Friday, July 31, 2020

Rice News-Market Research Reports March 2018-2




 

From Almonds To Rice, Climate Change Could Slash California Crop Yields By 2050

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March 2, 201810:54 AM ET

EZRA DAVID ROMERO

FROM

Walnut trees at a farm in Byron, Calif. An analysis of nearly 90 studies finds warming temperatures may alter where key crops grow across the state, which provides around two-thirds of America's produce.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Climate change could decrease the yield of some crops in California by up to 40 percent by 2050. That's a big deal for farmers in the state, which provides about two-thirds of the nation's produce.

California farmers grow more than 400 commodity crops. Tapan Pathak, a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist based in California's Central Valley, and his research team analyzed 89 studies on climate change and discovered that warming temperatures may alter where crops grow across the state. Their findings were published in the journal Agronomy.

"In order to make California agriculture more sustainable, we have to act now," Pathak says.

As the climate continues to change and drought and heat waves become more frequent, Pathak says the challenges agriculture will face are going to intensify. He's referring to things like how the lack of cold temperatures will impact trees that need a certain number of chill-hours, or sleep each year, as well as increased impacts from pests and diseases.

"That could adversely impact yields and production for some highly valued crops in California," Pathak says. The study reports "several fruit and nut crops are losing yield and decreasing in acreage . . . as a direct consequence of increased winter and nighttime temperatures."

The study also points out that climatic conditions — warming temperatures and a shrinking snowpack — by the end of the 21st century may make it difficult for the state to even support some of its main tree crops. The study suggests that by the middle of the century, California's Central Valley won't be able to support crops like peaches, walnuts and apricots. That number jumps to 90 percent by the end of the century. Almonds, avocados, cherries, table grapes, corn, tomatoes, rice, strawberries and others are expected to suffer crop yields as well.

Walnuts would be the hardest-hit crop because they "require the highest number of chill hours, implying a future decline in walnut acreage within the valley," the authors report. Nearly 99 percent of the nation's supply of the crop originate from California and support around three-quarters of the global supply of the nut.

But Pathak says crops planted yearly, like alfalfa, could yield more as temperatures increase. The study also says wine grapes will see small declines in yield.

What can be done now to mitigate this?

The study's authors say the California agricultural industry needs to take breeding research seriously by testing for heat-tolerant varieties. The report also urges the industry to figure out regional "management practices that can extend crops' winter dormancy periods. Since different crops react to temperature changes differently, research efforts on climate adaptation should be crop-specific," the study reports.

While California farmers and ranchers have long experienced fluctuations in weather, the authors say that "the increased rate and scale of climate change is beyond the realm of experience for the agricultural community." And that may translate into food security issues at the state and national level.

Peter Gleick, an expert in climate and water for the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, read the study and says, "it is critical that we start making decisions now to reduce the threats later."

Gleick says even though some crops will fare better than others, "impacts will be deeply negative, especially if we are not more aggressive about both reducing emissions and putting in place more climate resilient agriculture."

He says farmers must take an active role in addressing climate change and the state is going to need to help by expanding "efforts to help communities that will be negatively affected by changes we won't be able to avoid."

This story comes to us from member station Capital Public Radio in Sacramento.

·         climate change and food

·         california agriculture

·         climate change

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https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/03/02/590056872/from-almonds-to-rice-climate-change-could-slash-california-crop-yields-by-2050

 

 

Trade News Comes in Threes  

By Bob Cummings

 

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congress and the Trump Administration made headline news in the trade world this week to mixed reaction.

Yesterday the Senate confirmed Gregg Doud as Chief Agricultural Negotiator within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).  "Mr. Doud's confirmation was long overdue," said Bobby Hanks of Supreme Rice Mill in Louisiana and chair of the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee.  "We look forward to working closely with Ambassador Doud on our trade issues as he brings his policy leadership to USTR's agriculture office."

President Trump announced yesterday that he would impose import duties on steel and aluminum under a rarely used provision of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 that permits the president to restrict imports on national security grounds.  The president reportedly said the higher duties would take effect "next week."

This action is highly controversial, with the steel and aluminum industries saying protection is vital to counter unfair global competition which has spurred global over capacity and low prices.  Many others, including export dependent industries like agriculture, are fearful of retaliation by countries affected by higher import duties.  The EU and China, for example, have criticized the action and spoken of responding in kind.

On Monday, USTR released the agency's 2018 Trade Policy Agenda and 2017 Annual Report.  The 300-plus page document lays out the President's trade policy agenda.  Citing a "New era in trade policy," the report details the administration's trade priorities, including "...establishing year-round markets for U.S. rice to Colombia, Nicaragua, and China."

"USTR's focus on an assertive trade policy and strong enforcement of trade deals have long been supported and pushed by USA Rice," continued Hanks.  "We're equally aware that trade and trade agreements -like NAFTA and our free trade agreement with Colombia - provide tremendous benefits to our members.  We have to be smart in our actions to protect existing benefits while we pursue new access and justified claims against other countries.  We will continue to deliver this message to our negotiators."

 

 

The fear of losing culture

A parent wonders what her kids lose when the cultural connection disappears

Uzma Jalaluddin, in background, with sons Mustafa Merchant, right, Ibrahim Merchant, left, and her mother Azmat Jalaluddin. Culture is family, history and tradition, Uzmas writes.  (AARON HARRIS / TORONTO STAR)

By 

Thu., March 1, 2018

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How is culture and tradition maintained beyond first and second generation immigrants?

Without regular trips “back home” or strong relationships through cultural associations, I wonder if my own kids will simply ... lose their culture. And if they do, what exactly have they lost?

These are questions I and my fellow second generation immigrant friends wonder and worry about for our children.

My kids have never visited India. They don’t know how to speak Urdu, the language I grew up with, or Malayalam, the south Indian language of my husband’s family. They also have no spicy-Indian-food game, and any time I make biryani or rajmah or palak paneer, they ask what else they can eat for dinner. They do like butter chicken, but when a curry is also a pizza-and-poutine topping choice, it loses its cultural authenticity.

A well-known Italian idiom, “shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations,” refers to the accumulation and loss of wealth across generations. In China, the saying is “wealth never survives three generations.” I fear the same is true for culture.

Culture is about more than food or colourful clothing. It is a mindset, a way to experience the world and navigate one’s place within. Culture is family and history and tradition.

When my sons are asked, “So where are you from?” I wonder how they will answer. My answer is easy — I was born in Canada, but my parents immigrated from India. My sons’ answer gets murkier: They were born in Canada. Their parents were born in Canada. Their grandparents immigrated from India — a country they have seen only in pictures and through the memories of others.

Being the child of South Asian immigrants was a big part of my identity growing up, and it also provided a handy cultural reference for myself and others. http://www.katc.com/story/37627976/blackbirds-are-causing-problems-for-rice-farmers

 

 

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https://www.thestar.com/life/relationships/opinion/2018/03/01/the-fear-of-losing-culture.html

Blackbirds causing problems for rice farmers

Posted: Mar 02, 2018 4:27 AM PSTUpdated: Mar 02, 2018 6:58 AM PST

By Josh Meny

CONNECT

 

Acadia Parish -

In Acadiana, blackbirds are causing problems for rice farmers and their harvests. Those farmers are teaming up with the LSU AgCenter and the USDA to combat that problem.

Every year, millions of blackbirds settle in Acadiana after flying south for winter.

"They form into huge flocks, and for a little while, it's a good thing because they're eating weed seeds, but once we start planting rice, they can attack and eat the rice in the rice fields," explained LSU Ag Rice Research Center Coordinator Don Groth.

"They'll start as soon as the seed is put out into the field and go all the way through actually pulling the growing plant," said GF&P Zaunbrecher Farms Co-Owner Fred Zaunbrecher. 

Farmers say huge flocks of blackbirds can take out a whole field in days. 

Their solution is treating rice seeds with the chemical Starlicide.

Farmers say that the chemical is specifically made to target blackbirds and is safe for the crops and the environment.

"Only about one percent of the seed is treated, and it's put out at the specific roosting areas about the time we start planting rice," said Zaunbrecher.

For farmers, this program is saving them time and money.

"We're looking at millions of dollars potentially because it costs $80 to $300 per acre to plant a rice field for just the seed," explained Groth. 

LSU Ag agents also say the program helps local songbird species who have to compete against the invasive blackbirds for resources.  

 

http://blog.lafayettetravel.com/ingrained/

 

 

 

Navy confiscates 3,574 bags of smuggled rice in Calabar ON MARCH 1, 20185:53 PMIN NEWS1 COMMENT Naval personnel attached to the Nigerian Navy Ship Victory in Calabar, have arrested a large wooden boat laden with 3,574 bags of foreign rice worth N53.6 million smuggled from Cameroon republic. They also arrested three suspects found in the boat that came from Cameroon and heading for Calabar. NNS Commander of NNS Victory, Commodore Julius Nwagu, said on Thursday in Calabar that the arrest was made along the Calabar waterway in the early hours of Feb. 27, when they got information about the activities of the suspected smugglers. Addressing newsmen at the NNS Victory Jetty before handing over the items and suspects to the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nwagu said that it took the command two and half  days to offload the bags of rice from the wooden boat. “In the early hours of Feb. 27, we got information about a boat laden with rice and my patrol team arrested the boat and three suspects on board. We brought the boat to base and offloaded the rice. “It took us two and a half days to offload the content. After counting, we got 3, 574 bags valued at N53.6million. “We will hand them over to the Nigerian Customs

 

 

 

 

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/navy-confiscates-3574-bags-smuggled-rice-calabar/

German ambassador eats at a restaurant where even Pakistanis fear eating

 

 

 

 

Poor to gain more from making rice cheaper via scrapping of QR’

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 Bernadette D. Nicolas

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Converting the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice into tariffs would benefit the poor more than increasing the cash subsidies given to them, an official of the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Thursday.

In a news briefing in Malacañang, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua also told reporters more Filipinos would benefit from the conversion of the QR on rice.

“The government’s plan is to reduce the price [of rice] so that everyone would benefit. Because if you will give a subsidy, that means the government is taking it from the budget,” Chua said.

Aside from making rice cheaper, the DOF official said converting rice-import caps will also help the government increase its tax collection. Citing the National Economic and Development Authority’s (Neda) estimate, Chua noted that scrapping the QR would slash the price of rice by P7 per kilogram.

He added there are other ways to help the poor in case inflation accelerates, such as the provision of conditional-cash transfer (CCT) and the unconditional-cash transfer (UCT).

A total of 7.4 million families will receive a cash subsidy of P200 per month to help them cope with the increase in commodity prices following the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

Amounting to P2,400 for the whole year, the UCT will be distributed within the first quarter to 4.4 million existing beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and to 3 million indigent senior citizens.

The UCT is different from the CCT because it requires children of the beneficiaries to continue attending school to undergo regular check-ups.

Chua said 4P beneficiaries have started to receive the conditional cash transfers, adding that the Department of Social Welfare and Development distributes the UCT together with the 4P subsidy.

In an economic bulletin on the rice-sector reform, Finance Undersecretary and chief economist Gil S. Beltran said the conversion of the QR would encourage more private traders to import the staple.

Citing a Neda study, Beltran said the reduction in rice prices would be beneficial to the majority of households spending at least 20 percent of their income on rice.

The DOF’s chief economist added  reducing rice prices would also help the government cut poverty as the staple is a major driver of inflation.

The first package of the TRAIN, which was implemented in January, lowered income tax rates but hiked the excise tax of fuel products, sweetened beverages and brand new vehicles.

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https://businessmirror.com.ph/poor-to-gain-more-from-making-rice-cheaper-via-scrapping-of-qr/

 

Dangote Inaugurates Multi Billion Naira Rice Processing Plant In Jigawa

The mill, with capacity to process 16 metric tons of paddy rice per hour, when completed will in a year process paddy rice worth N14 billion bought directly from the famers in Jigawa State at market rate. 

 On Mar 1, 2018

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The Dangote Rice Outgrower Scheme in Jigawa State reached a turning point on Thursday when the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, laid the foundation stone for the construction of a multi-billion Naira rice processing mill in Hadin, Jigawa State.

The mill, with capacity to process 16 metric tons of paddy rice per hour, when completed will in a year process paddy rice worth N14 billion bought directly from the famers in Jigawa State at market rate.

Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony in Hadin, Kaugama Local Government Area, Dangote said the commencement of the construction of the integrated rice processing plant was the culmination of series of events, which began with the signing of a $1 billion agreement with the Federal Government for the integrated rice production in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Niger and Jigawa States.

He said: “We have continued to pioneer new approaches to empowering our primary stakeholders and our farmers, through the Dangote outgrowers programme thereby creating thousands of jobs, increasing incomes poverty reduction in rural communities by providing high quality agro-inputs, technical support and secured market for farmers.

“Also, creating access to finance, mechanization and irrigation services so as to enhance agricultural productivity.”

Recalling that Dangote Rice Limited started the outgrowers scheme in 2016 with thousands of hectares of land in Hadejia, Jigawa State, creating over 10,000 jobs (direct and indirect) to farmers, the business mogul said with the new ultra modern mill, enough paddy rice will be grown and harvested for processing.

According to him, the mill, which will take only months for installation and commissioning, is the first in the series of five other mills coming up in Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Niger States in the first phase, while in the second phase, other mills will be built in Nasarawa, Kogi and other states.

Dangote said: “When these planned six mills come fully on stream, we will achieve a capacity of 700,000 metric tons per annum of par boiled rice, which will make Dangote Rice the largest rice producer in Africa and will make a bold step in making Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production, stop importation and save the nation foreign exchange ”

Dangote stated further that towards co-creating value for all stakeholders, the company has engaged about 20,000 outgrowers who are expected to produce an average of 180,000 tons of paddy rice on about 30,000 hectares of land.

He said: “We are focused on engaging in the region of 300,000 farmers in the next 12 months when our rice mills are all functional and we achieve steady state.

“We will continue to launch massive agricultural projects across the country in rice and dairy farming.

“Our push for backward integration in providing our own raw materials on a massive scale has led to the planned investment of $4.6 billion over the next three years in sugar, rice and dairy production alone.

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“That will eliminate the country’s reliance on imported materials, and the foreign exchange headaches that comes with it.”

In his opening remarks, Dangote Group Executive Director, Devakumar Edwin, explained that the Dangote Rice team has been involved in scaling up the outgrower operations to a least 5,000 hectares this season and this will very soon increase and grow to over 15,000 hectares cultivated per cycle or season to fully optimise operations.

edwin said the establishment of a Multi-billion Naira state-of-the-art integrated rice processing facility to process at least 260 metric tons of rice paddy per day grown, which is produced from thousands of local rice out growers within Jigawa State, is a giant step forward and expressed his company’s confidence and faith in local farmers to continuously stand with Dangote to make this project a success.

Located on 25 hectares site in Hadin, Edwin noted that the mill is earmarked to begin operations in the last quarter of 2018.

He said: “During the construction phase and when it becomes fully operational, hundreds of employment opportunities will be created, knowledge transference and skills developed among our teeming youthful population thereby boosting local economy.

“The Jigawa famers are in for good times as the 125,000 metric tons of paddy rice that this plant requires for processing will be brought from the farmers of Jigawa for an estimated purchase price of N14 billion per annum. This is a huge benefit for the farmers in Jigawa. This mill will be producing high quality parboiled rice that competes with the best in the world this is in-line with our continuous aim to touch the lives of millions who believe in the Dangote brand.

“Jigawa State is endowed and blessed with vast fertile land, water resources, climate and progressive people, as well as one of the fastest growing agricultural destinations in Nigeria, was identified as an ideal location for us to set up our first facility in Nigeria. This obviously reinforces our commitment to supporting the efforts of the present administration in developing a robust agro-industry in Nigeria.

“We made commitment to Nigerians that we will produce one million metric ton of quality par boiled rice. Since then we have embarked on several initiatives towards achieving this objective with support and collaboration from state and federal government agencies, ministries and departments, non-governmental organisations, community based organisations, traditional and financial institutions, etc., we continue to pioneer new approaches to empowering our primary stakeholders and our farmers, through the Dangote outgrower program thereby creating thousands of jobs, increasing incomes, poverty reduction in rural communities by providing high quality agro-inputs, technical support and secured market for farmers.”

The Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru, expressed delight at the stage of the Dangote Rice project in the state, saying it was in line with the vision of the Invest Jigawa, an organ set up to accelerate investments in the state.

Badaru said Jigawa is one of the States reputed to be on top on ease of doing business in Nigeria, adding that Dangote Rice presence in the state is a pointer to that fact.

