great tips - read on!
First, wash your rice
This is a step that everyone
agrees on: don't skip the rice rinse. Washing the rice before cooking removes
any random particles that may have found their way into the rice bag during
packing.
If you don't want your rice to
clump together, don't miss the washing step.
Just as importantly, rinsing
removes the surface starch on the rice grains. The more starch that remains on
the rice, the gummier the rice remains during cooking and the less fluffy the
end result will be.
So, if you don't want your rice
to clump together, don't miss the washing step. Some people like group
member Karen Yessaeian like to soak the rice for an hour or more, but
most prefer to simply rinse.
Here's the method Tsang
recommends for washing your rice:
·
Fully cover with
cold water and use your hand to swish the rice grains around to loosen up
starch.
·
Gently tip the bowl
over until the milky water runs out, leaving the rice grains behind.
·
Repeat a minimum two
washes until water is mostly clear - you're not aiming for completely clear, a
little remaining starch is a good thing.
Next, add the water
"Using a rice cooker is
easiest," Liaw says. "But basically cooking rice requires washed rice
to be boiled over high heat, and then leftover low heat to allow the grains to
absorb the water. The rice is then fluffed to allow excess water to
evaporate."
So, not exactly rocket science,
but still quite tricky to get right. The water-to-rice ratio is critical.
"Even the tried and true
"knuckle" method used by Asian families around the world provides
only an approximate ratio of rice to water," explains Liaw. "The
method is what makes it work."
The "knuckle" method
Liaw refers to is simply putting the amount of rice you want to cook into a
saucepan, flattening it with your palm, then placing your index finger on top
of the rice and filling with cold water up to the first knuckle.
It's a simple method but beware.
As Chu points out (possibly with humour, but possibly not), "if you are fat
with fat hands, less water may be needed than your knuckle."
It might be safest to use Neil
Shaba's tried-and-tested ratio. "Cover with boiling water which should be
about 1.5 cm above the rice level," he shared in the SBS Food Facebook
group. Incidentally, Shaba is the first person to mention boiling the water
first, with everyone else starting from cold.
Throw out your colander
Chu is also at great pains to
point out that if there is leftover water after you've cooked your rice, you've
cooked it wrong.
"At NO point should a
COLANDER be involved," she stressed, making sure that capital letters
would be printed in this article for necessary emphasis.
"At NO point should a
COLANDER be involved."
Tsang remembers watching
non-Asian friends' parents draining rice into a colander as a kid.
"I wondered why they stopped the cooking process to essentially eat
what we consider to be half-raw rice," she remembers. "It was a
horrific thing to see, but I didn't say anything as it would have been
rude."
"Over-cooked (or more likely
over-wet rice, as it's very hard to "overcook" rice) can be turned
into porridge," says Liaw.
How
to make congee while you sleep
Congee
is a breakfast food and using a slow cooker to let it bubble away overnight is
the perfect way to wake up to a meal without lifting a finger.
Brown
rice larb congee
A play on the traditional khao tom gung (rice congee),
Thailand's beloved king of breakfasts. Instead of white rice, we've used brown,
which does not break down completely, resulting in a satisfying congee with
grunt.
Chicken
congee (arroz caldo)
Filipino food is heavily
influenced by Chinese cuisine, yet all Filos consider arroz caldo part of the
national food culture. The cumquats in this version add a new dimension to a
delicately flavoured dish.
Rice-water ratio
Depending on the type of rice you
are cooking, you will need approximately 1:1.5 rice to water ratio. This isn't
at all set in stone, however. It's closer to 1:1.5 for long-grain basmati rice
and 1:6 for the softer long-grain jasmine or short-grain arborio rice.
Short-grain japonica requires less water at 1:1.2 and brown rice of any variety
will need more water, generally a ratio of 1:2 for brown basmati.
If that's not confusing enough,
Chu swears that even the same type of rice grown in different parts of the
world can be harder or softer and require more or less water in the cooking.
"I wondered why they
stopped the cooking process to essentially eat what we consider to be half-raw
rice."
"Thai rice is softer, Aussie
rice much harder," she says.
Until you've experimented to find
the right ratio for the quantity, type, and origin of the rice your want to
cook, it's better to err on the side of too little water than too much.
"I’ve found that it’s better
to start with less," says Tsang. "You can always add more water but
if you add too much, it’s a nightmare."
Or, as Ng explains in his YouTube
video: "If your rice is too wet, you f**ked up."
How
to cook the perfect rice, according to science
It's
texture not taste, that makes rice perfect.
Then, cook your rice
Bring the rice to the boil, lid
on. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer very gently for around 15 minutes.
"After about 15-20 minutes
you’ll start to hear this crackling sound from the pot," says Tsang.
"It means all the water is gone."
This is where you take the rice
off the heat, then the lid off your pot and check your rice. It should be just
a little moister than you want the finished product to be.
If it looks too dry, says SBS
Food Facebook group member Sarah Louise, add more water and simmer. If it looks
just right, pop the lid back on and leave it to sit for around five-10 minutes
before serving.
Tsang says that leaving the rice
to sit not only finishes off the cooking, but it also starts the washing up for
you. The steam generated by the closed pot ensures that every grain of rice
comes away from the bottom of the pot.
Leaving the rice to sit not only
finishes off the cooking, but it also starts the washing up for you.
If you need some inspiration for what to turn your perfectly
cooked rice into, Liaw says his favourite rice dish is Hainanese chicken rice. "My grandma always taught
me that when making chicken rice you should make double the quantity of rice
because it's so delicious people always eat a lot more than they usually
do." Double the quantity? Um... how many knuckles of water to rice is
that?
Finally, buy a rice cooker
The stovetop method is definitely
one to master, but it appears to be a truth universally acknowledged that if
you truly love your rice, you'll want to get a rice cooker.
"Don't mess with a saucepan
like this lady here," Ng says in his roasting video. He later mentions in
a follow-up Instagram video that "proper Asians use rice cooker".
Once you've got a rice cooker,
it's all easy from there. Wash your rice as above, then use the knuckle method
to measure your water, press 'play', then, as Ng says, "let the rice
cooker handle the cooking".
It does seem to be the least controversial
way and we know what we'll be doing come the weekend.
RICE AND PERFECT
Khichuri
(rice and lentils)
The beauty of this dish is in the
combination of the lentils and rice, which gives it a risotto-like consistency
and buttery flavour!
Ultimate
leftover fried rice
I love fried rice and you can
really pump it up with healthy vegetables when you make it at home. I've
used leftover cooked ham in this version, but you can really add whatever you
like to it.
Rice
with a golden crust (chelow ba tah digh)
Rice with a golden crust (‘tah digh’) is
one of the signature dishes of Persian cooking. It can have many different
ingredients, but I love the simplicity of this dish with the crimson of the
barberries against the gold of the crust, which makes any rice dish
special.
Rice
with chicken and lentils (adas polow)
Fragrant and bursting with flavour, this
polow is a great main meal and entertaining centrepiece.
Baked
kaffir lime & coconut rice pudding
To make this aromatic pudding extra special, you can ‘brûlée’
the top, just like the coconut and pandan version right here.
Spiced
rice pudding
If you're a fan of mousses and
silken puddings, you'll love this aromatic chilled dessert. It can be made
ahead of time, which is handy for entertaining.
Lemongrass
pork with rice paper salad
These sticky pork chops are super
quick and easy - all you need is some steamed rice or noodles to complete the
meal.
Yangzhou
fried rice
Yangzhou fried rice from Jiangsu Province is the most famous
variety of fried rice in China. Known for the fine knifework in cutting the
ingredients, it has been the model for “special fried rice” dishes found on
Chinese restaurant menus in the West. Destination Flavour China
Stir-fried
bamboo shoots and cured ham
Combined with Anhui’s famous bamboo shoots and a touch of wild
garlic and chilli for colour, this kind of simple stir-fry is a staple dish
around the region. Destination Flavour China
Bobó
de camarão (Brazilian prawn, cassava and rice)
Hailing from the Bahia region of northern Brazil, no celebration
would be complete without this comforting dish of prawns, cassava, coconut and
ghee. Food Safari Water
How Kenya can meet local demand
for rice
TUESDAY,
SEPTEMBER 1, 2020 2:45
Rice farmers.
FILE PHOTO | NMG
Rice is the third most consumed
staple in the country, yet we are not self-sufficient to meet our demand. With
a growing population and increase in per capita rice consumption, the
government and other policymakers have been left with only a few options to
meet future demand for rice; through increased imports and increased
productivity.
Our national rice consumption is
estimated at 500,000 metric tonnes a year. Despite this being a clear
indication of Kenyans uptake of rice as a principal food, our annual production
of 100,000 metric tonnes pales in comparison.
According to the National Rice
Development Strategy-2, 2019-2030, the annual consumption of rice in Kenya is
increasing at a rate of over 12 percent owing to the progressive change in
eating habits of Kenyans, especially in urban areas.
This, together with a annual
projected population growth rate of 2.7 percent, will mean that the estimated
annual national need for rice is expected to reach up to 1,290,000 tonnes by
2030.
Given that Food Security and
Nutrition is one of the pillars of the Big Four Agenda which our President is
steadfast to implement, increasing the productivity of rice shall form an
important component in this pillar. In addition to enhancing food security, it
should also alleviate poverty by raising farmer incomes and increase the
prospects of creating new jobs in the whole value chain from farm to fork.
Investment in the rice sector should therefore become a key priority in the
agriculture sector.
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talent
The largest rice irrigation
scheme in the country is the Mwea Rice Scheme which was started in 1956 during
the colonial times when a seed variety from India called the Basmati was
planted in the scheme and hence the birth of what is famously known as the
Kenya Pishori rice.
Over the years, the scheme has
expanded to 30,000 acres. The other rice schemes across the country are the
West Kano and Ahero (in Nyanza) and Bunyala. The much anticipated rice scheme
in the Tana river under Tarda was a failure from its onset.
So the key question is what has
been ailing this sector to scale up production?
The rice sector has always been
overseen by the National Irrigation Board (NIB) which falls under the Ministry
of Water. This is because of the provision of water under irrigation.
However, in essence the mandate
of seed production, varietal development, good farming practice and market
linkage should technically be the oversight of the Ministry of Agriculture.
This could possibly be one of the
primary reasons why we lost focus on prioritising rice as a strategic food
crop. The constant squabbles between the farmers and NIB in the late 1990s due
to the political interference of rice marketing in the scheme also created a
lethargy in the development of the sector.
To revive this sector, we need to
take a multipronged approach which revolves around agronomy and infrastructure
development, farmer financing and market linkages. Let us explore each one
separately.
Research into new seed
development shall remain crucial to ensure farmers get optimal productivity and
quality.
The choice of variety is based on
its agronomical performance and not economic reasons since varieties like the
Pishori when grown in the West Kano and Ahero have proven to be failures due to
its microclimate.
In addition, to ensure
efficiency, farmers should work in co-operatives and find ways of aggregating
their smaller pieces of land to farm commercially as large tracts which can
enable mechanisation.
Provision of farm extension
services to educate farmers on best farming practices including the appropriate
use of farm inputs such as fertiliser and pesticides shall also play a crucial
role in productivity.
Finally, there should be a
security of source of water for this irrigated crop to perform well. This means
that there should be adequate water source from dams and one should not rely on
just the river source which frequently get affected by rainfall patterns.
A case in point is how the delay
in building the Thiba dam which would serve the Mwea Rice Scheme has greatly
affected the growth of this scheme.
Provision of affordable finance
is very crucial for the security of the farmer income. Due to the lack of
access to this finance, farmers have the tendency of borrowing from shylocks
whose exorbitant finance costs makes it prohibitive for farmers to earn
anything for their hard work.
Abject poverty
Many farmers also find it more
attractive to lease out their pieces of land rather than farm for the same low
income expectation.
In addition to finance,
well-structured crop insurance can also protect the farmer from the vagaries of
weather and disease leading to crop failures which wipes out the farmer’s
income and sets them back into abject poverty.
There’s need to work in
co-operatives which will also improve the bargaining of farmers to purchase
farm inputs as well as obtaining finance from banks.
The adoption of the warehouse
receipting programme also ensures farmers obtain finance for their produce once
harvested in a formalised structure and have the flexibility of trading in
their produce at their free will when the timing and pricing is right.
The third component is market
linkages. Without a market for their produce at the right price, it is an
exercise in futility for the farmer.
https://thedailychronicle.in/news/538097/calrose-rice-market-size-and-forecasts-with-impact-analysis-of-covid-19-california-family-foods-american-commodity-company-farmers-rice-cooperative/
Climate change could increase
rice yields
Many
people around the globe rely on rice as a source of nutrition. Credit: Rachel
Schutte
Rice is the most consumed staple
food in the world. It is especially common in Asia, where hunger concerns are
prevalent.
Rice is classified as an annual
plant, which means it completes its life cycle within one growing season then
dies. However, in some tropical areas,
rice can continue to grow year after year when taken care of properly.
Just as grass grows back in a
lawn after it is mowed, rice can be cut after it is harvested, and the plant
will regrow. The farming practice of cutting the rice above ground and allowing
it to regrow is called ratooning.
Although Rice ratooning allows
farmers to harvest more rice from the same fields, it requires a longer growing
season compared to traditional single-harvest rice farming.
In many areas of the world where
rice is grown, a long growing season isn't a problem due to the tropical
climates. But in Japan, cooler weather means rice ratooning has been a rare
farming practice.
Hiroshi Nakano and a research
team set out to learn more about the potential of ratooning to help Japanese
rice farmers. Nakano is a researcher at the National Agriculture and Food
Research Organization.