He added that the state is also in the forefront of the diversification efforts of the Federal Government from oil to non oil ventures, especially agriculture.

He promised that the state will be willing to do whatever it will take to ensure the Dangote Rice operates smoothly to the satisfaction of all parties in the state.

https://theeagleonline.com.ng/dangote-inaugurates-multi-billion-naira-rice-processing-plant-in-jigawa/

 

 

Indonesia aims to clean the ‘world’s dirtiest river’

·         Arts / Entertainment

MARCH 2, 2018 BY AGENCIES

JAKARTA: The scabies on Indonesian rice farmer Yusuf Supriyadi’s limbs are a daily reminder of the costs of living next to the “world’s dirtiest river”.

Supriyadi depends on the Citarum’s murky waters, a floating carpet of household rubbish, toxic chemicals and animal feces, to irrigate a small rice plot in West Java that sustains his family of six.

The farmer’s rice yield is now down by two-thirds in the rainy season as textile factories dump more and more industrial waste into the river. But he has few other options.

“There are floods during the rainy season. My hands get itchy and the harvest is damaged,” the 54-year-old tells AFP.

“Pollution makes my rice hollow. If I keep going I’ll lose money, but if I don’t, I’ll have no other job,” he adds.

Now faced with a health emergency after decades of failed clean-up efforts, Jakarta is stepping in with a seemingly impossible goal: make the Citarum’s water drinkable by 2025.

Using this polluted water is a risky calculation for many of the 30 million people who rely on it for irrigation, washing and even drinking water, including around 80 percent of residents in the sprawling capital Jakarta.

At nearly 300-kilometres long, the river is also a key source for hydroelectric power for Indonesia’s most populated island Java and tourism hotspot Bali.

The World Bank declared it the most-polluted river in the world a decade ago, a description widely picked up by media and environmentalists.

Waste levels can vary depending on how pollution is measured and the time of the year.

But the Citarum is dangerous by almost any standard.

Previous research has shown it has alarming levels of toxic chemicals, including 1,000 times more lead than the US standard for safe drinking water.

It regularly appears on most-polluted lists alongside India’s Ganges river, the Mississippi River in the United States and China’s Yellow River.

‘Not playing around’

In January, Jakarta yanked responsibility away from local government and vowed to get tough on business owners who ignore waste-disposal rules.

Factories that fall short could have operating permits revoked.

And CCTV cameras are to be installed along the river’s banks to keep an eye out for offenders dumping waste in the early morning hours to evade detection.

Meanwhile, dredging equipment will be used to clean up the filthy river, said Djoko Hartoyo, a spokesman for the Ministry of Maritime Affairs.

“We are not playing around this time,” he added.

“We’re going in with a holistic approach so we are optimistic we can make Citarum clean again, just like it was 50 or 60 years ago.”

In the 1980s, a new industrial zone sprang up around the small town of Majalaya, about 170 kilometres east of Jakarta, and things quickly changed for the pristine river.

Some 2,000 area textile factories have provided much-needed jobs, but it came with a heavy cost: about 280 tons of industrial waste are dumped into the river each day, according to government and environmental group data.

Making matters worse, many locals think nothing of tossing their household waste into its toxic waters.

“When it rains and my house gets flooded, the smell is awful,” Achmad Fachrureza said from inside an inflatable dingy, as he navigated the river’s styrofoam containers, fabric, empty cans, plastic bottles and garbage bags.

The 57-year-old villager said he was sacked from his job as a textile factory security guard after asking questions about the firm’s waste disposal system.

Factory pipes dump waste directly into waters bubbling with chemical dyes used in textiles, creating an overwhelming stench.

“Most factories here have a waste disposal system, but they don’t work properly because it’s just a formality,” said Deni Riswandani from local environmental group Elingan.

That poses a serious health risk, especially for the five million people living in the river’s basin.

Many locals suffer from skin diseases like scabies and dermatitis, as well as respiratory infections from inhaling factory pollution.

Environmental activist Deni Riswandani holds up cups of water from the Citarum river (R) and water from another tributary

“The number of people going to the health clinic is very high,” Riswandani said. “We keep reporting these issues to the government, but we never get a solution.”

He and other frustrated activists have blocked some waste pipes with rocks and concrete, but the factories usually remove the blockage right away.

Locals hope Jakarta’s new goals can be achieved. But they’re also skeptical given the scale of the task and endemic corruption that could see factory owners try to buy their way out of trouble.

“I long to see the Citarum like it was when I was young”, Fachrureza said.

“I could swim in it and drink the water. It was so clean.”

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/03/02/indonesia-aims-to-clean-the-worlds-dirtiest-river/ Pak-Philippines JEC for activation of Joint Business Forum

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Muhammad Arshad

Islamabad

Pakistan–Philippines Joint Economic Commission (JEC), Wednesday, agreed to re-activate the Pakistan-Philippines Joint Business Forum/Council with the participation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Philippines and Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pakistan (FPCCI).
Both sides agreed to hold and actively participate in trade fairs, single country and product based exhibitions in each other’s country on a regular basis. JEC also agreed to conduct feasibility studies on the possibility of Preferential Trade Agreement and to the formation of a Technical Working Group within the JEC for this purpose.
JEC met here co-chaired by Secretary, Economic Affairs Division Arif Ahmed Khan and Deputy Minister, Industry Development and Trade Policy Group, (IDTPG) Department of Trade and Industry, Philippines Dr. Ceferino S. Rodolfo and held detailed discussions between experts of the two sides on a number of issues, especially focusing on trade, investment, energy, agriculture, tourism, health, industries and other matters of mutual interest.
At the concluding session both the countries signed a protocol of the session based on major actions / decisions. Both sides presented prospective export products for each other’s markets. In this regard Pakistan side offered Rice, Fruit (especially Pakistani citrus and Mangoes), Leather Garments, Pharmaceutical Goods, Sports Goods and Surgical Items while Philippines’ side presented electronics and semi conductors; automotive parts and components; processed food and Halal Products.
Pakistan offered Philippines investment opportunities in Power sector of Pakistan in renewable energy and small hydro power projects and training in the areas of hydro carbon like exploration, production, processing and survey etc. The two sides agreed to collaborate in the area of post-harvest management and processing of rice and banana.
Pakistan invited Philippines to invest in construction of Highways in Pakistan on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. Philippines shared investment opportunities for Pakistan pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturing in the Philippines. The Parties mutually agreed for exchange of visits between the officials of Central Banks of the two countries.
Both sides deliberated upon and agreed to review the proposals regarding revision of the convention on the Avoidance of Double Taxation between Pakistan and Philippines as well as explore the possibility of cooperation in matters related to Customs. The meeting was held in a spirit of friendship, cooperation and desire to make rapid advances in the above mentioned sectors/areas.

Bihar: Hindu refugees from East Pakistan want land, living, identity

Many of the Hindu refugees from East Pakistan settled in Bihar are yet to be granted land and have no source of income. In a state in which caste plays a major role, these Bengali-speaking people are struggling for recognition

INDIA Updated: Mar 02, 2018 08:05 IST

Vijay Swaroop 
Hindustan Times, Bettiah

Bangladeshi refugee, Girija Lal Sahu, at Hazari camp in Bettiah. Sahu, who came to the camp in 1974, plies a rickshaw for a living. (AP Dube/HT Photo)

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Seventy-eight-year-old Anil Havildar is disconsolate. He points to his field, which had once won him the badge of a successful farmer from the Bihar government. He had grown a record 492 quintals of rice in one acre, in 1977.

But for this man, who resettled at Biranchi tola number 3 colony -- one among 46 other East Pakistani Hindu refugee colonies in west Champaram -- life is not the same. A flooded Manihari river left piles of sand on his farm and destroyed his fields and his pride. Havildar, who made his way here in 1956, is a broken man after losing four acres of land which are either filled with sand or have been eroded by the river. “Nobody from the government has come here. I am virtually landless,’’ he says.

Havildar is not alone. Shyamal Prasad Saha (70) and nonagenarian Rabindra Nath Poddar too lost huge chunks of land to sand, making them virtually landless. Saha, one of the educated Bengali refugees grew rice, wheat and sugarcane in the four acres of land he got from the government as part of the rehabilitation policy. He has now shifted base to one of the refugee colonies situated in Bettiah town.

Poddar, who earned name and fame for his treatment of snake bites, lives with his extended family. Nearly 55 families out of 113 families rehabilitated in Biranchi no 3 in 1956, have lost nearly 121 acres of agricultural and 69 decimals of housing land. They now live on the edge of poverty.

Land for settlement

Many Bengali speaking Hindus were forced to leave East Pakistan and take shelter in India.

The Centre arranged for their rehabilitation in West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar, Assam and Tripura.

In Bihar, these Bengali speaking refugees were first set up in a camp near Paschim Hazari area. They were then relocated to the 46 refugee colonies spread across West Champaran. Bihar has 115 refugee colonies. West Champaran has the maximum, followed by 38 in Purnia and 13 in East Champaran.

Each of the displaced families were given two types of land -- five acres for farming and 18 decimal to build a house, or four acres and 18 decimal land. They were given voting rights only two years back in 2015.

Not all refugees were lucky. Nearly 24 families – 14 of whom are from Myanmar and living at Paschim Hazari camp set up in 1956 – are still to get any land. “It is not the issue of citizenship. They all have voting rights,” said Dr (Capt) Dilip Kumar Sinha, former vice-president of Bihar Minority Commission and president of Bihar-Bengali Samiti. He did not address the issue of non-allocation of land.

“We never visited our relatives who stayed back…. But nobody cares for our plight,” said Girija Lal Sahu, a refugee, who came to Hazari camp in 1974. Sahu makes do plying a rickshaw. Other refugees left out in land settlement either work in fields as daily wagers or are into petty business.

While some still do fight for land, at Majaharia, another refugee colony, situated near the Udaipur ox-bow lake, encroachment of their land by locals resulted in a bloody fight in 1997.

Caste Recognition

In a state where caste plays a major role, these Bengali speaking people are also vying for a caste identity.

Raja Kumar Das, a student of class 10 at Swatantra Senani Kedarnath Motani High School, has been trying to get a caste certificate to apply for his board examinations for the last eight months.

The Bihar School Examination Board has announced the schedule, but Das is still struggling to get the caste certificate that is mandatory.

“It has been proved that more than 65% of them belong to Scheduled Castes (SC) but they are shown in the list of backward castes and extremely backward caste list in Bihar. This is making it difficult for them to get caste certificates. This deprives them of different welfare projects of government,” said Madan Banik, vice president (zone 4), central committee, Bihar Bengali Association.

A study conducted by Asian Development Research Institute’s Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance (CEPPF) reveals that 36.2% people fail to find their caste in the state list, whereas 66% have been placed in extremely backward class. The survey reveals that 97.1% people claimed themselves to be SC, of which 49% and 38% are in East and West Champaran districts respectively.

“The same people find place in SC list in neighbouring West Bengal. Does change of place change the caste also?” wondered Banik.

“This has happened despite the state general administration department issuing instructions (letter no 20810, dated 16.6.2009) to district authorities to issue caste certificate.”

The association’s Bettiah chapter president, Radhakant Debnath, had written a letter in October 2017 to the district magistrate to consider the state directive, but has not had a response.

Socio-Economic Conditions

The CEPPF study reveals that only 16.2% Bengali speaking refugees have passed matric or taken to higher education; 11.2% refugees can read in their mother tongue Bengali with difficulty, while just 23.6% can write in Bengali.

The economic condition of these refugees has not changed either with only 3.3% of their population in government services.

While 43.7% are wage labourers, 28.7% are self-employed, mostly in agriculture. More than half their population, 56.6% have shown their income below Rs 3000 per month. Over 30% of the population does not have ration cards and only 15.2% have concrete shelter.

The demand for the formation of a Refugee Development Authority is long pending. In 2011, Bihar government announced the constitution of Tharu Development Authority for the development of Tharus living near the borders with Nepal and gave them the status of scheduled tribes. The Bengali Association has also demanded that they be included. The government has, however, been found lacking.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bihar-hindu-refugees-from-east-pakistan-want-land-living-identity/story-WUinXFN2BbAiAPJmOclMSI.htmlhttps://pakobserver.net/pak-philippines-jec-activation-joint-business-forum/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pakistan posts 64% growth in exports to Qatar post blockade, says official

Date

(MENAFN - Gulf Times) Pakistan has recorded a 64% surge in exports to Qatar from July 2017 to January 2018, according to an official at the Embassy of Pakistan in Doha. 
Commercial secretary Salman Ali, who spoke at the ‘Pakistan-Qatar Business & Investment Opportunities Conference' held in Doha yesterday, said Pakistan witnessed an 'export quantum seven months after an economic blockade was imposed on Qatar in June last year. 
Citing figures from the State Bank of Pakistan, Ali said Pakistan exports to Qatar in July 2017 stood at $5.66mn and increased to $8.74 in January 2018, 'exceeding the $8mn mark for the first time since May 2012. 
He said Pakistan's major exports to Qatar include rice, red meats, fresh fruits, vegetables, cotton and fabric of all types, leather and all its articles, cereal straw and husk, and fish and its products. 
'Besides a policy of self-reliance, Qatar views Turkey, Iran, Oman, and Pakistan as the long-term source of food and other supplies, Ali noted during his presentation. 
On Pakistan's current strategy to facilitate exports, the products in focus are construction materials, pharmaceuticals, processed/frozen food items, raw chicken and meat (frozen/chilled), dairy items, including UHT milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, food packaging materials, light engineering and electrical goods, defence exports, sports goods, textiles, and services. 
On Pakistan's export performance compared to other countries in the region, Ali said: 'Other regional countries had a comparatively much bigger export footprint in Qatar. Many products from the region have flooded the market in Qatar but Pakistan's logistic advantage and international position eventually gives it a competitive advantage not rivalled by any other country in the region. 
Ali also said some of the Pakistani products 'successfully introduced in the Qatari market since the blockade include Menu Frozen Food (Season's Food); Olpers UHT Milk, Cream and Ghee (Engro Food); biscuits and candies (Hilal Food); packaging material by M/S Packages and M/S Afeef Packages; ketchup and juices for the hospitality sector by Shangrila Limited; steel piping products by International Industries Limited and electrical cables by Pakistan Cables; and ketchup, mayonnaise, and sugar by M/S Soya Supreme Group. 

 

 

From Almonds To Rice, Climate Change Could Slash California Crop Yields By 2050

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March 2, 201810:54 AM ET

EZRA DAVID ROMERO

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Walnut trees at a farm in Byron, Calif. An analysis of nearly 90 studies finds warming temperatures may alter where key crops grow across the state, which provides around two-thirds of America's produce.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Climate change could decrease the yield of some crops in California by up to 40 percent by 2050. That's a big deal for farmers in the state, which provides about two-thirds of the nation's produce.

California farmers grow more than 400 commodity crops. Tapan Pathak, a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist based in California's Central Valley, and his research team analyzed 89 studies on climate change and discovered that warming temperatures may alter where crops grow across the state. Their findings were published in the journal Agronomy.

"In order to make California agriculture more sustainable, we have to act now," Pathak says.

As the climate continues to change and drought and heat waves become more frequent, Pathak says the challenges agriculture will face are going to intensify. He's referring to things like how the lack of cold temperatures will impact trees that need a certain number of chill-hours, or sleep each year, as well as increased impacts from pests and diseases.

"That could adversely impact yields and production for some highly valued crops in California," Pathak says. The study reports "several fruit and nut crops are losing yield and decreasing in acreage . . . as a direct consequence of increased winter and nighttime temperatures."

The study also points out that climatic conditions — warming temperatures and a shrinking snowpack — by the end of the 21st century may make it difficult for the state to even support some of its main tree crops. The study suggests that by the middle of the century, California's Central Valley won't be able to support crops like peaches, walnuts and apricots. That number jumps to 90 percent by the end of the century. Almonds, avocados, cherries, table grapes, corn, tomatoes, rice, strawberries and others are expected to suffer crop yields as well.

Walnuts would be the hardest-hit crop because they "require the highest number of chill hours, implying a future decline in walnut acreage within the valley," the authors report. Nearly 99 percent of the nation's supply of the crop originate from California and support around three-quarters of the global supply of the nut.

But Pathak says crops planted yearly, like alfalfa, could yield more as temperatures increase. The study also says wine grapes will see small declines in yield.

What can be done now to mitigate this?