Average temperatures in Japan
have been higher in recent years. As climate change continues to affect the
region, rice farmers may have a longer window for growing rice. "Rice
seedlings will be able to be transplanted earlier in the spring, and farmers
can harvest rice later into the year," explains Nakano.
Rice seeds are arranged on the plant in groups,
called spikelets. This field of rice is ready for harvest. Credit: Hiroshi
Nakano
"The goal of our research is
to determine the effects of harvest time and cutting height of the first harvest on the yield of the
first and second rice crops," says Nakano. "Ultimately, we want to
propose new farming strategies to increase yield as farmers in southwestern
Japan adjust to climate change."
During the study on rice
ratooning, researchers compared two harvest times and two cutting heights of
the first crop. After the first harvest, they collected the seeds from the cut
off portions of the rice plants.
Researchers measured the yield by counting and weighing the seeds. The second
harvest of rice was done by hand and the yield was determined in the same way.
The total grain yield and the
yields from the first and second crops were different depending on the harvest
times and cutting heights. This wasn't too surprising, since the team already
knew harvest time and height affected yield.
Rice plants harvested at the
normal time for the first crop yielded more seed than the rice plants harvested
earlier. "That's because the plants had more time to fill their spikelets
with seed," explains Nakano.
Comparison of the two cut heights of rice five days
after harvesting the first crop. Credit: Chiemi Nagamatsu
"At both harvest times, rice
harvested at the high cutting height had a higher yield than the low cutting
height," says Nakano. That's because the plants cut at a higher height had
access to more energy and nutrients stored in their leaves and stems.
"Our results suggest that
combining the normal harvest time
with the high cutting height is important for increasing yield in rice ratooning
in southwestern Japan and similar climate regions," says Nakano.
"This technology will likely increase rice grain yield in new environments that arise
through global climate change."
https://phys.org/news/2020-08-climate-rice-yields.html
Scientists unlock crops' power to resist floods
Tweaking proteins in staple foods
could help feed a warming world
IMAGE: CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF PCO4, HIGHLIGHTING KEY AMINO ACID RESIDUES,
THE IMPORTANCE OF WHICH WERE VERIFIED IN THE MODEL PLANT ARABIDOPSIS. (WT =
WILD TYPE, IE: PLANT IN WILD). view more
CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD/PNAS
Enzymes that control a plant's response to lower oxygen levels
could be manipulated to make vital crops resistant to the impacts of flooding
triggered by climate change, new research shows.
Co-author Dr Mark White in the School of Chemistry at the
University of Sydney said: "Climate change is a major global issue, not
least for its impact on food security. We hope these findings can help produce
flood-tolerant crops to help mitigate the devasting social and economic impact
of extreme weather events on food production."
The research, largely done at the University of Oxford, is
published today in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America.
Climate change has increased the number and intensity of global
flooding events, threatening food security through significant crop loss.
Plants, including staple crops such as rice, wheat and barley, can survive
temporary periods of flooding by activating energy pathways that don't rely on
air in response to the low oxygen conditions in water.
These responses are controlled by oxygen-sensing enzymes called
the Plant Cysteine Oxidases (PCOs), which use oxygen to regulate the stability
of proteins that control gene activity.
The research describes the molecular structures of the PCOs for
the first time, identifying chemical features that are required for enzyme
activity.
"The results provide a platform for future efforts to
manipulate the enzyme function in an attempt to create flood-resistant crops
that can mitigate the impact of extreme weather events," Dr White said.
###
Dr White joined the University of Sydney last year as an
Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award recipient. He
was previously a postdoctoral researcher at Novo Nordisk, Denmark, and worked
at the University of Oxford's Chemistry Research Laboratory with Dr Emily
Flashman, lead researcher on the Plant Cysteine Oxidases paper published today.
DOWNLOAD images of the research and a photo of Dr White at this link.
RESEARCH available upon request.
INTERVIEWS
Dr Mark White
ARC DECRA Research Fellow, School of Chemistry
The University of Sydney
mark.white@sydney.edu.au
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Marcus Strom | marcus.strom@sydney.edu.au |
+61 423 982 485
DECLARATION
This work was supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological
Research Council New Investigator Grant, the European Research Council and the
Italian Ministry of Education University and Research.
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy
of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the
use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-08/uos-suc082720.php
Builsa South: 250 Farmers Forced To Abandon
750-acre Rice Farms In Fumbisi Over Lack Of Chemicals
LISTEN AUG
31, 2020
About 300 hectares (750 acres) of
rice farms belonging to 250 farmers in the Fumbisi rice valley in the Builsa
South District of the Upper East Region have been abandoned for lack chemicals
to fight infection by weeds known as “wild rice”.
The few farmers still in the
valley are using traditional methods of farming to uproot the wild rice tillers
which is time-consuming and capital intensive to hire labourers to undertake
the exercise.
Many of the farmers, who
expressed their frustrations to the Ghanaian Times during a field visit to the
rice farms on Tuesday, stated that the government promised to provide them with
farm inputs in the farming season, which encouraged most of them to expand
their farms.
One of the farmers, Mr Moses
Agontu, who stated that the government had not done much to honour that pledge,
added that the weedicides for spraying the weeds that had attacked the rice
were very expensive and also difficult to come by.
Mr. Emmanuel Afoko, another
farmer who told the Ghanaian Times that the weeds had the potential of reducing
yields, appealed to the government to, as a matter of urgency, support the farmers
to deal with the infection to avoid food insecurity.
The Builsa South District
Director of Agriculture, Mr. Sylvan Dauda Danaa, reiterated the need for the
government and researchers to intervene with a lasting antidote to deal with
the wild rice infection in order for rice farmers to have the motivation to
grow more rice.
The Upper East Regional Director
of Agriculture, Mr. Francis Ennor, said the wild rice infection is causing a
lot of anxiety among rice farmers in the area and so assured farmers in general
of better agricultural interventions which would help increase crop and animal
production in the region.
There are rice fields totalling
850 hectares (2125 acres) fully developed in nine valleys in the Builsa South
District and each year, between 5.5 and 5.8 metric tons of rice is cultivated
in the valleys by 894 rice farmers, including out-growers, and their effort is
above the national rice cultivation.
It would be recollected that last
year there was huge rice glut in the rice valleys due to lack of ready market.
Other challenges confronting rice
farmers at the valleys are lack of motorable roads to the rice fields and
inadequate inputs such as fertilizers and seeds.
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1026460/builsa-south-250-farmers-forced-to-abandon-750.html
KKR to Sell its Epicor
Software to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice for $4.7 Billion; Target Price $40
CONTRIBUTOR
PUBLISHED
AUG 31, 2020 8:52AM EDT
KKR & Co Inc, an
American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset
classes, said it will sell its software business Epicor Software Corporation to
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in a $4.7 billion deal announced on Monday.
CD&R Operating Partner Jeff Hawn will
serve as Chairman of the Epicor Board upon close of the transaction, expected
later this year, the company said.