The study's authors say the California agricultural industry needs to take breeding research seriously by testing for heat-tolerant varieties. The report also urges the industry to figure out regional "management practices that can extend crops' winter dormancy periods. Since different crops react to temperature changes differently, research efforts on climate adaptation should be crop-specific," the study reports.

While California farmers and ranchers have long experienced fluctuations in weather, the authors say that "the increased rate and scale of climate change is beyond the realm of experience for the agricultural community." And that may translate into food security issues at the state and national level.

Peter Gleick, an expert in climate and water for the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, read the study and says, "it is critical that we start making decisions now to reduce the threats later."

Gleick says even though some crops will fare better than others, "impacts will be deeply negative, especially if we are not more aggressive about both reducing emissions and putting in place more climate resilient agriculture."

He says farmers must take an active role in addressing climate change and the state is going to need to help by expanding "efforts to help communities that will be negatively affected by changes we won't be able to avoid."

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/03/02/590056872/from-almonds-to-rice-climate-change-could-slash-california-crop-yields-by-2050

 

Rice prices rise for 7th consecutive week

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:26 AM March 03, 2018

The upward trend in the wholesale and retail prices of rice is now on its seventh week, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.

Prices of commercial rice has risen at least 20 percent since the first week of January, according to the agency.

Worse, it said, the lack of cheap, subsidized rice in the market due to the stock shortage at the National Food Authority is expected to continue until the first week of June—the scheduled arrival in the country of imported rice.

For the third week of February, wholesale and retail prices were at P36.90 per kilo and P39.31 per kilo, respectively.

Retail prices, meanwhile, rose by 0.46 percent from last week’s P39.01 per kilo.

Compared to the price in the same period last year, it rose by 6.01 percent.

Similarly, wholesale and retail prices for well-milled rice increased during the week.

Wholesale price was quoted at P40.33 per kilo, while average retail price was at P43.10 per kilo. —KARL R. OCAMPO



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Let traders import rice freely–experts

By

 Cai Ordinario

 -

Local economists called on the Duterte administration to remove the legal monopoly of the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice if it wants to stabilize the price of the staple.

According to economists belonging to the Foundation of Economic Freedom (FEF), it is only when the government is given the sole authority to import the staple that the Philippines faces periodic situations of unstable supply with rising rice prices.

“If private traders can freely import rice, they can quickly respond more to the needs of the rice market. The price of rice in our rice-exporting neighbors is about half the domestic price of rice,” the FEF said in a statement sent over the weekend.

“There is no reason rice prices should become unstable and rise since there is plentiful supply from our neighboring countries that can be easily tapped by our private traders,” it added.

The FEF also said the NFA is “at fault for giving the rice cartel room to manipulate rice prices” simply because it failed to immediately import rice when its stockpile started to go down below the required  15-day level.

The economists said the NFA did not restock its emergency rice inventory to the required 15-day level in case of emergencies and natural calamities. This despite the the Marawi City siege and the eruption of Mayon Volcano in Albay.

The FEF said the rice stock in NFA warehouses caused rice traders to get “greedy” and raise rice prices to P40, P45, P50 or P60 per kilogram (kg), depending on the quality.

The group noted that it was only at this time when the NFA sought the President’s clearance to import 250,000 metric tons of rice to beef up its supply, a move that would have been more effective if done sooner.

Last month the NFA said it sought the NFA Council’s (NFAC) go signal to import rice as early as November.

“If the NFA had the stocks, NFAC Chairman Leoncio Evasco can address this issue by injecting more NFA rice into the market. But without adequate stocks, NFA cannot effectively bring down the price. Accordingly, the poor will have to pay more for the rice,” FEF said. “This shows that behind every attempt by the rice cartel to manipulate rice price is a mistake of the NFA.”

Earlier, senators urged the government to raise the support price of the NFA. The increase in its buying price aims to encourage farmers to sell their harvest to the food agency.

National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Undersecretary for Planning and Policy Rosemarie G. Edillon, however, said that apart from the indebtedness of the NFA, increasing the support price of the NFA would accelerate inflation.

Also, prices become volatile whenever the NFA imports rice and then floods the market with cheaper rice. This causes commercial rice prices to decline steeply.

While it has yet to run the estimates of how much a P1 to P3 hike in NFA support price will impact on inflation, Edillon said it is likely that the Nedawould thumb down proposals to increase it.

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Cai Ordinario

A professional journalist for over a decade, Cai U. Ordinario currently writes macroeconomic and urban development stories for BusinessMirror. She has received awards for excellence in reporting on the macroeconomy and statistics. She was also cited for her contribution to statics reporting by the National Statistical Coordination Board (now the Philippine Statistics Authority). She is a recipient of journalism fellowships including the Jefferson Fellowship from the Honolulu-based East West Center. She is currently completing her Masters degree in Communication at the University of the Philippines. She graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Arts Major in Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/let-traders-import-rice-freely-experts/

Ingrained

Some time in 1960s, businessmen with the Japanese electronics company Hitachi flew to southwest Louisiana, specifically, we are told, to Ville Platte. Of interest to them were the curiously high sales marks of their rice-cookers across a region otherwise alien to their products. At the time, Louisiana was the site of the single largest distribution of Hitachi rice-makers in North America, or so it is said. Anecdotal evidence of that phenomenon can be found in flea markets, kitchens and estate sales around Acadiana to this day.

According to Mamou native and photographer Lucius Fontenot, the businessmen toured the outer climes of Acadiana, mouths agape at miles of rice land. Visited, as they were, by the sight of rice farming operations that rivaled those in their native land, they understood the kindred desire in Louisiana for the Hitachi rice-cooker.

Why these things took off is a study best left to the geniuses of market research, but we can safely say that the crux of it is that Louisiana loves and thrives on rice.

Fontenot, who’s recently embarked upon a photo journal of Hitachi rice-cookers and the Cajuns who love them, remembers accompanying his grandmother to a local mill to buy 50-pound sacks of medium grain rice to accompany the fixture of stews on his grandmother’s stove-top. Medium grains cook softer and stickier than their long-grain cousins, making for more absorbent conduits of gravy and sauce-based Cajun cuisine.

By the time the Soileaus of Ville Platte and the Guillorys of Mamou were stocking their shop warehouses with Hitachi rice makers, one of which made its way to Fontenot’s grandmother’s kitchen in the 1960s or 1970s, rice was a prime cash crop for farmers across the Cajun prairies west of Lafayette, stretching all the way to the Sabine River that divides Louisiana from Texas. Rice has long been an essential ingredient for hardy Cajun victuals, such as gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish étouffée, boudin and all kinds of gravies.

Looking back, it was probably a no-brainer that the cookers caught on. Automated and electronic, they freed up burners and freed up hands for accomplishing the sundry tasks of the mid-century household. Many a Cajun child knew the Hitachi chime as the 20th century dinner bell.

Like the rice-cookers, though, rice itself is not native to Louisiana. It’s not even native to the Americas. While seeking its exact place of origin, you run into an intersection of antiquity, legend and guess-timation as to the Big Bang of rice production in the United States. However, those who will hazard a guess—like Steven Linscombe, PhD, of LSU’s Rice Research Center in Crowley—will tell you it likely came by boat from Madagascar to the port of Charleston, SC, some time in 18th century.

It wasn’t so much a formal introduction, according to Linscombe, but more of a casual parting—a box full of seeds was perhaps given to eager hands at harbor.

“Here’s some rice. Y’all dabble with this,” guessed Linscombe.

From there, rice production followed a south westerly migration during the 19th century, making its way through plantations and farms in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and, finally, Louisiana.

At first, rice was a staple crop grown for the plantation slave labor force along the Louisiana banks of the Mississippi river. Its continued migration westward in the years after the Civil War was provoked by the stimulated interest in cheap land in Acadia, Vermilion and Evangeline parishes, marketed aggressively to pioneering German Midwesterners.

These wheat and corn farmers found their customary crops ill-suited to Louisiana’s wet climate. Taking note of micro-agronomic production of rice by the Cajuns kicking around pre-railroad Acadiana, the ever-industrious Germans took it upon themselves to mechanize and modernize the rice industry with seeders, binders and threshers.

Where profligate water presented a problem for other crops, rice thrived in Louisiana’s oft-flooded conditions. Steam pumps and adjacent bayous provided an abundant source of water for enterprising farmers. The Cajun prairies also have a lagniappe topographical feature in the form of a dense subsurface layer of clay. That pack of hardened earth creates a basin that contains pumped-in water, making for efficient use of an embarrassment of hydrological riches.

Milling came later in the 19th century, moving an essential business from New Orleans to the now self-proclaimed “Rice Capital of America” in Crowley, the seat of Acadia Parish. Rice of any grain size could be separated from husks and milled to remove the outer bran layer that distinguishes un-milled brown rice from milled white rice. Folks scooped rice into their gumbos instead of corn meal mush, and the great Acadiana staple was born.

At its height in the mid 20th century, Louisiana’s rice production was the nation’s largest and most cutting edge. Before we were enamored of the Hitachi cooker’s chime-o-matic laissez-faire, we saw the advent of rice enrichment by Wright Enterprises in Crowley, a process that re-introduced to white grains the vitamin and nutrient content bereft by the milling process.

A symbiotic relationship developed between the farming of rice and crawfishing. Flooded fields provide an excellent breeding ground for aquaculture like crawfish. The Cajun crustacean also is quite fond of detritus from leftover rice crops, a revelation which led rice researchers to develop in the early 2000s a rice variety known as ecrevisse—French for crawfish—grown specifically for its agricultural benefit for crawfish.

Medium grain rice once dominated Louisiana’s production and consumption, due in large part to the medium grain varieties’ agricultural hardiness when compared to the more gastronomically coveted long-grains. There are those, like the Fontenots, who stand by the sopping utility of medium grains as the ideal vehicle for gravy. But for the most part, long grain has enjoyed a preferred status among consumers, typically fetching higher prices for farmers.

In the 1980s, medium grains accounted for 65 percent of grown rice varieties in Louisiana, with the remaining 35 percent accounted by long grains. Over time, folks like Linscombe at the Rice Research Center developed new varieties of long-grain rice that perform better in Louisiana’s climate and produce higher yields per crop rotation. Technology caught long grain up with demand. In 2015, long-grain rice accounted for 85 percent of rice grown in Louisiana.

Nearly half of all rice grown and milled in Louisiana is exported nationally and internationally, meaning local rice producers need to keep up with the tastes of buyers around world. Popular tropical aromatics like Thai Jasmine rice don’t do well in Louisiana’s climate, forcing farmers to improvise. To that end, farmers and researchers with the Rice Research Center have developed Jazzman and Jazzman II varieties of long-grain rice, specifically bred to produce the nutty aroma and soft texture of the ever popular Thai import.

Long before Jazzman, the Research Center introduced the Della long-grain varieties more popularly known in Acadiana as Popcorn Rice. Like Thai Jasmine or Jazzman, steaming Popcorn rice produces a nutty, almost popcorn-like, aroma. But where Jasmine-type rice cooks soft, Popcorn rice retains the stiffer texture of generic, long-grain rice. Around Acadiana, Popcorn rice is marketed as a connoisseur’s bag fit for the discerning rice palate.

Today, Louisiana remains the third largest producer of rice in the United States, behind California and Arkansas. In Acadiana, the number of plate lunch houses serving rice and gravy on a daily basis will give you an idea of just how important the crop remains as a cultural icon in the area. Rice is a given in Louisiana cuisine, regardless of the time of day or year. Very few meals are complete without a dollop of steamed rice, a scoop of rice dressing or a lagniappe of jambalaya. Despite its foreign origins, it’s a product that binds folks in Acadiana to their earth and gives a sense of culinary unity.

Rice cookers have certainly advanced since the original Hitachis spread around Acadiana like rice-seed from a crop-dusting plane. But the kindred love affair with rice those Japanese businessmen found in the eccentric bayou towns they visited in the 1960s still remain. Many have held on to those Hitachis as family heirlooms, weighing their cookers’ tops down with books or taping the button down to get the steam-time right. Others have moved on to digital contraptions with adjustable temperatures, timers and readouts. What really counts, though, is what happens when the steam rises and whatever chime dings. When the rice is done, it’s time to eat.

Bulog to disburse 400,000 tons of subsidized rice in March

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Anton Hermansyah

The Jakarta Post

Jakarta | Sat, March 3, 2018 | 10:17 am

Workers unload Vietnamese rice at Tenau Port in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Feb. 13. The rice is part of the imported rice quota of 500,000 tons that began arriving in February. (Antara/ Kornelis Kaha)

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The National Logistics Agency (Bulog) will distribute 400,000 tons of subsidized rice in an attempt to stabilize the price in March.

Of the 400,000 tons, 250,000 tons was taken from the March allocation, while the remaining allocations were in January and February, said Bulog president director Djarot Kusumayakti after meeting with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Friday.

Meanwhile, a further 150,000 tons of rice from the April allocation would be pushed forward to March he said, adding: "The President has allowed us to distribute April’s allocation in March.”

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released on Thursday, the price of all qualities of rice had increased in February compared to January.

The price of premium rice increased by 0.31 percent, while the prices of medium and low quality rice increased by 0.37 percent and 1.99 percent respectively.

BPS chairman Suhariyanto said that the price of low quality rice reached Rp 9,987 per kilogram, higher than the government’s price ceiling target.

Economic Coordinating Minister Darmin Nasution said Bulog currently had around 660,000 tons of rice in stock. (bbn)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/03/02/bulog-to-disburse-400000-tons-of-subsidized-rice-in-march.html

Vietnam likely to export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018

Monday, 03/05/2018, 12:11

Vietnam may export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan.

High-quality rice accounts for a large proportion of total rice export volume and normal rice makes up less than 20%, Tuan said.



Vietnam shipped 861,000 tonnes of rice abroad in the first two months of this year, earning US$419 million, up 17% in volume and 34% in value compared with the same period last year. 

The Philippines was the biggest importer of Vietnamese rice, accounting for 26.9% of the market share. It was followed by China, with 23.5%.



The export price for Vietnamese rise rose from US$435 per tonne in 2016 to US$450 per tonne in 2017 and US$475 per tonne during January-February.


The increase was attributed to the country’s efforts to raise its rice quality.

Vietnam is doing well in increasing rice quality, Deputy Minister Tuan said, suggesting the country focus on improving the brand name of its rice.


Last year, Vietnam pocketed US$2.6 billion from exporting 5.8 million tonnes of rice

http://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnam-likely-to-export-65-million-tonnes-of-rice-in-2018-369781.vov Government to help in upgrade of rice quality as exports hit high

HTOO THANT 05 MAR 2018

Workers dry the paddy under sunlight in a field at the Kyaunggon Township in the Ayeyarwaddy region, Myanmar. Photo - EPA

Myanmar will likely export at least 3.2 million tonnes of rice by the end of the current 2017-18 fiscal year by month-end taking rice exports to their highest level in 70 years, according to officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI).

“According to government estimates, we have exported 3.2 million tonnes of rice to this day (March 4). The numbers could increase if we continue exporting,” MOALI Permanent Deputy Secretary U Myo Tint Tun told The Myanmar Times on Sunday. 

The estimate was confirmed by Union Minister U Aung Thu, who quoted similar numbers during a farmers’ roundtable talk on March 2 in Danubyu, Ayeyarwaddy Region.

However, Myanmar is still mainly exporting average-grade rice to China, implying that the country is still overly reliant on its neighbour. As such, the country should take steps to improve its rice quality for better value while expanding its market beyond China to diversify risk. 

While representing a step in the right direction, that move will see Myanmar farmers face stiff competition from existing high-grade rice exporting countries like Thailand, India and Vietnam.

In that light, farmers at the roundtable sought government help to gain access to long term, low-interest loans, the lack of which is “the main hindrance to low rice productivity,” said Danubyu farmer U Thein Aung during the talk. 

“Farmers risk high losses because of weather changes, pests, volatile prices and other factors. On top of all that, we have to service high-interest loans to help pay off losses and as a result, our children have to work in large cities and foreign countries to repay the debt,” he said.

The government recently raised the volume of loans available to farmers to K150,000 per acre of farmland from K100,000 before and is now enjoying the support of the Japanese in extending two-step loans to the sector. 

“The issue is when loan amounts increase, the burden on farmers is much heavier in the event of default or losses due to weather changes or price fluctuations,” said U Hla Kyaw, deputy minister for the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation.

https://www.mmtimes.com/news/government-help-upgrade-rice-quality-exports-hit-high.html

 

President says Myanmar can export record 3 million tons of rice this year

By 

Zeyar Maw

On Saturday, 3 March 2018

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Myanmar's President Htin Kyaw. Photo: Hein Htet/EPA

President Htin Kyaw said that Myanmar could export 3 million tons rice this financial year and it would be a record high over 70 years.