UBS Investment Bank is acting as financial
advisor and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP as legal advisor to CD&R. Barclays
is acting as lead financial advisor, BofA Securities and Jefferies LLC as
financial advisors, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP as legal advisor to
KKR and Epicor.
KKR shares closed 0.32% higher at $34.93 on
Friday, the stock is up about 20% so far this year.
Executive comments
“Four years ago, we embarked on an ambitious
product modernization journey together with Epicor and are incredibly proud of
the successes that the company has achieved to date, particularly with its
recent cloud releases,” remarked John Park, Chairman of the Epicor Board and
Head of Americas Technology Private Equity at KKR.
“We are confident that CD&R will provide
valuable support as the company continues these product- and customer- centric
investments to accelerate growth in the cloud.”
KKR stock forecast
Twelve analysts forecast the average price in
12 months at $39.96 with a high forecast of $47.50 and a low forecast of
$36.00. The average price target represents a 14.40% increase from the last
price of $34.93. From those 12 analysts, nine rated “Buy”, three rated “Hold”
and none rated “Sell”, according to Tipranks.
Morgan Stanley gave a target price of $37 with
a high of $63 under a bull-case scenario and $16 under the worst-case scenario.
KKR & Co Inc had its price objective boosted by stock analysts at Credit
Suisse Group to $38 from $34. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the
asset manager’s stock.
Other equity analysts also recently updated
their stock outlook. Oppenheimer lowered the price target to $39 from $40, BMO
raised their price objective to $46 from $44, Citigroup upped their price
forecast to $47.5 from $40, Wells Fargo increased their stock price target to
$43 from $40 and KBW raised it to $43 from $41. Bank of America upped their
target price to $40 from $36 and gave the stock a “buy” rating. At last, Keefe,
Bruyette & Woods upped their target price to $41 from $34.
We think it is good to buy at the current
level and target $40 as 50-day Moving Average and 100-200-day MACD Oscillator
signals a strong buying opportunity.
Analyst view
“While we see an attractive organic asset
growth trajectory, we also see a recessionary backdrop that raises the risk to
KKR’s fee-related earnings growth story if fundraising slows, transaction fees
stall, and costs don’t flex as performance fees and investment income decline,”
said Michael Cyprys, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.
“Recessionary backdrop raises the risk of
balance sheet marks and limited book value growth that could dampen prior ROE
generation of mid-teens to 20%+. C-corp structure (as of July 1, 2018 ) with no
K-1s should help expand the investor base over time,” he added.
Upside and Downside risks
Upside: 1) Faster deployment with greater opportunity
set. 2) Accelerated portfolio exit activity. 3) Stronger fundraising boosted by
seeding of new strategies. 4) Better balance sheet marks than feared –
highlighted Morgan Stanley.
Downside: 1) Deeper recession that leads to
weaker investment returns, balance sheet markdowns and delays harvesting of
investments pressuring earnings. 2) Increased political and regulatory scrutiny
of PE business model.
This article was
originally posted on FX Empire
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Potentially Bearish Closing Price Reversal Top
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Next Downside Target is .7275 – .7242
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The views and opinions expressed herein are
the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of
Nasdaq, Inc.
TRENDING TOPICS
Pakistan, China have potential to
boost agri sector cooperation: expert
SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
Sino-Pak agricultural cooperation is still in
the initial stage, with plenty of potential in technology, product processing,
trade and infrastructure construction, says a study by Zhang Wenli and Zhai
Xueling from Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of
China.
The
Chinese study published by Gwadar Pro on Monday stated that Agriculture is the
largest sector of Pakistan’s economy in terms of labor participation. Pakistan
has a trade surplus with China in agricultural products. The volume of
bilateral trade in this area has been growing strongly in recent years. From
$181 million in the year of 2010 to $476 million in 2019, China’s imports of
agricultural products from Pakistan had increased by 163.1%, with an average
annual growth rate of 11.3%. However, facing the challenges due to climate
change, pest attacks, water shortage, etc., Pakistan’s agriculture calls for
increased productivity.
According
to the study, the natural resource endowments between Pakistan and China are
mutually complementary, which lays a solid basis for expanding cooperation as
well as driving Pakistan’s agricultural progress through adopting advanced
technologies in the future. China has strengths in agricultural science and
technology, mechanization, water conservancy engineering, etc. In 2019, the
contribution rate of science and technology to China’s agricultural growth
recorded 59.2%, and the mechanization level of crop cultivation and harvest in
China exceeded 70%. Simultaneously, the innovation of seed industry has been
continuously promoted, and the coverage rate of improved seed varieties has
been greatly improved.
Pakistan
is rich in many agricultural production essentials like land and manpower. The
per capita cultivated land area in Pakistan is twice that of China.
Furthermore, Pakistan has a larger percentage of people in younger age groups
than China. Moreover, Pakistan’s increasingly improved investment environment,
regulations and laws are also appreciated.
Currently,
the yields of major crops in Pakistan such as wheat and rice are only about 50%
of those in China. Therefore, the two countries can improve trade on each
other’s high-quality seed, and strengthen joint research on seed variety
improvement of wheat, rice, oilseed, sugarcane, etc. Carrying out technical
exchanges on planting, pest control, livestock breeding management, drought and
flood disaster response is also necessary for lifting Pakistani agriculture’s
overall level of technology and management.
In
addition, water-use efficiency in Pakistan is relatively low. The two sides
should enhance bilateral cooperation on water conservancy system, and drip
irrigation technology and equipment. It’s mentioned in the study that
Pakistan’s prospect for developing labor-intensive agricultural products
processing industry is bright. In this respect, future cooperation can mainly
focus on the primary processing of agricultural products such as grain,
livestock products and vegetables to make diversified supply of products.
The
study also points out several barriers hindering Pak-Sino agricultural
cooperation. The researchers suggest infrastructure of electricity, water and
transportation be transformed or constructed. As China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC) develops, infrastructure and logistics in Pakistan will be
significantly improved, which will give a new impetus to the bilateral trade in
agriculture sector.
Flood: Kebbi
Governor visits more rice farms submerged by water in 4 LGAs
The Kebbi State Governor,
Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu for a second day on visitation to towns and
villages affected by flood, visited Suru, Bunza, Kalgo and Birnin Kebbi local
government areas to ascertain the level of damaged.
Governor Bagudu who visited the
areas, was accompanied by the Chairmen of the affected of Local Governments.
A rice farmer, Suleiman Bashir in
Makera farm land, who stood helplessly and watched his rice farmland submerged
in water begged the state and federal government to come to their aid to reduce
their suffering.
According to him, ” I don’t know
even what to do, I have two large rice farms completely submerged by the flood.
We are begging the state and federal governments to assist us , I am sure God
will not let our prayers go in vain”.
Governor Bagudu who assured the
farmers government prompt intervention, said: ” things like this happen, we are
not unique in the world , it is regrettable. We have seen in the hurricane
laura and other hurricanes similar and other worst problems.