He was addressing Peasants’ Day which falls today on March 2.

“Myanmar can export 3 million tons of rice a record high in 70 years. The export of such a high record is because of great efforts by peasants, cooperation between departmental officials and the private sector so we can praise their great efforts,” the President said in his message.

The President added that 70% of the population lives in rural area and their main livelihood is agriculture

http://www.mizzima.com/business-domestic/president-says-myanmar-can-export-record-3-million-tons-rice-year

 

 

 

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2.     Domestic Economy

Saturday, March 03, 2018

Rice Farming Banned in Khuzestan

Rice cultivation in the southern Khuzestan Province will be banned as of the upcoming crop year starting on March 21, the deputy head of Khuzestan Agricultural Jihad Organization said.

“This is due to the water shortage facing the country. We advise farmers to cultivate alternative crops such as pulses, sunflowers, soybeans and fodder, which are less water-intensive,” Mohammad Qaseminejad was also quoted by Mehr News Agency as saying.

The official added that land under rice cultivation in Khuzestan has declined from between 97,000 and 98,000 hectares five years ago to less than 40,000 hectares at present.

Agricultural and environment experts have been urging the government for years to restrict rice farming to the water-rich provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran, which are home to the majority of Iran’s paddy fields, and to ban the activity in the rest of the country.

Asia Rice-Supply dip perks up India prices; lack of deals hurt Thai rates

Koustav Samanta

·          

·          

BENGALURU, March 2 (Reuters) - Rice prices in top exporter India snapped a three-week losing streak on lower supplies and a slight improvement in demand, while rates for the staple grain eased in Thailand and Vietnam due to lack of deals and the beginning of a new harvest.

India’s 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices RI-INBKN5-P1 rose by $5 per tonne to $419-$423 per tonne.

A drop in the Indian rupee capped the upside in rice export prices in dollar terms, said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

“Local rice prices have risen due to falling supplies in central and eastern states. Demand has also slightly improved from Bangladesh,” said another exporter based in Kakinada.

Bangladesh, which has emerged as a major rice importer since 2017 after floods damaged its crops, imported more than 3 million tonnes from July to February, its biggest ever haul, exceeding its previous annual rice import record in just eight months, the food ministry data showed.

The country could buy more rice in the next few months, given the high prices of the staple in domestic markets, a food ministry official said.

“From today, we are resuming subsidized rice sales to help the poor and bring down local prices,” the official added.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s benchmark 5 percent broken rice rates RI-THBKN5-PI slipped to $395-$400 per tonne, free on board (FOB) Bangkok, compared with $404-$410 last week.

The drop in prices was due to flat demand and a lack of major deals on the horizon, traders said.

“On top of the lack of demand, there was also some new rice entering the market,” a Bangkok-based rice trader said.

Thailand, the world’s second-biggest rice exporter, is expecting new rice harvest in April but due to heavy rain and flood in some areas last year, some crops were grown much later and are being harvest off-season.

Prices are expected to drop further if there is no new demand while new crops enter the market, traders said.

Vietnam’s 5-percent broken rice RI-VNBKN5-P1 edged lower to $410-$415 a tonne from $415-$420 a week earlier, as farmers have started harvesting for the winter-spring paddy, traders said on Friday.

“Demand was not too strong, especially when Thai rice is still cheaper... Vietnam’s prices were kept afloat, thanks to some government-to-government deals,” said a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader.

Prices might change vastly after the next two weeks when harvest come into full swing, traders said, adding the market is still eyeing the Philippines’s plan to import 250,000 tonnes of rice.

Vietnam’s rice exports in the first two months of 2018 rose an estimated 14.6 percent from the same period last year to 842,000 tonnes, official data showed. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-rice/asia-rice-supply-dip-perks-up-india-prices-lack-of-deals-hurt-thai-rates-idINL4N1QK3QW Rice importation still needed, says PhilRice

Research agency says no shortage of staple, stock enough for 87 days

By: Anselmo Roque@inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 06:25 AM March 02, 2018

Farmers thresh newly harvested palay at a farm in Labrador town, Pangasinan province. —WILLIE LOMIBAO

SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ—Rice stocks from last year’s harvests and this year’s cropping season assure the country of supply for three months but there is still need to import as augmentation during the lean months of production, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) here said.

A team of PhilRice economists, led by Deputy Executive Director Flordeliza Bordey, collected data for a study on rice security, self-sufficiency and competitiveness.

Highest production

“We have rice stock of almost 3 million metric tons of rice in the first quarter of 2018 that is enough for 87 days,” the PhilRice said in a statement.

The study said the country achieved the highest production last year at 19.3 million MT of palay. This was equivalent to 12.5 million MT of milled rice.

Together with the 900,000 MT of imported rice and the carry-over stock of 2.7 million MT from 2017, the country has 16.1 million MT in the first quarter of this year.

The prevailing stock will be boosted by the 2.9 million MT harvest in the first quarter.

Filipinos consume 110 kilograms of rice per year but the demand also includes raw materials for value-added products, animal feed and spoilage, thus increasing the annual consumption rate.

A National Food Authority employee inspects the agency’s rice stock at its warehouse in Baguio City amid reports of low supply of cheap rice in the market. —EV ESPIRITU

Necessary

Importation remains necessary because the bulk of palay harvest occurs at the fourth quarter of each year, PhilRice said. “It should be understood that there is seasonality of rice production, which is 23 percent in the first quarter, 21 percent in the second quarter, 16 percent in the third quarter and 40 percent in the fourth quarter,” it said.

“Therefore, the timing for the importation is of the essence, as the stock of rice goes down especially during the third quarter, which constitutes the lean months.”

The imported rice would help guard against sudden price fluctuations in the market, it added.

Resignation call

During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Senators Grace Poe and Bam Aquino called on National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Jason Aquino to resign for allegedly failing to act on the agency’s mandate to maintain a buffer stock and stabilize the supply and prices of rice.

Sought for comment on calls for Aquino’s resignation, NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez said: “The senators are in the legislative branch while we are in the executive branch. Both have the right to say what they want to say. As for us, we are still trying to find concrete and immediate solutions to replenish our stocks.”



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Sri Lanka wholesale rice prices fall dramatically in February

Mar 02, 2018 08:27 AM GMT+0530 | 0 Comment(s)

  

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's wholesale rice prices at the Marandagahamula market, which is a benchmark for the rest of the country has fallen dramatically in February with key grades down 20 percent from December 2017, as domestic harvests start to come in.

Marandagahamula Samba, a domestic premium rice fell to 82.30 rupees a kilogram on February 23, plunging 27.1 percent from 104.63 rupees a kilo peak reached on December 29, according to central bank data.

Marandagamula White Kekulu (Raw) rice fell from 20.3 percent from 90.75 rupees a kilo in December 29, to 75.40 rupees in February 23.

Marandagamula Red Raw fell 7.5 percent to 83.25 rupees a kilo to 77.00 rupees a kilogram.

Marandagamula Nadu, a popular grade used widely in mass-market rice takeway market (buth packet) rice fell 21.75 percent to 75.70 rupees a kilo from 96.50 rupees a kilo.

Sri Lanka main Maha (winter/spring) harvest is now coming in with this year's harvest expected to rise 57 percent as the rice growing regions recover from a drought.

The high prices last year helped cushion farmer incomes, as output halved.

Global rice prices are still high. Over 2017 rice prices have risen 20 to 30 percent in rice exporting and importing countries.

Unlike in Sri Lanka, where rice is protected with import duties, most Asian nations produce export grade rice and good harvests pushes up farmer incomes.

In 2017 many countries in Asia were hit by drought, with India's harvests estimated to be down 30 percent in some areas, pushing up prices. Indian coconut prices also rose.

The Food and Agricultural Organization's All Rice Price Index rose 18.1 percent in the year to February 2018.

The premium aromatic rice index was up 25 percent and the higher quality Indica index was up 15.7 percent.

Many countries have blamed the usual suspects, 'errant traders' and 'speculators' for rice price hikes.

"There might be some mechanisms by dishonest businessmen," Bangladesh PM Sheik Hasina was quoted as saying in parliament.

Bangladesh has cut import duties from 28 to 10 percent amid rising prices, the report said. Sri Lanka also cut import duties last year as prices rose amid a drought.

Sri Lanka's central bank also collapsed the rupee in 2015 and 2016 adding to the global rise in prices. In Sri Lanka's 'rice mafias' especially importers and millers are blamed for both hikes and falls in prices.

Sri Lanka's rice prices fall dramatically in good harvests, even when global prices are strong, as farmers who have been protected for years through import duties do not produce grades of rice that can be internationally traded.

Marandahamula benchmark wholesale prices are now at levels seen in December 2015. The government has announced floor prices for farmgate paddy (rough rice) (Colombo/Mar02/2018)

WIDE CORRIDOR:

 

Sri Lanka needs a narrower inflation target to stop stagflation, BOP crises: Bellwether

RED HERRING:

Sri Lanka's 'alternative facts' on bond sales

 

 

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http://economynext.com/Sri_Lanka_wholesale_rice_prices_fall_dramatically_in_February-3-10029.html Reducing rice cultivation in Egypt: A controversy

A government decision to reduce rice cultivation has not been well received by farmers or consumers

Mona El-Fiqi , Thursday 1 Mar 2018

File Photo: Labourers transplant rice seedlings in a paddy field in the Nile Delta town of Kafr Al-Sheikh, north of Cairo, Egypt (Reuters)

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·  Egypt's strategic rice reserves enough to last until end-April: Ministry

Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Ati has announced that the government is reducing the area of land available for rice cultivation by more than 50 per cent.

Instead of 1.7 million feddans, only around 700,000 feddans will be cultivated this year (one feddan is 1.038 acres). The decision, taken to rationalise water consumption, will be applied from May to September 2018.

Rice consumes about two-and-a-half times the amount of water needed to grow wheat or maize as it needs to be grown in flooded fields. The government’s decision to reduce the country’s rice crop is designed to reduce water consumption, and similar measures have already been taken regarding sugarcane and bananas, like rice major consumers of water.

Rice cultivation will now only be allowed in the Delta governorates, and it will be prohibited in Upper Egypt, Suez, South Sinai, Marsa Matrouh, Qalioubiya, Menoufiya, Cairo and Giza. Farmers who violate the new rules will be subject to penalties under Irrigation Law 12/1984.

Many farmers are not happy about the decision, and they have written to the Ministry of Agriculture to complain. Mohamed Abdallah, a farmer in the Daqahliya governorate, said that despite the decision the farmers in his village intended to plant rice as usual because their families eat part of the harvest and sell the rest to earn an income.

Ragab Shehata, head of the Rice Division at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, said this was not the first time the government had issued a similar decision, only to find that it was ignored by farmers.

The decision is designed not only to save water, but also to find a balance between the production and consumption of rice. Production currently exceeds consumption by one million tons annually. In 2017, production stood at four million tons, while consumption was three million.

Following the minister’s announcement, rice prices rose from LE6,000 to LE7,000 per ton. According to Shehata, prices should not be negatively affected until May, but some traders could have taken advantage of the government announcement to increase prices.

Samah Ibrahim, a Cairo housewife, expected to see an increase in rice prices because “less production means less supply and higher prices.”

Consumers have been suffering from hikes in food prices since the floatation of the pound in November 2016. “It is the government’s role to find solutions that reduce prices, not to issue decrees that reduce production,” Ibrahim said. She added that in her view the price rises of rise were due to “traders stockpiling rice to cash in when the price increases.”

Some experts are also against the decision. Ali Abdel-Rahman, head of the International Union for the Environment and Development, a pressure group, blamed the government for not studying the results before making the announcement. “This political decision will have negative impacts on farmers, rice prices and investment in rice industries,” he said.

The decision had not taken farmers who depend on rice for their annual income into consideration, he said. Farmers cannot cultivate land used for growing rice with other crops, and so the total agricultural area will be reduced, he added.

The shortage of water was also not a good enough excuse for such a decision. “Egypt’s current water resources are enough to grow 18 to 20 million feddans of rice, but the actual cultivated area is between eight to 10 million feddans,” he said.

While the government said the aim of the decision was to save Nile water, Abdel-Rahman said that the water used for growing 90 per cent of the rice in the North Delta governorates was salt water from the Mediterranean Sea or reused agricultural water.

“Rice is a basic meal for most Egyptian families, and instead of working to keep Egypt’s self-sufficiency in rice, the government has decided to cut its agricultural area by half,” Abdel-Rahman added.

The government should promote the use of new kinds of rice that do not need as much water, Abdel-Rahman suggested.

The area allocated for rice cultivation has long been a controversial issue. In 2015, the government planned to decrease the area from 1.1 million feddans to 724,200 feddans, but upon consulting the group of economics ministers the decision was put to rest to avoid any shortages in local markets that could lead to increases in prices.

In 2016, the area increased to two million feddans, but was then decreased to 1.7 million feddans in 2017. The highest rice production over the past 10 years was in 2007/2008, when it reached 7.3 million tons, while the lowest was in 2010 with only 4.3 million tons, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics.

The Daqahliya, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Sharqiya, Beheira and Gharbiya governorates have the largest rice-cultivation areas.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/291961/Business/Economy/Reducing-rice-cultivation-in-Egypt-A-controversy.aspx E’bo rice farmers appealing for higher paddy prices


The meeting yesterday at the RDC boardroom

Rice farmers on the Essequibo Coast are once again appealing for an increase in the price being paid per bag of paddy. This plea was yesterday made when farmers met with representatives from the Guyana Rice Development Board [GRDB], during a farmers/miller association meeting.
Rice can be described as the core of the agro industry in Region Two [Pomeroon/Supenaam]. It is the main economic activity within the region. This industry made a drastic recovery late last year when significant exports were shipped to Mexico and Cuba. Farmers on the other hand, now want their share of the benefits, primarily an increase in the price paid per bag of paddy.
Kaieteur News understands that farmers in Region Two are currently being paid $2,800 per bag of paddy graded at level ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. This is already a significant increase as compared to just $2000 during 2015, when Guyana lost the Venezuelan Market. Yesterday, however, rice farmers appealed to a rice miller that they be paid $3000 per bag of paddy. This request comes primarily as the rice harvest in Region Two is just days away.
The miller noted that while he is more than willing to pay $3000 per bag of paddy, there is a heavy cost attached to freight. The miller, who happens to own one of the largest rice mills on the Essequibo Coast, said that the ferry toll per bag of paddy is $300 per ton.
The miller added, “Our freight from Essequibo to Georgetown is a problem because we have to pay both a ferry toll, and a toll at the Demerara Harbor Bridge. A couple of days ago our group shipped from Georgetown 20,000 tons of rice, and that never happened…Our problem here is that we can’t even carry a 1,000 tons from Essequibo via vessel.”
He further explained that the Essequibo River would require some amount of dredging, so that the company can move ahead in loading containers from right in Essequibo. The miller further reiterated that before famers can enjoy an increase in paddy price, vessels need to start docking in Essequibo in an effort to cut transportation cost.
Kaieteur News was told that before docking can commence in Region Two, permission must first be sought from the Transport and Harbor Department and the Maritime Administration. Representatives from GRDB, who included Essequibo’s branch manager, Devindranauth Singh, assured farmers that the river dredging would be pursued by the Board. [
Romario Blair.] 

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Rice Husk Ash sales Market Analysis and Opportunities Forecast to 2025

Rice Husk Ash Sales Market dynamics, structure, characteristics, main players, growth and demand drivers, etc

Markets

On Mar 7, 2018

 

 

Global Rice Husk Ash Sales Market Research Report 2018 to 2025 presents an in-depth assessment of the Rice Husk Ash Sales including enabling technologies, key trends, market drivers, challenges, standardization, regulatory landscape, deployment models, operator case studies, opportunities, future roadmap, value chain, ecosystem player profiles and strategies. The report also presents forecasts for Rice Husk Ash Sales investments from 2018 till 2025. It provides a comprehensive overview of the market, its dynamics, structure, characteristics, main players, growth and demand drivers, etc.

The purpose of the report is to describe the state of the global Rice Husk Ash Sales Market, To present actual and retrospective information about the volumes, dynamics, structure and characteristics of production, imports, exports and consumption and to build a forecast for the market in the next five years. In addition, the report presents an elaborate analysis of the main market participants, price fluctuations, growth and demand drivers of the market and all other factors, influencing its development.

This report studies Rice Husk Ash Sales  in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering  Yihai Kerry Investments, Usher Agro, Guru Metachem, Agrilectric Power Company, Rescon (India), Deelert Group, Jasoriya Rice MillAstrra Chemicals, Agrasen Rice Mill, J.M. Biotech, Gelex Agro Industrial, Kothari Bio Fuels, Gia Gia Nguyen, KRBL Ltd., Viet Delta, Shreenidhi Bio Agric Extracts

Avail Sample Copy of Report at: https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/0307295549/global-rice-husk-ash-sales-market-report-2018/inquiry

Global Rice Husk Ash Sales Market (K Units) by Types (2018-2025)

Market Segment by Types

2014

2018

2025

Market Share (%)2025

CGAR (%)(2018-2025)

Silica Content between 85-89%;

 xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Silica Content between 90-94%;

xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Silica Content between 80-84%;

 xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Silica Content More Than or Equal to 95%

xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Total

 xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Global Rice Husk Ash Sales Market (K Units) by Application (2018-2025)


Market Segment by Application

2014

2018

2025

Market Share (%)2025

CGAR (%)(2018-2025)

Building & Construction

 xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Silica

xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Steel Industry

 xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Ceramics & Refractory

xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Rubber

 xx

xx

xx

xx%

xx%

Total

xx

xx

xx

100%

xx%

The report gives you a visual, one-stop breakdown of the leading products, submarkets and market leader’s market revenue forecasts as well as analysis to 2025.

Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with Sales, Sales, revenue, Market Share (%) and Growth Rate (%) of product in these regions, from 2012 to 2025 (forecast), covering United States, North America (Canada and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.), Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa), RoW (Rest of World).

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Table Global Capacity (K Units), Sales (K Units), Price (USD/Unit), Cost (USD/Unit), Sales Revenue (M USD) and Gross Margin of Rice Husk Ash Sales Market 2018 and Future Predictions by 2018 to 2025.A report also makes sure to give updated information on major Mergers, Acquisition and Expansion happening around the globe.

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India rice rates up on steady demand; stronger baht props up Thai rates

Arpan Varghese

·          

·          

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Rice prices rose in top exporter India this week on healthy demand amid lower supplies, while gains in the local currency and prospects of a deal with the Philippines pushed up rates for the staple grain in Thailand.

A woman spreads paddy crop for drying at a rice mill on the occasion of International Women's Day, on the outskirts of Agartala, March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jayanta Dey/Files

India’s 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices rose by $3 per tonne to $422-$426, the second straight week of gains.

“Inquiries are rising from African countries. Asian buyers are also showing interest,” said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Supplies are falling, forcing exporters to quote higher prices, said another exporter also based in Kakinada.

India’s non basmati rice exports during April-December jumped 39.5 percent from a year ago as Bangladesh and Benin raised purchases.

Meanwhile, demand for the grain from Bangladesh, which has emerged as a major rice importer since 2017 after floods damaged its crops, would stay strong for the next few months, given the high domestic rates, an official with the food ministry in Bangladesh said on Thursday.

In Thailand, benchmark 5 percent broken rice rates climbed to $408-$410 per tonne, free on board (FOB) Bangkok, from $395-$400 last week, amid a stronger baht and hopes of a prospective deal with the Philippines.

Speculation is rife that the Philippines will hold an auction later this month to import 250,000 tonnes and many Thai exporters are interested in this deal, a trader said.

“The fluctuation in prices at the moment depends on the currency exchange rate only because there’s no actual demand,” a Bangkok-based rice trader said.

The baht was on track for its second straight week of gains. [EMRG/FRX] A stronger baht translates to higher export prices in U.S. dollars.

“Many exporters have (also) been buying rice now because of low prices recently,” the trader added.

Prices rose in Vietnam as well, with rates for its 5 percent broken variety gaining to $418-$425 a tonne from $410-$415 a week earlier as farmers pinned their hopes on new government-to-government deals, even though shipments out of the country were falling. 

    “We are having difficulty clinching new deals with buyers, as Vietnamese prices are relatively higher now,” said a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader, adding buyers were seeking $405-$408.

    Vietnam exported 339,706 tonnes of rice in February, down 31 percent from January, but exports in the first two months 2018 rose 13.2 percent from a year earlier to 831,504 tonnes, customs data showed.

The country could export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Sunday.

Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Khanh Vu in Hanoi; Editing by David Evans

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SPONSORED

https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-rice/india-rice-rates-up-on-steady-demand-stronger-baht-props-up-thai-rates-idINKCN1GK1K2

 

Wheat softens on increased supply

PTI | Mar 8, 2018, 14:25 IST

New Delhi, Mar 8 () Wheat prices declined by Rs 10 per quintal at the wholesale grains market today on ample stocks on increased arrivals from growing regions against reduced offtake by flour mills.

Maize also eased on subdued demand from consuming industries.

Traders said besides sluggish demand from flour mills, increased supplies from producing belts, mainly led to decline in wheat prices.

In the national capital, wheat dara (for mills) shed Rs 10 to Rs 1,790-1,795 per quintal. Atta chakki delivery followed suit and traded lower by a similar margin to Rs 1,800-1,805 per 90 kg.

Maize also declined by Rs 10 to Rs 1,400-1,405 per quintal.

Following are today's quotations (in Rs per quintal):

Wheat MP (desi) Rs 2,080-2,280, Wheat dara (for mills) Rs 1,790-1,795 Chakki atta (delivery) Rs 1,800-1,805, Atta Rajdhani (10 kg) Rs 260-300, Shakti Bhog (10 kg) Rs 255-290, Roller flour mill Rs 960-970 (50 kg), Maida Rs 980-9,90 (50 kg)and Sooji Rs 1,040-1,050 (50 kg).

Basmati rice (Lal Quila) Rs 10,700, Shri Lal Mahal Rs 11,300, Super Basmati Rice Rs 9,800, Basmati common new Rs 7,700-7,800, Rice Pusa (1121) Rs 6,700-6,800, Permal raw Rs 2,325-2375, Permal wand Rs 2,375-2,425, Sela Rs 2,800-3,000 and Rice IR-8 Rs 1,975-2,025, Bajra Rs 1,200-1,205, Jowar yellow Rs 1,400-1,450, white Rs 2,800-2,900, Maize Rs 1,400- 1,405, Barley Rs 1,490-1,500. KPS ADI ADI

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/wheat-softens-on-increased-supply/articleshow/63215982.cms India rice rates up on steady demand; stronger baht props up Thai rates

Arpan Varghese

·          

·          

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Rice prices rose in top exporter India this week on healthy demand amid lower supplies, while gains in the local currency and prospects of a deal with the Philippines pushed up rates for the staple grain in Thailand.

A woman spreads paddy crop for drying at a rice mill on the occasion of International Women's Day, on the outskirts of Agartala, March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jayanta Dey/Files

India’s 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices rose by $3 per tonne to $422-$426, the second straight week of gains.

“Inquiries are rising from African countries. Asian buyers are also showing interest,” said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Supplies are falling, forcing exporters to quote higher prices, said another exporter also based in Kakinada.

India’s non basmati rice exports during April-December jumped 39.5 percent from a year ago as Bangladesh and Benin raised purchases.

Meanwhile, demand for the grain from Bangladesh, which has emerged as a major rice importer since 2017 after floods damaged its crops, would stay strong for the next few months, given the high domestic rates, an official with the food ministry in Bangladesh said on Thursday.

In Thailand, benchmark 5 percent broken rice rates climbed to $408-$410 per tonne, free on board (FOB) Bangkok, from $395-$400 last week, amid a stronger baht and hopes of a prospective deal with the Philippines.

Speculation is rife that the Philippines will hold an auction later this month to import 250,000 tonnes and many Thai exporters are interested in this deal, a trader said.

“The fluctuation in prices at the moment depends on the currency exchange rate only because there’s no actual demand,” a Bangkok-based rice trader said.

The baht was on track for its second straight week of gains. [EMRG/FRX] A stronger baht translates to higher export prices in U.S. dollars.

“Many exporters have (also) been buying rice now because of low prices recently,” the trader added.

Prices rose in Vietnam as well, with rates for its 5 percent broken variety gaining to $418-$425 a tonne from $410-$415 a week earlier as farmers pinned their hopes on new government-to-government deals, even though shipments out of the country were falling. 

    “We are having difficulty clinching new deals with buyers, as Vietnamese prices are relatively higher now,” said a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader, adding buyers were seeking $405-$408.

    Vietnam exported 339,706 tonnes of rice in February, 

https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-rice/india-rice-rates-up-on-steady-demand-stronger-baht-props-up-thai-rates-idINKCN1GK1K2

·      FRONT TOP NEWS

Cabinet expresses resolve to provide uninterrupted power to consumers in summer

·       IMADUDDIN

 

·       MAR 7TH, 2018

 

·      0

 

·      VIEWS: 36

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over the power situation and resolved to provide uninterrupted power to the consumers during the upcoming summer season and Ramzan.

The meeting also appreciated the efforts of the incumbent as well as former Minister for Power for addressing sectoral issues relating to power. It was emphasized during the meeting to lay greater focus on addressing administrative and management issues viz-a-viz transmission, distribution and recovery of power dues.

Secretary Power Division briefed the cabinet on projections of electricity demand and supply; and the available generation capacity for catering to the power requirements during the summer season particularly during Ramzan.

It was informed that additional power would be added to the national grid from Tarbela-IV and Neelum-Jhelum Hydro-power projects during next months which would further augment the existing generation capacity. The meeting was also briefed about the current load-management plan.

The prime minister stated that as a result of untiring efforts of the government power generation had significantly increased since 2013. He said that provision of uninterrupted power supply had remained the priority of the present government in order to meet domestic, commercial and industrial requirements.

In order to discourage cigarette smoking, the cabinet approved banning of sale of loose cigarettes by amending the “Prohibition of Sale of Cigarettes to Minors Rules, 2010.

The federal cabinet accorded approval for signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Governments of Somalia and Government of Pakistan for Rendering NADRA’s Services to Somalia Approval was granted to initiate legislation on Geographical Indications Protection Bill, 2017.

Geographical Indications (GIs) is a form of intellectual property rights which identifies a product originating from a specific area, whose quality or reputation is attributable to its place of origin. Possible GIs for Pakistan can include Basmati Rice, Ajrak and Pashmina shawls, Peshawari Chappal, Truck Art, Apricots, Handicrafts, Ornaments etc.

The Cabinet approved appointment of Presiding Officer, Special Court (Offences in Banks), Islamabad.

Cabinet ratified the recommendations of the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) in its meeting held on 22nd February, 2018 and Cabinet Committee on Privatization held on February 16, 2018.

Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Sartaj Aziz briefed the Cabinet in detail regarding measures to enhance cotton production and exports from Pakistan. Cabinet approved transfer of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee and Cotton related matters from Ministry of Textile Industry to Ministry of National Food Security & Research.

https://www.brecorder.com/2018/03/07/403341/cabinet-expresses-resolve-to-provide-uninterrupted-power-to-consumers-in-summer/

IRRI DG Dr Matthew Morell visits BRRI

UNB NEWS

Wednesday 07 March, 2018 08:20:17 pm

Dhaka, Mar 7 (UNB) – Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Dr Matthew Morell visited Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) in Gazipur on Wednesday. 

During the visit BRRI Director General Dr Md Shahjahan Kabir discussed with Dr Morell on ways and means to strengthen collaboration between BRRI and IRRI on some frontier technologies and projects such as Golden Rice, C4 Rice, Zinc Enriched Rice, and Transforming Rice Breeding (TRB) etc.

BRRI Director (Administration and Common Service) Dr Md Ansar Ali, Director (Research) Dr Tamal Lata Aditya, heads of the research divisions of the institute, the senior scientists and officials along with IRRI Representative for South Asia Dr Nafees Meah and IRRI Representative for Bangladesh Dr Humnath Bhandari attended the meeting.  

Dr Morell’s visit was aimed at exchanging ideas between scientists and policy makers as well as knowledge sharing on modern rice technologies as well as ongoing collaboration and promotional activities.

During the discussion the speakers stressed on the need for quick dissemination of modern rice production technologies including farm machinery, seeds of salt tolerant rice varieties as well as how farmers are trying to cope with unfavourable environments using high yielding rice varieties and other inputs to the farm level especially in the south-western and southern coastal belt of the country.

Dr Shahjahan Kabir said “In collaboration with IRRI we have developed a multi-year work plan through which we will be able to increase rice production of the country.”

Referring to the impacts of global warming Dr Morell said, “Rice cultivation in Bangladesh is on the frontline to face the challenges of climate change. And we have to double our efforts to cope with changing climate.”

IRRI DG also lauded BRRI for transforming rice breeding project related activities and expressed satisfaction after getting some latest information about BRRI technologies and their role in helping the resource poor farmers of the country.  He also expressed willingness to extend all out cooperation to BRRI.

Dr Morell showed special interest while taking a look at the confined field trial of the Golden Rice project at the BRRI premises. He was also enthusiastic about the BRRI activities on plant breeding, biotechnology, farm mechanization, the Gene Bank and the institute’s preparedness in facing climate change during the visit.
He expects that zinc enriched rice as well as golden rice would play a vital role in ensuring nutrition security of the people of Bangladesh if it gets proper patronization from all the stakeholders here.
 

http://www.unb.com.bd/bangladesh-news/IRRI-DG-Dr-Matthew-Morell-visits-BRRI/64812

 

British-Pakistani among 12 female artists featured on Google’s Women’s Day doodle

Google Doodle featuring 12 artists from around the world. Photo: Geo News screengrab

Google is celebrating International Women’s Day by featuring doodles of 12 female artists, including a British-Pakistani, on its homepage.

On Thursday, the search engine giant displayed interactive illustrations of artists from 12 countries, including the US, Japan, Pakistan and Mexico.

According to Google, each story represents “a moment, person, or event that has impacted their lives as women. While each artist tells a unique story, the themes are universal, reminding us of how much we often have in common.”

British-Pakistani artist Saffa Khan centered her doodle, titled ‘Homeland’, around being an immigrant, writing a love letter to her first home in Pakistan.

“Being an immigrant, I want people to simply be able to empathise and visualise this small fragment of my most cherished memories of the home I had to leave behind,” Saffa told Huffington Post. “And to understand that the love and support received from strong womanhood can help you accomplish anything.”

Photo: Geo News screengrab

Explaining what International Women’s Day means to her, Saffa said, “International Women’s Day is not only to celebrate numerous achievements of women across the fields of science, arts and humanities, but also to recognise the sacrifices and changes made by women as they fight for recognition and equality everyday in a society dominated by men.”

Saffa’s story of her homeland featured on her doodle reads, “On the roads of my homeland, you will find queues of vibrant trucks and rickshaws full of poetry.”

Photo: Geo News screengrab

“Every Sunday, my family and I would go to our local Itwar Bazaar for fresh samosas in winter and sweetest mangoes in the summer. Mama would spend a lot of time hand-picking garments to make clothes for us to wear on Eid,” Saffa recalled.

The artist further wrote, “I went to the smallest school in the city, but I was taught by the strongest women with the biggest hearts.”

Photo: Geo News screengrab

“This was my home for nine years: Mama’s little jungle, our tiny secure bubble. Depite not having electricity most days, or clean water, we made it work. Thank you, Mama and Baba; home is wherever you are,” she concluded.

The Google Doodle highlights artists Anna Haifisch, Chihiro Takeuchi, Estelí Meza, Francesca Sanna, Isuri, Karabo Poppy Moletsane, Kaveri Gopalakrishnan, Laerte, Philippa Rice, Saffa Khan, Tillie Walden and Tunalaya Dunn. 

Google is also encouraging other women across the world to share their own stories for International Women’s Day with the hashtag “#HerStoryOurStory.” 

https://www.geo.tv/latest/185420-british-pakistani-among-12-female-artists-featured-on-googles-womens-day-doodle

NSW DPI rice event to attract hundreds at Yanco Agricultural Institute

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RICE will thrust into the spotlight at Yanco next week. 

Hundreds of rice growers, researchers and agribusiness representatives will meet at the Yanco Agricultural Institute on March 15 to attend the annual rice industry field day.

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) southern cropping director, Deb Slinger, said the event will showcase results from the Australian Rice Partnership, which links NSW DPI, SunRice and AgriFutures Australia.