” We are responding to disasters
and supporting each other, and i believe the Federal Government of Nigeria, the
CBN and other associations will respond to this effectively and timely too.”
Earlier , Governor Bagudu made a
stop over at Government Girls Secondary School, Bunza and Command Science
Secondary Girls School, Goru in Birnin Kebbi local Government area to see the
ongoing construction of building infrastructure in the schools.
At GGSS Bunza , Governor Bagudu
inspected a building damaged by the rainstorm in the school and advised the
final year students to remain focussed, read their books and also pray for
their parents.
He also demanded to know from the
students if they were being well fed which they all acknowledged in a large
voice.
The Principal of the school,
Hajiya Kulu Yusuf expressed gratitude to the governor for the visit.
U.S.
Rice is a "Star" in Turkey
By Sarah Moran
KUTAHYA, TURKEY -- Local U.S. rice brand, Star, has been the
focus of several USA Rice promotional activities here this month, letting
consumers know where to find U.S.-origin rice on store shelves in the area.
"U.S. rice sales to Turkey suffered in the
past two years because of the 25 percent retaliatory tariff imposed on all
types of U.S. rice in June 2018," said Eszter Somogyi, USA Rice director
for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. "However, that changed
dramatically in May 2020 with a shipment of 26,000 MT of U.S. rough rice, purchased
by the Turkish Grain Board (TMO) following a successful reverse trade mission
organized by USA Rice (see USA
Rice Daily, May 19, 2020)."
The TMO released about 13,000 MT of this
shipment in early June for purchase by mills and traders. One local
company, Kübas, was already on board to buy and pack U.S. rice after visiting
the USA Rice booth at the World Food Fair in Istanbul last year. And, now
that U.S. rice is readily available, Kübas has begun marketing Star, their
identified U.S. rice brand, at the 43 Sultan Supermarkets they own throughout
the country.
"Kübas contributed 30 percent of the
promotional costs to produce branded shopping bags and rice cups attached to
rice bags as giveaways during in-store promotions in four different
supermarkets this month," said Somogyi.
Mehmet Faik Mete, the Kübas purchasing and
marketing manager, reported that Star rice sold out during the promotion, with
total overall sales of 15 MT. Encouraged by this success, Kübas plans to
continue to purchase and pack U.S.-origin rice and will begin selling Star rice
on Turkey's popular online shopping platforms including N11, Hepsiburada, and
Trendyol.
USA Rice plans to conduct similar promotional
activities with several other packers in Turkey to strengthen demand for identified
U.S. rice here.
Pesticide-free crop protection yields up to US$
20 billion/year benefits in Asia-Pacific
IMAGE: The total number of country-level introductions and
first regional deployments of a given biological control agent is depicted for
successive decades, over a 1918-2018 window. For instance, BIOCAT contained
two...
Image:
Nature Ecology & Evolution
Scientists have estimated for the
first time how nature-based solutions for agricultural pest control deliver US$
14.6 to US$ 19.5 billion annually across 23 countries in the Asia-Pacific
region.
The new research, published in
the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution,
suggests that non-chemical crop protection (or biological control) delivers
economic dividends that far surpass those attained through improved "Green
Revolution" rice germplasm (estimated at US$ 4.3 billion a year).
The study, led by Dr Kris
Wyckhuys and including contributions from CABI's Dr Matthew Cock and Dr Frances
Williams on the data collection, unveils the magnitude and macro-economic
relevance of biodiversity-based contributions to productivity growth in
non-rice crops over a 100-year period between 1918 and 2018.
Scientifically-guided biological
control of 43 exotic invertebrate pests allowed for between 73% to 100% yield
loss recovery in critical food, feed and fibre crops including banana,
breadfruit, cassava and coconut.
Dr Wyckhuys said, "The Green
Revolution is credited with alleviating famine, mitigating poverty and driving
aggregate economic growth since the 1960s - enabled through a tripling of rice
output. Cornerstone of the Green Revolution were the 'packaged' seed x
agro-chemical technologies and biological innovations such as high-yielding,
disease-resistant cereal varieties.
"Our research is the first
to gauge the financial benefit of using biological control to fight crop pests
in the Asia-Pacific region and demonstrates how these ecologically-based
approaches promoted rural growth and prosperity in marginal, poorly-endowed,
non-rice environments.
"By thus placing
agro-ecological innovations on equal footing with input-intensive measures, our
work provides lessons for future efforts to mitigate invasive species, restore
ecological resilience and sustainably raise output of global agri-food
systems."
The scientists, who show how 75
different biological control agents mitigated 43 pests over a 100-year range,
outline how biodiversity-driven ecosystem services underpin food systems and
societal wellbeing in the face of environmental change.
Co-author Dr Michael Furlong
added, "Biological control delivered durable pest control in myriad
Asia-Pacific agriculture sectors, permitting yield-loss recoveries up to 73%,
81% and 100% in cassava, banana and coconut crops respectively.
"The ensuing economic
dividends are substantial, as pest-induced losses up to US $6.8, $4.3 and $8.2
billion annually for the above crops were offset (at respective
values of $5.4-6.8 billion, $1.4-2.2 billion and $3.8-5.5 billion/year, for a
conservative to high impact scenario range). As many of the underlying programs
were run on a shoestring, the rate of return on biological control science is
extraordinary.
"Our work constitutes an
empirical demonstration of how insect biological control helped solidify the
agrarian foundation of several Asia-Pacific economies and - in doing so -
places biological control on an equal footing with other biological innovations
such as Green Revolution germplasm.
"Not only does it spotlight its transformative impacts -
especially in light of increasing global reliance on chemical pesticides - but
it also celebrates the century-long achievements of dedicated, yet often,
unacclaimed insect explorers and biological control pioneers."
CABI
18500 Mt Cmr Rice Outstanding On Seven Rice
Mills
BY ABIGALE LORMEN
ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
* Yearly subscription
for simply ₹ 249 + Free Coupon value ₹ 200
Rice millers haven’t been capable
of return your complete CMR rice to the Food and Civil Supplies Department even
within the postponement. Seven rice mills of Karnal are left with 18500 metric
tonnes of rice until the final day on Monday. Now the division is getting ready
to register an FIR in opposition to the operator and guarantor of two rice
millers for embezzlement. Also, the method of auctioning the property of the
opposite 5 rice mills will likely be hooked up and began. However, the Rice
Millers are hopeful that the division will give them some extra time for the third
time.
313 rice mills in Karnal district, by means of the Government of Haryana, took
the paddy of the Central Government, which needed to return 67 p.c of the rice
by 30 June. Due to the Corona disaster, rice millers of Karnal got time until
July 15 however by July 15, 108 rice mills had 116580 metric tonnes of rice
excellent. On this, the division began taking motion by verification, then on
the request of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, the central authorities
gave rice millers until 31 August for the second time. About 98.50 p.c of the
rice was provided throughout this era, however until the final day, 18500
metric tonnes of rice is left on seven rice millers. Of this, 6332 metric
tonnes of paddy was given to Modiram and Sons of Karnal, 67 per cent of which
was to provide 4242 metric tonnes of rice, out of which the mill has given
solely 2821 metric tonnes of rice until 31 August, with 1421 metric tonnes of
rice excellent now. The division has ready to register an FIR in opposition to
the proprietor of the mill, Saphattar Singh Rana, his brother Puran Singh,
guarantor Shakti Singh Rana. Similarly, 509 MT rice has been given to Bharat
Rice Mill of Kunjpura, whereas 889 MT rice is left on them. It has companions
Sanjay Gupta, Gaurav, Arvind Kumar and Vijay Kumar, sons of Subhash Chandra
Gupta. There can be a plan to file an FIR in opposition to them. In addition,
three rice mills of Gharauda have excellent CMR rice. Of this, 46980 quintals
on Jai Hanuman Rice and General Mills, 49450 quintals on SSG Foods, 14500
quintals of rice are left excellent on the junction business. Apart from this,
27750 quintals on Shanti Agro Foods in two rice mills of Neelokheri, 10150
quintals of rice are excellent on Evergreen Overseas. The property of those 5
rice mills have already been hooked up by the division. In which the division
can take motion by auctioning the hooked up property to recuperate the value of
excellent rice. This has brought about panic within the rice millers.
Till the 31 August restrict, 18.50 thousand metric tons of CMR rice has
remained excellent on seven rice mills. In this, an FIR will likely be lodged
in opposition to Modiram & Sons of Karnal and Bharat Rice Mill of Kunjpura.
The worth of rice will even be recovered. Apart from this, the property of
three rice mills of Gharauda and two rice mills of Neelokheri is already hooked
up with the division, the public sale will likely be began quickly to
recuperate the value of rice.
Nishant Rathi, District Food and Civil Supplies Controller, Karnal.
The meals and provides division can be understanding the issues of rice
millers, has given a lot of the rice. There are some dues on some rice mills.
For this, efforts are being made that the federal government give some extra
time. The division has additionally really helpful the central authorities for
this. Hopefully, the central authorities will get some extra time. As time goes
on, rice mills which can be unable to ship rice is not going to be processed
and the federal government will even get rice.
Vinod Goyal, Senior Deputy Head – Haryana Rice Millers Association.
Rice millers haven’t been capable
of return your complete CMR rice to the Food and Civil Supplies Department even
within the postponement. Seven rice mills of Karnal are left with 18500 metric
tonnes of rice until the final day on Monday. Now the division is getting ready
to register an FIR in opposition to the operator and guarantor of two rice
millers for embezzlement. Also, the method of auctioning the property of the
opposite 5 rice mills will likely be hooked up and began. However, the Rice
Millers are hopeful that the division will give them some extra time for the
third time.
313 rice mills in Karnal district,
by means of the Government of Haryana, took the paddy of the Central Government,
which needed to return 67 p.c of the rice by 30 June. Due to the Corona
disaster, rice millers of Karnal got time until July 15 however by July 15, 108
rice mills had 116580 metric tonnes of rice excellent. On this, the division
began taking motion by verification, then on the request of the Food and Civil
Supplies Department, the central authorities gave rice millers until 31 August
for the second time. About 98.50 p.c of the rice was provided throughout this
era, however until the final day, 18500 metric tonnes of rice is left on seven
rice millers. Of this, 6332 metric tonnes of paddy was given to Modiram and
Sons of Karnal, 67 per cent of which was to provide 4242 metric tonnes of rice,
out of which the mill has given solely 2821 metric tonnes of rice until 31
August, with 1421 metric tonnes of rice excellent now. The division has ready
to register an FIR in opposition to the proprietor of the mill, Saphattar Singh
Rana, his brother Puran Singh, guarantor Shakti Singh Rana. Similarly, 509 MT
rice has been given to Bharat Rice Mill of Kunjpura, whereas 889 MT rice is
left on them. It has companions Sanjay Gupta, Gaurav, Arvind Kumar and Vijay
Kumar, sons of Subhash Chandra Gupta. There can be a plan to register an FIR in
opposition to them. In addition, three rice mills of Gharauda have excellent
CMR rice. Of this, 46980 quintals on Jai Hanuman Rice and General Mills, 49450
quintals on SSG Foods, 14500 quintals of rice are left excellent on the
junction business. Apart from this, 27750 quintals on Shanti Agro Foods in two
rice mills of Neelokheri, 10150 quintals of rice are excellent on Evergreen
Overseas. The properties of those 5 rice mills have already been hooked up by
the division. In which the division can take motion by auctioning the hooked up
property to recuperate the value of excellent rice. This has brought about
panic within the rice millers.
Till the 31 August restrict, 18.50 thousand metric tons of CMR rice has
remained excellent on seven rice mills. In this, an FIR will likely be lodged
in opposition to Modiram & Sons of Karnal and Bharat Rice Mill of Kunjpura.
The worth of rice will even be recovered. Apart from this, the property of
three rice mills of Gharauda and two rice mills of Neelokheri is already hooked
up with the division, the public sale will likely be began quickly to
recuperate the value of rice. Nishant Rathi, District Food and Civil Supplies
Controller, Karnal.
The meals and provides division can be understanding the issues of rice
millers, has given a lot of the rice. There are some dues on some rice mills.
For this, efforts are being made that the federal government give some extra
time. The division has additionally really helpful the central authorities for
this. Hopefully, the central authorities will get some extra time. As time goes
on, rice mills which can be unable to supply rice is not going to be processed
and the federal government will even get rice.
Vinod Goyal, Senior Deputy Head – Haryana Rice Millers Association.
https://ourbitcoinnews.com/18500-mt-cmr-rice-outstanding-on-seven-rice-mills/
Pak Army
continues relief and rescue efforts in flood hit areas of Karachi
Published On 30 August,2020 11:56
pm
Army mobile recovery vehicles have been deployed at
various points to shift vehicles stuck in flood
KARACHI (Dunya News) – Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy are
continuing relief and rescue efforts in flood hit areas of Karachi.
Pakistan Army engineers today cleared Karachi Port Trust, Civic
Centre, Mohsin Bhopali and Golimar underpass for traffic, while work on Gizri
underpass is in progress.
Besides, dewatering at multiple locations is continuing to
ensure availability of civic facilities in the flood hit areas of the city.
Army mobile recovery vehicles have been deployed at various
points to shift vehicles stuck in flood to ensure flow of traffic.
PAF distributes ration
Meanwhile, keeping the tradition of serving the nation during
natural calamities, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) came to the succor of rain
affected families of Karachi.
On the special instructions of Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar
Khan, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force, PAF Bases situated in Karachi
are actively participating in relief operations in the rain affected areas,
said the statement released here on Sunday.
Pakistan Air Force besides actively participating in relief
efforts in flood like situation in some parts of the city, is also reaching out
to the needy families whose houses have been inundated in the natural calamity.