“Results for current rice varieties from 14 NSW DPI experiments in the Murrumbidgee and Murray Valleys investigating water, nitrogen and agronomic management, are highlights of the field day,” Ms Slinger said.

“NSW DPI researchers are helping to fine-tune agronomic practices which deliver water savings and can increase gross margins by up to 59 per cent.

“A combination of direct drill sowing and delayed permanent water can save growers up to 4.5 megalitres per hectare compared with aerial sowing and traditional rice irrigation, and that extra water is available to grow more rice and increase gross margins.”

NSW DPI’s rice breeding program is a major focus of the partnership and the field day will feature trials of new varieties due for potential release in the near future.

The latest results from a joint project between NSW DPI and Charles Sturt University, through the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Functional Grains, will focus on factors affecting whole rice grain yield.

The project explores how irrigation management, plant densities, nitrogen rates and timing of nitrogen application affect grain quality to identify management practices which can improve grain quality and profitability.

Growers will hear the latest information on pest and disease management, grain and milling quality research results and see precision rice sowing and harvesting equipment.

A bus tour of NSW DPI’s Yanco Agricultural Institute and Leeton Field Station will inspect research trials designed to inform and boost rice production.

The field day will run from 9.30 am until 1.30 pm, with a complimentary lunch followed by a SunRice update.

https://www.irrigator.com.au/story/5271823/mammoth-event-will-throw-rice-into-the-deep-end-at-yanco/

 

PM briefed on power situation in country ahead of summer

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MARCH 6, 2018 BY STAFF REPORT

·         Cabinet approves ban on sale of loose cigarettes to discourage smoking

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired a meeting of the federal cabinet at Prime Minister’s Office Tuesday where he was briefed on projections of electricity demand and supply and the available generation capacity for catering to the power requirements during the summer season, particularly during Ramzan.

It was informed that additional power would be added to the national grid from Tarbela-IV and Neelum-Jhelum hydropower projects during next months, which would further augment the existing generation capacity. The meeting was also briefed about the current load-management plan.

The prime minister stated that as a result of untiring efforts of the government, power generation had significantly increased since 2013. He added that the provision of the uninterrupted power supply has remained the priority of the present government in order to meet domestic, commercial and industrial requirements.

The cabinet expressed satisfaction over the power situation and resolved to provide uninterrupted power to the consumers during the upcoming summer season and the holy month of Ramzan.

The meeting also appreciated the efforts of the incumbent, as well as former minister for power for addressing sectoral issues. It was emphasised during the meeting to lay greater focus on addressing administrative and management issues relating to transmission, distribution and recovery of power dues.

The meeting also accorded approval for signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Pakistan and Somalia for rendering NADRA’s services to the latter.

Furthermore, approval was granted to initiate legislation on Geographical Indications Protection Bill, 2017.

Geographical Indications (GIs) is a form of intellectual property rights which identifies a product originating from a specific area, whose quality or reputation is attributable to its place of origin. Possible GIs for Pakistan can include basmati rice, ajrak and pashmina shawls, Peshawri chappal, truck art, apricots, handicrafts and ornaments etc.

The cabinet also approved the appointment of presiding officer for special court (offences in banks), Islamabad. It ratified the recommendations of Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) in its meeting held in February, and of Cabinet Committee on Privatization whose meeting was also held last month.

In order to discourage cigarette smoking, the cabinet approved banning of the sale of loose cigarettes by amending the Prohibition of Sale of Cigarettes to Minors Rules, 2010.

Moreover, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sartaj Aziz briefed the cabinet in detail regarding measures to enhance cotton production and exports from Pakistan. Approval was also accorded for the transfer of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee and cotton related matters from Ministry of Textile Industry to Ministry of National Food Security and Research.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/03/06/pm-briefed-on-power-situation-in-country-ahead-of-summer/

 

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Why corrupt politicians want Buhari out – Taiwo

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POLITICS

Why corrupt politicians want Buhari out – Taiwo

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 WALE ELEGBEDE reports 

Hon. Musibau Taiwo is a former Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. In this interview, he speaks on the state of the nation, the anti-corruption war of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his plans to vie for the House of Representatives seat in 2019, among other issues. WALE ELEGBEDE reports

 

What is your assessment of the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration?

We need to give thanks and appreciation to God. If the United States of America is God’s own country, I would say God lives in Nigeria. If we look at where we are coming from, we will see that it is not easy and we should thank God for where we are. Yes, we had a problem, a very serious economic meltdown, I always wonder why President Muhammdu Buhari took over, when we had economic meltdown, why didn’t former president Goodluck Jonathan come back and let people see what will happen.

 

But, because Nigeria is where God lives, it didn’t happen that way, if it happens in some other countries serious crisis would have happened. We have a mini-economy, we have just one source of income, we depend totally on oil and economic meltdown attacked oil and people are not looking at that.

 

The price of a barrel of oil went as low as $28 per barrel and it was being produced at $30 per barrel, which means we were producing at a loss. That was when someone took over power and there was nothing in our foreign reserves. People did not ask how the government of Jonathan was paying workers salaries, they were borrowing money to pay salaries of workers before he left office.

 

Fortunately for us, God gave us a president that is not interested in our money. I don’t even know what Buhari wants because I always pray to God that if I get to his age, I don’t want to bother myself about Nigerian problem again. He came and campaigned with change, he talked about security and anti-corruption. You want to combine two serious things. I always tell people that if you want to fight corruption, you must be very smart because if you are not smart, you don’t know the number of people you are fighting with.

 

Also, corruption is more powerful than the state, corruption is more exposed than the state, corruption is more intelligent than the people that are fighting it. You don’t even know the number of people you are fighting. Corruption starts from the office, from the office attendants, the secretary in the office. You should start from those ones first that is what Buhari wants to fight.

 

He was able to present himself to Nigerians through his records and what he has done in the past. Science and Quran have proven many things to us. Science has proven that no two fingerprints are the same, which means no two human beings can be the same.

 

But, he must look for people he could work with not that they have the same minds with him, but he recruited them. Because corruption is more powerful than the government, corrupt people decided to exchange naira to the dollar at any cost.

 

Then we were at the lowest ebb and we were having fewer dollars in the system, we were selling naira based on demand and supply and the cost of buying dollar went up. The value of your local currency is synonymous to the value of the nation. Today, we need to give credit to the President for the anti-corruption crusade because it has brought about changes. We need to praise Buhari and encourage him to go further.

How would you explain to the common man the benefit of the anti-corruption crusade of this government?

I remember before the last election when they were talking about the performance of former President Jonathan in agriculture. Now we have been able to see the efforts of the current government on changing the system. Due to the devaluation of naira and over-dependence on grains from abroad, the price of a bag of rice went as high as N20,000, nobody asked how the price went down to about N14,000 a bag. For instance, Lagos and Kebbi states government collaborated to cultivate rice through partnership, which was brought about LAKE Rice and that encouraged others.

 

Today, Ogun State is working on Ofada rice. Research has shown that foreign rice is one of the agents of diabetes, but we know that Ofada rice is the best treatment for a diabetic patient. Those are for the common men.

They came up with the Treasury Single Account (TSA). The President is interested in making money for Nigeria elsewhere. We are looking at our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). We are now looking elsewhere to make Nigeria stronger. Lagos State is building rice processing machine to meet the quality of Lagos. In the past, we could not cook Nigerian Jollof from LAKE Rice, but now that is possible. Now, we can see that there is a solution to our problems.

 

People are interested in the corrupt minded Nigerians that want to fight back, they want to fight Buhari. I am happy with Buhari, the economic recession in America lasted about 10 years, but we are almost out of it. Look at what Alhaji Aliko Dangote is doing by building a refinery in Nigeria.

 

This is not just about oil production, but we will get several by-products of oil from that and it would help our economy. Now I am not in government, so I can say this. I am not saying the government is 100 per cent, but they are trying. They are now encouraging people to bring that money back, which would increase the quality of naira and that would help the value of naira as they would use the money to buy naira.

But despite this, the Transparency International has rated the Buhari government low…

I don’t know the criteria they are using. But, they listen to news; nobody will expect Nigeria to be free from corruption overnight. All these things are in the news because we are now looking for the money. The money had been there, Transparency International will keep talking about corruption because it is still in the news. I was in power and I know the amount of money I could get legally. People are now talking of billions of naira, they are stealing more money than they need. We are still corrupt now, that is why they say monkey and snake eat money.

 

Do you think the APC will still do well in the 2019 elections with all the divisions in the party now?

It is a normal thing for democracy. For instance, I contested with 10 aspirants in 2015. We don’t have factions in the party. That is why President Buhari told our National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to go round and make peace in the party and I can assure you that he will unite all because of his pedigree. You should remember that we are strange bedfellows, we are a rainbow coalition.

 

So, you should expect that. In the past, we used to talk about true federalism, devolution of power, state police and others under the Action Congress (AC) and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), but now they are all embracing those things. It is not easy to bring people from different parts of the country together.

 

People say that the governors would oppress people with state police during elections, but the election is just six months out of four years, what of the other over three years that there are no elections. It is a process when people talk about party ideology, I laugh. Ideology comes over time, it doesn’t come on a day. So, they are now thinking along our thoughts. Inter party crisis is normal.

 

Where do you expect to be in 2019 having been out of office for some years now…

I am not going back to the Lagos State House of Assembly. I am interested in the House of Representatives. I have so many things I want to discuss there.

 

For instance, I worked on Anti- Trust Fund in the state Assembly and I did my research and went as far as the US. But, when I got to a stage, I was told that anything trust is on the exclusive list. Trust has to with a lot of things. For instance, you want to open a company, it has to do with trust. Even in the consumer protection, they need the law to put things right.

 

There is another thing that bothers me, in the United States, if you are not born there, you cannot be their president.

 

There is nothing like indigeneship in our constitution, we only have citizenship. People from the east or any part of the country could contest for any position in Lagos State, they have contested for state and federal assembly, they even want to contest for the position of the governor. If we want it to be that way, it has to be across board, it should not be only in Lagos State.

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POLITICS

Lawyers to Ekweremadu: Coup not an option

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Some senior lawyers have expressed concerns over a statement credited to the Senate deputy president, Ike Ekweremadu that the country’s democracy is receding and as such it is not unlikely for the military to take over. The lawyers, who spoke in separate interviews with New Telegraph, were unanimous that despite the numerous challenges the country is facing, military coup should not be an option to be considered by anyone. According to them, the era of military regime in the country is gone for good because the worst form of democratic government is better than the best military regime.

Among those who spoke with our correspondents include Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN), Seyi Sowemimo (SAN), Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Monday Ubani and Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN). Others are the president of Public Interest Lawyers League (PILL), Dr. Abdul Mahmud, a rights activist and public analyst, Rotimi Wusu; Abuja based lawyer, Fred Itoro; a former chairman of NBA, Oyo branch, Mr. Adekunle Babalola and the chairman, NBA, Abeokuta branch, Ibrahim Atanda Though they agreed with Ekweremadu that the nation’s democracy is indeed under threat, they said rather than a military intervention, the political elite must close ranks to address the country’s challenges. Chief Ahamba said those presiding over the country’s affairs should be alive to their responsibilities and avoid creating an enabling environment for the military to take over. He said: “We should not create an enabling environment for the military to take over the affairs of the country.

The enabling environment will arise when anarchy is allowed to take over the country. In that situation, it is either a civil war or coup. So, let us not allow this situation to continue. “Those presiding over the country’s affairs should take charge and put things in proper perspective. However, I don’t think the military should take over under any circumstance.

But, if things go out of hand, we might have a repeat of what happened in Zimbabwe here. “We have to be careful. A situation whereby citizens of a country are being murdered in cold blood as it happened in Benue State and other areas in Nigeria calls for concern.

The situation might go out of hand if the relations of these victims of the dastardly acts decided to take revenge. No one can know to what extent it will go. So, let those in charge act towards prevention rather than waiting for a cure. I believe what the Senate deputy president is trying to alert the nation to is the need to prevent rather than cure.” Sowemimo (SAN), on his part, said Ekweremadu’s statement should be taken in positive light with a word of caution. According to him, “the statement by the Senate deputy president, Ike Ekweremadu, goes to really reinforce what Nigerians might be thinking now about our democracy, which is really under threat.

There is the need for us to be cautious in our approaches to issues between now and the next election. So, we must take his utterances as words of caution and try to amend our ways by retracing our steps. “Though some people might see the statement as tantamount to treason and capable of undermining democracy, I think we shouldn’t see it that way. Except we want to deceive ourselves, a lot of Nigerians are worried with the situation of the country.

So, I want to advise that we see the statement in positive light and take it with a word of caution.” Ubani, who described the statement of the Senate deputy president as unwarranted, said the solution to Nigeria’s problems does not lie in the taking over of its affairs by the military. His words: “I don’t expect that kind of statement from somebody of his status.

Is he not the Senate deputy president? Are they not the one in power? If they wittingly or unwittingly invite the military, all of them will bear the consequence. So, I don’t think it is an appropriate statement for him to make. “They should find solutions to whatever the problems are and I don’t think military rule is the best solution to our problems.

The political elites must come together and proffer solutions to the challenges confronting the country.” Also reacting to the comment, Ozekhome (SAN), however said the Senate deputy president was right even as he described the military’s involvement in politics as an aberration.

“Sure, he (Ekweremadu) is right. Although, I do not support a military take over for the simple reason that it conscripts the democratic space, the point must be made that studies of the political temperature, using the barometer of lack of democracy dividends, blatant violation of human rights, rule of law and total abnegation of democratic concepts, Ekweremadu should be commended for this timely warning. Nigerians have never been so democratically trashed as now,” he said. Dr. Mahmud, who described Ekweremadu’s statement as reckless, said: “It’s a reckless statement made by the Senate deputy president. No matter the imperfections and flaws of our civil governance, it does not call for the return of military autarchy. “The constitution is the basic law and any contraption not recognised by section 1(2) CFRN 1999 is illegal.

In fact that section clearly states that our republic shall be governed in accordance with the provisions of the CFRN 1999. “Is military rule possible in Nigeria? No! The ills of our country today can be traced to the era of military autarchy and the likes of Ekweremadu should be using legislative instruments to purge our country of the vestiges of that era.” Wusu also condemned Ekweremadu’s statement.

“The worst democracy is better than military rule. That is to say Nigeria, as it is today is not ready for a military rule. “Nigeria’s democracy is not under threat. Rather it is the political class under threat of losing their grip on power. Nigerians are now more aware about governance and 2019 gives us a big opportunity to change the narratives to suit the people,” he said. Itoro, on his part, noted that Ekweremadu had just spoken out the truth and that his advice should be taken before it is too late.

His words: “His statement is purely the truth and nothing but the truth. When you look at the trend of governance, you will agree with the deputy Senate President that the Democracy of the country is under threat.” Babalola who also faulted Ekweremadu said: “It is just unfortunate that such a statement is coming from the Senate deputy president, who is expected to uphold and protect the tenets of democracy. He should be arrested for treasonable felony for even suggesting the likelihood of military takeover.” Also speaking, Atanda said Nigerians do not want the military to return to power and that the people will not welcome an unconstitutional idea. He said: “In the first instance, military rule is absolutely unconstitutional. So, the issue of whether we are even ready or not does not even come in.

It is something that is legal that you can say maybe it can come or not. It’s absolutely unconstitutional.” The Akure chapter of the NBA also faulted Ekeremadu’s claim. Chairman of the chapter, Mr. Tunji Oso, said the statement credited to the Senate deputy president was unfortunate, uncalled for and an invitation to a coup.

Oso said there are enough institutional frameworks to deal with any infractions to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and so, there is no need for a military putsch. According to him, the judiciary should be strengthened so that whoever feels aggrieved could go to court and challenge the actions of those in government.

“We are no longer secure, people are killed in their hundreds on daily basis and this is a government that ought to protect lives and property of its citizens. We saw children of underage voting in Kano during the local government election and they are saying it did not happen; that it happened in Kenya, when actually it happened in Kano. The government has been all lies all through, it has never told Nigerians the truth,” he said.

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POLITICS

Labour vows to resist military intervention

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 Correspondents 

·        Nigerians: Coup, no longer fashionable

·        Afenifere, Ohanaeze, ACF speak

 

The organised labour, yesterday, vowed to ensure that Nigeria’s democracy is not short lived by any form of military intervention. This is as a cross section of Nigerians also rejected the idea of military takeover, saying it is not only unconstitutional but no longer fashionable.