As a humanitarian gesture, ration packs carrying basic food
items and commodities such as flour, rice, sugar, oil, pulses etc. were
distributed amongst over 1000 needy families of the worst hit areas in the
recent torrential rains.
In the first phase ration packs were delivered in various low
lying areas in the vicinity of PAF Base Faisal and PAF Base Masroor, including
Grex, Masroor Colony, Budhni Goth, Haji Muhammad Goth, Musharraf Colony, Bilal
Colony, Shah Faisal Colony and Al-Falah Society, it further said.
Medical camps
On Friday, the Pakistan Army is carrying out relief activities
throughout the city. It has set up 32 medical camps at various points along
with the civil administration.
Besides 56 relief camps for the affected people, three Army
mobile hospitals have been set up in Surjani Town, Qayyumabad and Saadi Town.
Drainage work has been done at 9 different places in Karachi and
Army troops are evacuating the victims to safety. A 50-bed hospital has also
been set up in Surjani Town to provide medical aid to those affected by the
rains. Moreover, Pakistan Army relief operations are also underway in
Hyderabad, Badin and Dadu.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is
engaged in relief work in rain-affected areas in Karachi. According to the NDMA
spokesperson, the Pakistan Army is carrying out drainage and rehabilitation
operations in collaboration with the civil administration.
He said that food, drinking water and other necessities were
being provided to the people affected by the rains while 56 welfare centers
have been set up in this regard.
The spokesman said that NDMA has handed over 3,000 tents to the
Sindh government for the rehabilitation of rain-affected people.
Roads situation in Karachi
The flow of traffic on main roads in Karachi have been badly
affected by the recent spell of the rain as long queues can be witnessed on Jam
Sadiq Bridge, Korangi Industrial Area and KPT Interchange due to closure of
Causeway.
Protest against K-Electric
The local administration has failed to repair the K-Electric
system, creating problems for the residents who blocked main road of Clifton 8
and demanded to immediately restore the power.
The authorities told that underground wires in Defence Housing Authority (DHA)
and Clifton are still wet.
Urban flooding
Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued urban flooding
alert as seventh spell of monsoon rains hit the already inundated Sindh.
In a press release, the Met office informed that another monsoon
rain-bearing system has entered the province which could aggravate existing
urban flooding and waterlogging in lower Sindh.
Rain/wind-thundershowers, with isolated heavy to very heavy
falls, are expected in Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Badin, Shaheed Benazirabad,
Dadu, Tharparker, Nagarparker, Mirpurkhas, Islam Kot, Umar Kot, Sanghar, Sukkur
and Larkana.
Rain-thundershowers with isolated heavy falls are also predicted
in Lasbella, Khuzdar, Awaran, Barkhan, Zhob, Musa Khel, Loralai, Kohlu and
Sibbi during Sunday and Monday. The downpours are also expected in Bahawalpur,
Rahim Yar Khan, Khanpur, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Khanewal and
Sahiwal during the period.
On the other hand, heavy to very heavy falls are also expected
in Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Mandi Bahauddin, Hafizabad, Gujranwala,
Sialkot, Narowal, Lahore, Kasur, Okara, Faisalabad, Jhang, Sargodha, Mianwali,
Khushab, Toba Tek Singh from Monday to Wednesday. Heavy falls may also likely
in Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur, Khanewal, Zhob and Barkhan.
The downpours are also predicted in Dir, Swat, Buner, Shangla,
Kohistan, Haripur, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Peshawar, Charsadda, Swabi, Mardan,
Kohat and Kurram from Monday to Wednesday.
This coconut rice with salmon and cilantro sauce deserves a spot
in your regular recipe rotation
By Ann Maloney
Food reporter and editor
focusing on quick and easy home cooking
(Tom McCorkle for The Washington Post; food styling by
Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post)
Coconut Rice With Salmon and
Cilantro Sauce
Total: 40 mins
Servings: 4
Print
One of the most gratifying
experiences I can have as a food writer occurs when readers send an email to
tell me that a dish I’ve shared in Dinner in Minutes is
now part of their regular recipe rotation. I do a little happy dance in my desk
chair.
Inevitably, that recipe already is
on repeat in my own kitchen because it comes together quickly and is delicious,
but also has that little something extra — a surprisingly bold flavor, a touch
of elegance or a sauce or component that I find myself carrying over to other
dishes.
[As a milk, a water or simply shredded,
coconut adds joy to these 5 recipes]
People who love to cook inevitably
talk about food — a lot. If we make something delicious, we have to tell
someone about it, to bring them a taste or at least share the recipe.
So, it wasn’t surprising that right
after I started at The Post in December, my new colleague Olga Massov shared
a recipe with me that she frequently served to her family: Coconut Rice With
Salmon and Cilantro Sauce from “The Kitchen Shelf” by Rosie Reynolds and Eve
O’Sullivan (Phaidon, 2016).
Scale and get a printer-friendly version of the recipe here.
Olga lent me the cookbook, and as I
read through the recipe, I thought this little number checks all the boxes.
Yes, it has three parts: the rice, the fish and the sauce, but each of those
parts is easily executed.
The cookbook’s full title includes
this phrase: “Take a few pantry essentials, add two ingredients and make
everyday eating extraordinary.” The idea is that you use common pantry
ingredients with just a couple of fresh additions — in this case cilantro and
fish — and you can put a scrumptious meal on the table.
Although it was written four years
ago, the cookbook fits in perfectly with the way we are cooking during the pandemic — from our pantries,
with minimal extra shopping.
[Help dinner go swimmingly with these 8
salmon recipes]
The cookbook authors offer
time-saving tips. For example, in this recipe, they suggest two ways to cook
the salmon. The faster and easier way is to steam the fillets atop the rice as
it cooks. If, however, you prefer a crispy salmon skin, you can allow the rice
to cook on its own and pan-fry your salmon.
For me, however, the salmon is the
least interesting thing here.
The rice cooked with softened
onion, garlic and a pinch of sugar in full-fat coconut milk is creamy and
divine on its own. The cilantro sauce — a whole bunch of the herb leaves
whirred in a food processor with a syrup made of water, sugar and crushed red
pepper flakes — goes over the rice, but I could just eat that up with a
spoon.
When I realized that I have now
made this dish several times and have made the rice and cilantro sauce to go
with other kinds of fish, broiled shrimp and pan-fried skirt steak, I knew it
was time to share it with you, too.
Great Potential Lies In Pak-China Agri Cooperation: Study
A latest study done by Zhang Wenli
and Zhai Xueling from Research Center for Rural Economy, Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Affairs of China, says that Pak-China agricultural cooperation is
still in the initial stage, with plenty of potential in technology, product
processing, trade and infrastructure construction
BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint /
Pakistan Point News - 31st Aug, 2020 ) :A latest study done by Zhang Wenli and
Zhai Xueling from Research
Center for Rural Economy, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
of China,
says that Pak-China agricultural cooperation is still in the initial stage,
with plenty of potential in technology, product processing,
trade and infrastructure construction.