They were reacting to Wednesday’s warning by the Senate Deputy President, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu, that Nigeria risks military intervention if the ugly trend of incessant political violence, intimidation and killings were not tackled by the present administration. Labour under the aegis of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), in their separate reactions, said they will resist any incursion into the polity by the military. The General Secretary of the NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, told one of our correspondents in Abuja that under no circumstance will Nigerian workers support military rule in the country. According to him, the era of military junta in the country is a thing of the past and no longer welcome to resurface in the nation’s polity.

His words: “For the NLC, We believe the era of military intervention in our politics is over and we must give a chance for democratic culture to grow and deepen. Under no circumstance will we support any military intervention. We will resist any attempt by the military to truncate democracy in Nigeria,” he said.

TUC president, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, on his part, said Nigerians will not allow the military to destroy the hard work put in place in ensuring a democratic process in the country. “Democracy has come a long way and no military junta can play on the intelligence of Nigerians.

It is unacceptable and Nigerians will march out and say no to them. Our democracy has come to stay,” he said. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which also condemned in strong terms the idea of coup in the country, said military takeover, can never be an alternative to a people-oriented government.

ASUU president, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, in an exclusive interview with New Telegraph, said what Nigeria is experiencing is an intra-class crisis among the ruling class, but warned that the series of violence may drive the country towards anarchy. He, however, said: “Military can never be an alternative to a people-oriented government.

We have experienced their incursions in the past, but what was the result? What we are experiencing is an intra-class struggle among the ruling elite and the violence is a reaction from the people, the impoverished as a result of their primitive accumulation of wealth.

“To address this challenge, we must have a people-oriented government which will afford Nigerians the opportunity to run their government themselves rather than the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other imperialist institutions dictating the control of the economy.”

The Joint Action Front (JAF), a coalition of labour unions and rights group, in its reaction suggested that rather than allowing the return of military in Nigeria, the people should organise themselves and enthrone a people-oriented government. Secretary of JAF, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, said he could not fathom any reason why someone would ever imagine military take-over in Nigeria.

“All I will say is that the people should organise and take over their own government,” he said. Chairman of Oyo State chapter of the NLC, Comrade Waheed Olojede, who also spoke on the issue said” “It is out of place for people to be talking of military take-over now, when the entire world is tending towards democracy.

Nigeria has been practicing democratic governance for many years, but we must know that in spite of the shortcomings in the system, the worst democracy is better than the best military rule. I don’t subscribe to such statement because all over the world, military rule is no longer popular.

“But for such a statement to have come from a person of such status as Senate deputy president, it means that the government should look inwards. It is high time they took cautionary steps to avert such possibility. In view of the present situation, where Nigerians are expressing disenchantment with the activities of their leaders, the government should wake up to address the demands of the populace. Afenifere chieftain, Senator Femi Okurounmu, who spoke with our correspondent in Abeokuta, argued that it was the military that ruined Nigeria and brought the country to its knees and so any intervention by soldiers would not be welcomed.

He said: “Nigerians don’t want any military takeover again. In fact, I will say Nigerians don’t ever want any more military rule in the country. Number one, military rule is out of fashion all over the world. It is anti-democracy and democracy is the government of the people. Military rule is autocratic; it is a kind of dictatorship. “Secondly, military rule is what has brought Nigeria to its knees the way it is today. It is the military that ruined Nigeria mostly.

They were the ones who departed from our federal constitution and imposed a unitary constitution upon which a section of the country has been ruling the country almost the way it wants. Therefore, to say that the military is to take over, we shall just be jumping from frying pan to fire. “Thirdly, in Nigeria, military rule favours the northerners. Military rule never favours us in the south because the Nigeria Army is almost a Northern Army.

The Southerners there are just there as more or less as onlookers, as passengers. A military takeover will mean that another Fulani man will take over and rule us the way he wants arbitrarily. For these three reasons, we don’t want military rule. The people must fight for their own freedom. We must fight for our own liberation.

There is no alternative to freedom.” Also speaking, First Republic Aviation Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, said any military takeover of government will lead to the disintegration of the country. Though the elder statesman acknowledged that events in the country suggest that all is not well, he ruled out military option, describing it as outdated.

“What is happening in government now is capable of leading to military takeover, but in Africa and world over military coup is no longer a popular enterprise, so it should not to be contemplated. But those in government should be careful because any military takeover will lead to disintegration of Nigeria.” Former Minister of Mines and Steel Development and All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Sarafa Ishola, said the country will come out worse under military rule. His words:”Military rule will not solve our democratic problems for us. Democracy is evolution. After every military intervention, we come up worse than where we picked from.

If you look at the pattern from First Republic, Second Republic and Third Republic, it’s usually the same. Democracy is an evolution; we would have our problem, we would learn from it and we would progress. We should all work together and make sure that we don’t truncate this hard won democracy.”

National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, in his reaction said: “It is fearful and frightening when a Senate deputy president begins to raise fear about coup. I think for those of us who fought and lost our freedom to have this democracy established, it is a sad development. It is also a statement on the performance of the APC.

“They are shutting down the freedom of speech, people are being killed all over the place and the President is not doing anything about. I think it’s time for the APC to start behaving in line with the constitution and stop all these impunity acts. They should know that we are in a democracy.”

But, a former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, who said a coup is still possible in Nigeria, stated that worsening living conditions will make it feasible. He said: “A coup is still possible in Nigeria because of the hunger and suffering in the land. There is still class exploitation and oppression and infighting among the perpetrators at the moment. We can’t prevent a coup as long as injustice and oppression of the people continues. Those controlling the political system at the moment are there for their selfish interest; that of the nation is secondary. “This explains the negative state of the nation, particularly the suffering of the people.

The Nigerian ruling class believes that they will continue to enslave the people and get away with it, but the question is: What makes Nigeria different from countries where coups have taken place. The only way to stop a coup in Nigeria is freeing the people from slavery.” Pan Yoruba social-cultural group, Afenifere, in its reaction agreed with the Senate deputy president that the nation’s democracy is under threat. Secretary of the group, Bashorun Seinde Arogbofa, who spoke in Akure, Ondo State capital, said the threat is as a result of insecurity that pervades the country, deliberate disobedience to rule of law and the use of security agents to harass opposition politicians. His words: “Where is democracy when there is no security of lives and property? Where is democracy when you can kill your neighbour without any consequences? Where is democracy when some people are roaming around the town with AK47 rifles, killing farmers as security personnel look the other side?” The Afenifere scribe added that unemployment, collapse of the economy and breach of fundamental rights of citizens are issues that can lead to truncating of Nigeria’s democracy.

But, Secretary of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony Sani, who disagreed with Ekweremadu’s view, said the military knows that it would be rejected if it embarks on a coup. His words: “I do not share the opinion of the Senate deputy president, Senator Ike Ekwremadu, that coup is possible in Nigeria. This is because soldiers themselves know that coup is no more in fashion, considering how international platforms do not take kindly to coups at this time.

“As to the submission that our democracy is under threat, it is important to know that our democracy is work in progress. This is because democracy, premised on triple foundation of justice, liberty and common decency is not a natural order of things, but attained through ceaseless hard work by both the leaders and the led.” Apex Igbo body, Ohanaeze Ndigbo on its part, said Ekweremadu was right in his statement that the nation’s democracy is under threat and that he was even mild about it.

National Publicity Secretary of the group, Prince Uche Achi- Okpagha, in an interview with our correspondent, noted that the country has never been divided more than ever since the inception of the Muhammadu Buhari administration. “The Senate deputy president did not even describe Nigeria’s democracy situation very well because the situation is even more than he talked about. May be, because he is at the top echelon of the National Assembly, he was mild about it. Nigeria is divided more than ever since the inception of this administration. There is sectionalism in appointments, where virtually every key position went to the North and as we were crying of that, more and more appointments were made and they all went to the North.

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), however, came hard on Ekweremadu for saying that coup is possible in Nigeria. The pan northern group said the situation in the country did not warrant the comment attributed to the Senate deputy president, as what he was reacting to concerns a few individuals. Speaking through its National Chairman and former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomasie, ACF said the situation in the country can still be dealt with by the judiciary. He added that soldiers know that coup is no longer fashionable.

“What are the indicators that made him to say that? Some of these things are just by few individuals and cannot be used to judge the whole democracy and I believe that whatever it is can be handled by the judiciary. It is not enough for somebody of the status of the Senate deputy president to say that democracy is under threat and coup is possible in Nigeria; no I don’t think so.” An APC stalwartin Kaduna State, Alhaji Salisu Tanko Wusono, called for Ekweremadu’s arrest, noted that intra party wrangling within some states is not enough to say coup is possible.

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Ondo: APC, PDP in a state of inertia ahead of 2019

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 Babatope Okeowo 

Ahead of the forthcoming general elections in Ondo State, Babatope Okeowo reports that the major political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have not shown any serious intent to contest the election

 

Unlike other states, governorship election would not hold in Ondo State until 2020. Thus, in the 2019 general elections, only the presidential, National and State Assemblies elections would affect the various constituencies in the Sunshine State.

All Progressives Congress
In Ondo State, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is sharply divided between those who are loyal to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and those in the camp of the embattled former chairman of the party, Hon Duerimini Isaacs Kekemeke.

In the camp of the governor is the acting Chairman, Ade Adetimehin, members of the State Working Committee, Commissioners, Local Government executives of the party and government appointees. This camp is formidable because they effectively occupy the party secretariat and controls the government. Also, two of the three serving senators, the majority of the House of Representative members and the APC’s caucus in the State House of Assembly.
However, in the camp of Kekemeke is Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice, the Senator representing Ondo North senatorial district, Dr Segun Abraham, the runner-up in the APC’s governorship primaries of September 2016; Chief Felix Aiyegbusi, Alhaji Amoda Bello, Mr Gboyega Adedipe and some aggrieved members of the party.

Since the ‘suspension’ of Kekemeke as chairman by the loyalists of Akeredolu and the installation of Adetimehin as the acting chairman, members of the party have been sharply divided over who is the authentic leader of the party in the state.

This division is affecting the preparation of the party for the 2019 general election. The apprehension of the party stalwarts stemmed out of the as the litigation over the dispute is still pending before the Federal High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital.

While Kekemeke is the elected Chairman of the party, some members of the State Executive Committee (SEC) led by the Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Adesanya have directed the Deputy Chairman, Adetimehin, to be the Acting Chairman having pronounced Kekemeke suspended.
Adesanya said the State Executive Council (SEC) have unanimously passed a vote-of-no-confidence on the State Chairman for failing to discharge his responsibilities, neglect and dereliction of duty, among other offenses, in compliance with Article 21(D)(vi), of the Constitution of the APC.

According to him, a three-man facts finding disciplinary committee put in place found Kekemeke guilty and advised him to resign. Adetimehin was unanimously chosen to act as the state chairman.
But Kekemeke dispelled the action of the ‘rebellious’ members and said he remained the Chairman of the party until the next congress that would usher in a new set of executives. His words “I am the chairman of APC in Ondo State. As a matter of fact I am the only elected officer of the party in the state, there was only a congress and that congress elected me and I defeated my incumbent deputy.”
Although the National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun, has given Adetimehin letter of appointment as acting Chairman, Kekemeke described the letter as ‘black market’ letter as Oyegun has no power under the APC’s constitution to appoint state officials.
The fear in many quarters is that the party may have parallel congresses where two executives would emerge. The dispute may lead to litigation which may affect the preparations of the party for the next year general elections.

Peoples Democratic Party
Although the factional crisis that rocked the State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has healed, the scar is still very much alive as leaders of the party are still suspicious of one another.
The loss of the last governorship election in the state has further created a wedge between the immediate past governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko and the candidate of the party, Mr Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), with leaders of the party pitching their tents with either of the duo.

The thinking in the camp of Jegede was that Mimiko betrayed the party’s candidate in order to have protection of the APC- led federal government. It must be noted that Mimiko won in his Ondo East and West Federal constituency for the party’s candidate. Despite this, supporters of Jegede believed that Mimiko played ‘game’ with the election.

The fact that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has not invited Mimiko for questioning since he left office gave credence to the insinuations that the erstwhile governor was in alliance with the APC-led Federal Government.
Similarly, the fact that Akeredolu has not set up any probe panel to investigate Mimiko’s tenure despite the fact that the two of them belonged to opposition political parties further fuelled the speculation that Mimiko and APC leaders are in accord before the last governorship election.

They also opined that since Mimiko left office about a year ago, he has not granted an interview to express his view about the national happenings despite the obvious misgovernance at the federal level.
Being a leader of the party and with the firm grip of the structure of the PDP in the state, it is obvious that the PDP has been in comatose since Mimiko left office about a year ago because of his nonchalant attitude to the party.
The rumour mill in the political circle is that Mimiko is on his way to the new coalition proposed by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo or to the APC.

The inability of his supporters to read his body language has put the opposition party in sleeping mode since it left the government for the opposition in February 2016. Mimiko is also keeping his cards close to his chest making it difficult to read his political moves.

The drift in the opposition party has led to the defection of those elected under the platform of the party to ruling APC. For instance, the PDP which had 21 members after the 2015 general election is left with seven. The only Senator of the party, Yele Omogunwa has defected to APC while members of House of Representatives are left with three members.
The only life injected into the party is those interested in contesting various positions in the party ahead of 2019 elections. The aspirants have been organizing different meetings to galvanize support for their ambitions. The party has also started ward meetings in order to keep in touch with the grassroots.
However, the silence and inability to read the body language of the leader of the party; Mimiko has not made the party to embark on aggressive marketing as the party as presently constituted is a sheep without shepherd.

 

 

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Rice exporters demand industry status

March 08, 2018

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LAHORE - The Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has asked the government to declare the rice sector as an industry and provide it all incentives in line with other five zero rated export sectors.

This was expressed by the speakers of at a dinner reception held in honour of Punjab Governor Rafique Rajwana organized by the rice exporters here at a local hotel.

The reception was also addressed by the REAP chairman Samee Ullah Naeem, UBG chairman Iftikhar Malik, LCCI former president, REAP former chairman Shehzad Ali Malik, Pir Nazim Hussain and members of the Association.

Samee Ullah said that government's support and investment in holding foreign exhibitions should be made a policy to brand Pakistani basmati ricethe world over.

He said that Pakistan's share in overall basmati export has gradually decreased compared to India, mainly due to the bigger crop size in the neighboring country, and government support to farmers to keep growing the variety while focusing on crop yield with subsidized inputs.

Samee Ullah said that India is more organized, while in Pakistan individual millers try but remain inconsistent either due to lower international prices, product quality and lack of support from the government to establish brand image.

He believed that a diverse product range, including the export of rice , would help Pakistan tap international markets and increase its foreign exchange earnings.

Rajwana congratulated the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan for organizing a prestigious Award Ceremony recently in Dubai to promote riceexports.

He said that Pakistani rice has been exported to more than 100 countries of the world, expressing the hope that this trend will continue with the same zeal in future.

He assured REAP team of his support for the betterment of rice industry of Pakistan.

Iftikhar Malik said that demand for Pakistani rice has increased due to its special fragrance, colour and quality across the world.

He called for consistency in research and development work in agricultural sector besides raising investment in research to achieve food security in future.

He said that public-private sector should join hands for increasing investment in agriculture research.

He said that adding value to the farm produce is crucial for increasing farmers' income and establishing agri-related industries in the rural areas will not only provide employment but also help in minimizing migration to cities.

https://nation.com.pk/08-Mar-2018/rice-exporters-demand-industry-status

Inspire fellowship for Punjab Agricultural University student

Shariq MajeedTNN | Mar 7, 2018, 19:42 IST

Manpreet Singh

LUDHIANA: Manpreet Singh, a Ph. D. Research scholar from the Department of AgronomyPunjab Agricultural University(PAU), has been awarded INSPIRE Fellowship by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for the Ph.D. research titled "Weed Management in Dry-Seeded Rice through Integration of Tillage, Cultural Practices and Herbicides".

 


His major advisor, M.S. Bhullar, senior Agronomist informed that focus of the study is on greater understanding of soil-weed-seed bank dynamics and establishment of weed species, for development of effective weed management in dry-seeded rice. His M.Sc. research titled 'Integrated weed management in dry-seeded rice using stale seedbeds and post sowing herbicides', conducted under the guidance of Bhullar, has been accepted for publication in 'Field Crops Research'- a Peer Reviewed Journal.

 


A statement by PAU said that Earlier, on the basis of his achievements in academics and research, Manpreet was awarded 'Travel Grant' by 
Indian Society of Weed Science for presenting a research paper in its Biennial Conference held in 2017. He is also the recipient of Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh Gill Medal for the year 2015-16.

 


Click here for more Education News

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/inspire-fellowship-for-punjab-agricultural-university-student/articleshow/63205335.cms

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Red Rice Red Market Worldwide: Market Dynamics And Trends, Efficiencies Forecast 2023

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Bisc 357 students use CRISPR genome editing technology in an effort to improve the ability of rice and wheat to flourish in hot and dry conditions.

LEARNING

SFU students use CRISPR genome editing technology in hopes of improving yields of rice and wheat

March 07, 2018

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Hands-on training for using a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR is giving SFU biological sciences undergrads new insight into how rice and wheat might be genetically altered to improve yield.

By Diane Mar-Nicolle

The United Nations predicts that by 2050 our growing global population will require 70 per cent more food than is available today. Compounding this enormous shortfall is a loss of agricultural land to urbanization, and the effects of global warming—particularly high temperatures—on crop growth.

SFU biological sciences faculty Jim Mattsson and Kathleen FitzPatrick, together with students in their Genetic Engineering (BISC 357) course, are working towards a solution using CRISPR genome-editing technology.

“Rice and wheat are essential to diets around the world,” says Matsson. “That’s why there is a worldwide effort to improve rice and, eventually, wheat so they can be productive at higher temperatures.”

His students are using the cutting-edge CRISPR technology to decipher which rice and wheat genes need to be modified to improve growth.

Plant species such as sugarcane and millet, for example, have naturally evolved to produce at higher temperatures, but that hasn’t happened in their relatives, rice and wheat.

Mattsson figures that by identifying the genes responsible for forming veins in millet leaves (more veins permit greater photosynthesis and therefore growth), it should be possible to reverse engineer more veins in rice and wheat plants.

So during the fall 2017 term, Mattsson and FitzPatrick challenged their students to learn how to use CRISPR to identify the genes behind the evolution of heat stress tolerance in millet.

With this successfully accomplished, future classes will compare these millet genes to their cousin genes in rice to see how the rice genes need to be changed or reverse engineered to gain heat tolerance. 

“The students were thrilled to discover that they had successfully put together DNA fragments capable of inactivating, one by one, over 30 individual genes in living millet plants,” says Matsson. “They knew the theory behind CRISPR, but to get a chance to actually splice genes was pretty exciting for them.”

Student Serina Li says, “I found that the course provided me with a really good foundation for the molecular cloning techniques and applications that are currently used in labs. “We were working on specific projects while learning the techniques involved, so that we were able to apply what we learned right away. This was one of my favourite aspects of the course, as it made the material easier to learn and also was more relevant to how one would conduct these types of experiments as a real scientist.”

Around the world, scientists have high expectations of CRISPR technology, mainly for treating human disease.

Mattsson is equally delighted with CRISPR’s prospects for plant engineering.

He says, “In my class alone, students are discovering what genes are doing with a precision and scale that was unheard of just a few years ago.”

Bisc 357 students achieved lab results that may improve rice and wheat plants' abilities to flourish in hot and dry conditions.

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Bisc 357 students use CRISPR genome editing technology in an effort to improve the ability of rice and wheat to flourish in hot and dry conditions.

LEARNING

SFU students use CRISPR genome editing technology in hopes of improving yields of rice and wheat

March 07, 2018

Tweet Facebook Pinterest Email Print

Hands-on training for using a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR is giving SFU biological sciences undergrads new insight into how rice and wheat might be genetically altered to improve yield.

By Diane Mar-Nicolle

The United Nations predicts that by 2050 our growing global population will require 70 per cent more food than is available today. Compounding this enormous shortfall is a loss of agricultural land to urbanization, and the effects of global warming—particularly high temperatures—on crop growth.

SFU biological sciences faculty Jim Mattsson and Kathleen FitzPatrick, together with students in their Genetic Engineering (BISC 357) course, are working towards a solution using CRISPR genome-editing technology.

“Rice and wheat are essential to diets around the world,” says Matsson. “That’s why there is a worldwide effort to improve rice and, eventually, wheat so they can be productive at higher temperatures.”

His students are using the cutting-edge CRISPR technology to decipher which rice and wheat genes need to be modified to improve growth.

Plant species such as sugarcane and millet, for example, have naturally evolved to produce at higher temperatures, but that hasn’t happened in their relatives, rice and wheat.

Mattsson figures that by identifying the genes responsible for forming veins in millet leaves (more veins permit greater photosynthesis and therefore growth), it should be possible to reverse engineer more veins in rice and wheat plants.

So during the fall 2017 term, Mattsson and FitzPatrick challenged their students to learn how to use CRISPR to identify the genes behind the evolution of heat stress tolerance in millet.

With this successfully accomplished, future classes will compare these millet genes to their cousin genes in rice to see how the rice genes need to be changed or reverse engineered to gain heat tolerance. 

“The students were thrilled to discover that they had successfully put together DNA fragments capable of inactivating, one by one, over 30 individual genes in living millet plants,” says Matsson. “They knew the theory behind CRISPR, but to get a chance to actually splice genes was pretty exciting for them.”

Student Serina Li says, “I found that the course provided me with a really good foundation for the molecular cloning techniques and applications that are currently used in labs. “We were working on specific projects while learning the techniques involved, so that we were able to apply what we learned right away. This was one of my favourite aspects of the course, as it made the material easier to learn and also was more relevant to how one would conduct these types of experiments as a real scientist.”

Around the world, scientists have high expectations of CRISPR technology, mainly for treating human disease.

Mattsson is equally delighted with CRISPR’s prospects for plant engineering.

He says, “In my class alone, students are discovering what genes are doing with a precision and scale that was unheard of just a few years ago.”

Bisc 357 students achieved lab results that may improve rice and wheat plants' abilities to flourish in hot and dry conditions.

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SFU News This site SFU.ca A-Z DIRECTORY SIGN IN HOME CONTACT US ABOUT SFU NEWS PEOPLE SPORTS RESEARCH COMMUNITY LEARNING FACULTY AND STAFF SFU IN THE NEWS ARCHIVES FEEDBACK Bisc 357 students use CRISPR genome editing technology in an effort to improve the ability of rice and wheat to flourish in hot and dry conditions. LEARNING SFU students use CRISPR genome editing technology in hopes of improving yields of rice and wheat March 07, 2018 Tweet Facebook Pinterest Email Print Hands-on training for using a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR is giving SFU biological sciences undergrads new insight into how rice and wheat might be genetically altered to improve yield. By Diane Mar-Nicolle The United Nations predicts that by 2050 our growing global population will require 70 per cent more food than is available today. Compounding this enormous shortfall is a loss of agricultural land to urbanization, and the effects of global warming—particularly high temperatures—on crop growth. SFU biological sciences faculty Jim Mattsson and Kathleen FitzPatrick, together with students in their Genetic Engineering (BISC 357) course, are working towards a solution using CRISPR genome-editing technology. “Rice and wheat are essential to diets around the world,” says Matsson. “That’s why there is a worldwide effort to improve rice and, eventually, wheat so they can be productive at higher temperatures.” His students are using the cutting-edge CRISPR technology to decipher which rice and wheat genes need to be modified to improve growth. Plant species such as sugarcane and millet, for example, have naturally evolved to produce at higher temperatures, but that hasn’t happened in their relatives, rice and wheat. Mattsson figures that by identifying the genes responsible for forming veins in millet leaves (more veins permit greater photosynthesis and therefore growth), it should be possible to reverse engineer more veins in rice and wheat plants. So during the fall 2017 term, Mattsson and FitzPatrick challenged their students to learn how to use CRISPR to identify the genes behind the evolution of heat stress tolerance in millet. With this successfully accomplished, future classes will compare these millet genes to their cousin genes in rice to see how the rice genes need to be changed or reverse engineered to gain heat tolerance.  “The students were thrilled to discover that they had successfully put together DNA fragments capable of inactivating, one by one, over 30 individual genes in living millet plants,” says Matsson. “They knew the theory behind CRISPR, but to get a chance to actually splice genes was pretty exciting for them.” Student Serina Li says, “I found that the course provided me with a really good foundation for the molecular cloning techniques and applications that are currently used in labs. “We were working on specific projects while learning the techniques involved, so that we were able to apply what we learned right away. This was one of my favourite aspects of the course, as it made the material easier to learn and also was more relevant to how one would conduct these types of experiments as a real scientist.” Around the world, scientists have high expectations of CRISPR technology, mainly for treating human disease. Mattsson is equally delighted with CRISPR’s prospects for plant engineering. He says, “In my class alone, students are discovering what genes are doing with a precision and scale that was unheard of just a few years ago.” Bisc 357 students achieved lab results that may improve rice and wheat plants' abilities to flourish in hot and dry conditions. Admission Programs Learning Research Community About Maps + directions Library Academic Calendar Road Report Give to SFU CONNECT WITH US Facebook Twitter YouTube CONTACT US Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 Terms and conditions © Simon Fraser University SFU News This site SFU.ca A-Z DIRECTORY SIGN IN HOME CONTACT US ABOUT SFU NEWS PEOPLE SPORTS RESEARCH COMMUNITY LEARNING FACULTY AND STAFF SFU IN THE NEWS ARCHIVES FEEDBACK Bisc 357 students use CRISPR genome editing technology in an effort to improve the ability of rice and wheat to flourish in hot and dry conditions. LEARNING SFU students use CRISPR genome editing technology in hopes of improving yields of rice and wheat March 07, 2018 Tweet Facebook Pinterest Email Print Hands-on training for using a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR is giving SFU biological sciences undergrads new insight into how rice and wheat might be genetically altered to improve yield. By Diane Mar-Nicolle The United Nations predicts that by 2050 our growing global population will require 70 per cent more food than is available today. Compounding this enormous shortfall is a loss of agricultural land to urbanization, and the effects of global warming—particularly high temperatures—on crop growth. SFU biological sciences faculty Jim Mattsson and Kathleen FitzPatrick, together with students in their Genetic Engineering (BISC 357) course, are working towards a solution using CRISPR genome-editing technology. “Rice and wheat are essential to diets around the world,” says Matsson. “That’s why there is a worldwide effort to improve rice and, eventually, wheat so they can be productive at higher temperatures.” His students are using the cutting-edge CRISPR technology to decipher which rice and wheat genes need to be modified to improve growth. Plant species such as sugarcane and millet, for example, have naturally evolved to produce at higher temperatures, but that hasn’t happened in their relatives, rice and wheat. Mattsson figures that by identifying the genes responsible for forming veins in millet leaves (more veins permit greater photosynthesis and therefore growth), it should be possible to reverse engineer more veins in rice and wheat plants. So during the fall 2017 term, Mattsson and FitzPatrick challenged their students to learn how to use CRISPR to identify the genes behind the evolution of heat stress tolerance in millet. With this successfully accomplished, future classes will compare these millet genes to their cousin genes in rice to see how the rice genes need to be changed or reverse engineered to gain heat tolerance.  “The students were thrilled to discover that they had successfully put together DNA fragments capable of inactivating, one by one, over 30 individual genes in living millet plants,” says Matsson. “They knew the theory behind CRISPR, but to get a chance to actually splice genes was pretty exciting for them.” Student Serina Li says, “I found that the course provided me with a really good foundation for the molecular cloning techniques and applications that are currently used in labs. “We were working on specific projects while learning the techniques involved, so that we were able to apply what we learned right away. This was one of my favourite aspects of the course, as it made the material easier to learn and also was more relevant to how one would conduct these types of experiments as a real scientist.” Around the world, scientists have high expectations of CRISPR technology, mainly for treating human disease. Mattsson is equally delighted with CRISPR’s prospects for plant engineering. He says, “In my class alone, students are discovering what genes are doing with a precision and scale that was unheard of just a few years ago.” Bisc 357 students achieved lab results that may improve rice and wheat plants' abilities to flourish in hot and dry conditions. Admission Programs Learning Research Community About Maps + directions Library Academic Calendar Road Report Give to SFU CONNECT WITH US Facebook Twitter YouTube CONTACT US Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 Terms and conditions © Simon Fraser University ShareThis Copy and Paste

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Researchers Package New Immunotherapy in Hydrogel to Better Fight Cancer

Wed, 03/07/2018 - 3:54pm

by Kenny Walter - Digital Reporter - 

@RandDMagazine

Researchers have found a new tool in the fight against cancer, combining a new immunotherapy drug with a hydrogel.

Scientists from Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have developed STINGel, a therapy that combines a new class of immunotherapy drugs with an injectable hydrogel that releases it in a more prolonged, steady dose.

The researchers found that slow-release peptide gels could continuously deliver immunotherapy drugs to tumor sites for extended periods of time.

The hydrogel, which is harmless to normal cells, has immunotherapy drugs inside called cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs), which have been shown to attack cancer cells. CDNs are a powerful new class of immunotherapy drugs known as STING (Stimulator of Interferon Genes) agonists, currently in clinical trials.

However, research has found that the CDN drugs are flushed quickly from the body, and current trials require multiple injections.

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The Immunology of Cancer

“The normal approach to CDN delivery is simple injection, but this leads to very rapid diffusion of the drug throughout the body and reduces its concentration at the site of the tumor to very low levels," Rice chemist and bioengineer Jeffrey Hartgerink said in a statement. "Using the same amount of CDN, the STINGel approach allows the concentration of CDN near the tumor to remain much higher for long periods of time."

The researchers tested the new drug in both lab cultures and in vivo. For the in vivo testing, six groups of 10 rodents each were treated with either CDN alone, control collagens alone or with CDN, MDP alone or STINGel (CDN plus MDP).

The researchers found that only one in 10 CDN or collagen plus CDN rodents survived at least 105 days. However, six of 10 animals treated with STINGel survived and also proved resistant to further implantation of cancer cells. This likely means that their immune systems were trained to successfully identify and destroy both existing cancer and future occurrences of cancer.

The study stated: “The highly localized delivery of CDN from this nanostructured biomaterial affects the local histological response in a subcutaneous model, and dramatically improves overall survival in a challenging murine model of head and neck cancer compared to CDN alone or CDN delivered from a collagen hydrogel.”

The team also tested more common hydrogels and were unable to provide the same controlled release. The other hydrogels also did not provide an additional benefit over CDN treatment.

"The MDP hydrogel provides a unique environment for the release of CDN that other gels just can't match," Hartgerink said.

"The CDN we used in this study is currently in clinical trials," he added. "We think that our STINGel approach has the potential to significantly broaden the scope of this powerful immunotherapy drug to a larger range of resistant cancers."

The study was published in Science Direct.

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https://www.rdmag.com/article/2018/03/researchers-package-new-immunotherapy-hydrogel-better-fight-cancer IRRI DG Dr Matthew Morell visits BRRI

UNB NEWS

Wednesday 07 March, 2018 08:20:17 pm

Dhaka, Mar 7 (UNB) – Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Dr Matthew Morell visited Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) in Gazipur on Wednesday. 

During the visit BRRI Director General Dr Md Shahjahan Kabir discussed with Dr Morell on ways and means to strengthen collaboration between BRRI and IRRI on some frontier technologies and projects such as Golden Rice, C4 Rice, Zinc Enriched Rice, and Transforming Rice Breeding (TRB) etc.

BRRI Director (Administration and Common Service) Dr Md Ansar Ali, Director (Research) Dr Tamal Lata Aditya, heads of the research divisions of the institute, the senior scientists and officials along with IRRI Representative for South Asia Dr Nafees Meah and IRRI Representative for Bangladesh Dr Humnath Bhandari attended the meeting.  

Dr Morell’s visit was aimed at exchanging ideas between scientists and policy makers as well as knowledge sharing on modern rice technologies as well as ongoing collaboration and promotional activities.

During the discussion the speakers stressed on the need for quick dissemination of modern rice production technologies including farm machinery, seeds of salt tolerant rice varieties as well as how farmers are trying to cope with unfavourable environments using high yielding rice varieties and other inputs to the farm level especially in the south-western and southern coastal belt of the country.

Dr Shahjahan Kabir said “In collaboration with IRRI we have developed a multi-year work plan through which we will be able to increase rice production of the country.”

Referring to the impacts of global warming Dr Morell said, “Rice cultivation in Bangladesh is on the frontline to face the challenges of climate change. And we have to double our efforts to cope with changing climate.”

IRRI DG also lauded BRRI for transforming rice breeding project related activities and expressed satisfaction after getting some latest information about BRRI technologies and their role in helping the resource poor farmers of the country.  He also expressed willingness to extend all out cooperation to BRRI.

Dr Morell showed special interest while taking a look at the confined field trial of the