Agriculture is the largest sector
of Pakistan's
economy in terms of labor participation, according to a report published
by China Economic
Net (CEN) on Monday.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has a trade surplus
with China in
agricultural products. The volume of bilateral trade in this area has been
growing strongly in recent years. From US $ 181 million in the year of 2010 to
US $ 476 million in 2019, China's imports of agricultural
products from Pakistan had increased by
163.1 per cent, with an average annual growth rate of 11.3 per cent.
However, facing challenges due to
climate change, pest attacks, water shortage, etc., Pakistan's agriculture calls for
increased productivity.
According to the study, the natural
resource endowments between Pakistan and China are mutually complementary,
which lays a solid basis for expanding cooperation as well as driving Pakistan's agricultural progress through adopting
advanced technologies in the future.
China has strengths in agricultural
science and technology, mechanization, water conservancy engineering,
etc.
In 2019, the contribution rate of
science and technology to China's agricultural growth
recorded as 59.2 per cent, and the mechanization level of crop cultivation and
harvest in China exceeded
70 per cent.
Simultaneously, the innovation of
seed industry has
been continuously promoted, and the coverage rate of improved seed varieties
has been greatly improved.
Pakistan is rich in many
agricultural production essentials like land and manpower. The per capita
cultivated land area in Pakistan is twice that
of China.
Furthermore, Pakistan has a larger
percentage of people in younger age groups than China. Moreover, Pakistan's increasingly improved
investment environment, regulations and laws are also appreciated.
Currently, the yields of major
crops in Pakistan such
as wheat and
rice are only about 50 per cent of those in China. Therefore, the two countries
can improve trade on each other's high-quality seed, and strengthen joint
research on seed variety improvement of wheat, rice, oilseed, sugarcane,
etc.
Carrying out technical exchanges on
planting, pest control, livestock breeding management, drought and flood disaster response is
also necessary for lifting Pakistani agriculture's overall level
of technology and
management.
In addition, water-use efficiency
in Pakistan is
relatively low. The two sides should enhance bilateral cooperation on water conservancy system, and
drip irrigation technology and equipment.
It's mentioned in the study
that Pakistan's
prospect for developing labor-intensive agricultural products processing industry is bright. In this
respect, future cooperation can mainly focus on the Primary processing of
agricultural products such as grain, livestock products and vegetables to make
diversified supply of products.
The study also points out several
barriers hindering Pak-Sino agricultural cooperation. The researchers suggest
infrastructure of electricity, water and transportation be
transformed or constructed.
As China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
(CPEC)
develops, infrastructure and logistics in Pakistan will be significantly
improved, which will give a new impetus to the bilateral trade in agriculture sector.
Recent COVID-19 pandemic poses
extraordinary challenges for almost all sectors of the economy
of Pakistan.
Need for maintaining food security and livelihoods
has also gained more importance. Pakistan and China are all-weather strategic
cooperative partners with time-honored friendship.
By deepening agricultural
cooperation with China, productivity of major crops
in Pakistan will
be lifted to safeguard domestic food supply, and the whole sector will make
steady progress fueled
by high-techs.
Related Topics
https://www.urdupoint.com/en/agriculture/great-potential-lies-in-pak-china-agri-cooper-1016208.html
REAP seeks zero-rated status for rice exports
Minister for food security urges private sector to provide
quality agricultural inputs
Our CorrespondentSeptember 02, 2020
PHOTO: REUTERS
LAHORE:
Around one million small-scale farmers will
adopt climate-smart sustainable agricultural practices across the globe by the
year 2023, said Sustainable Rice Platform Executive Director Wyn Ellis.
Speaking at a webinar organised by the
Pakistan Basmati Heritage Foundation, Ellis highlighted the impact and gave
details of the adoption rate of sustainable rice production standards.
Federal Minister for National Food Security
and Research Fakhar Imam, who was present on the occasion, called upon the
private sector to come forward to provide quality agricultural inputs and
promote mechanisation through the service provider model.
“We need to focus on human resources, capital
and the quality of equipment,” he emphasised.
According to the minister, crop yield was the
biggest challenge being faced by Pakistan and the country needed to enhance
productivity as well as evaluate and assess how its research institutions were
working at national, provincial, district and field levels.
He called for building an inherent seed system
and adopting technological advancements through digitally integrated mechanised
farming.
The minister informed the webinar participants
that efforts were under way to ensure the supply of quality seeds, especially
hybrid seeds in collaboration with China.
Citing an example of the impact of
collaboration, he pointed to the production of green super rice. He also
underlined the importance of organic farming and its trends in global markets.
Imam assured the participants of capacity
building of the seed regulating bodies and the plant breeder rights registry
for strengthening the seed sector.
Sustainable Development Policy Institute
Executive Director Abid Qaiyum Suleri highlighted the work of stakeholders
related to warehouses. His arguments focused on agro-climatic zoning,
allocation of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s Special Economic Zones for
agriculture and digitisation.
Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC)
Chairman Dr Azeem Khan revealed that although rice yield had increased 30% in
the past 40 years, still the gap between actual and potential yield was more
than 50%.
Khan shared details of the productivity
enhancement project introduced under the prime minister’s emergency scheme
worth Rs15.8 billion.
Pakistan Basmati Heritage Foundation Convener
Shahid Tarer talked about the goal of his organisation to promote sustainable
rice production and preserve Basmati heritage by taking major stakeholders
onboard.
Former PARC chairman Dr Yousaf Zafar called
for strengthening the indigenous research and development work on rice and
better utilisation of the Export Development Fund (EDF).
“We need to strengthen domestic research and
development of rice (Basmati, non-aromatic long grain and non-basmati) for
fundamental and primary contribution to progress,” he added.
Zafar underlined the need for producing more
food including rice, water and agrochemicals in the midst of a challenging
scenario where resources were scarce along with climate change and other risk
factors.
Agri Extension and Adaptive Research
Director-General Dr Anjum Ali Buttar gave details of the National Programme for
Enhancing Profitability through Increasing Productivity of Rice, which was
being undertaken in 15 rice-producing districts of Punjab.
He stressed the need for providing subsidy on
fertiliser, rice transplanters, certified seeds and specialised rice harvesters
along with interest-free loans.
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP)
Chairman Shahjahan Malik requested the government to grant rice exporters the
zero-rated status in a bid to help them achieve the export target of $5 billion
by 2025.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2262093/reap-seeks-zero-rated-status-for-rice-exports
Rice
Prices
as on : 01-09-2020 01:50:00 PM
Arrivals
in tonnes;prices in Rs/quintal in domestic market.
|
Arrivals |
Price |
|||||
|
Current |
% |
Season |
Modal |
Prev. |
Prev.Yr |
|
|
Rice |
||||||
|
Mandya(Kar) |
262.00 |
-68.4 |
8025.00 |
2400 |
2300 |
|
:https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/rice-prices/article32494456.ece+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk
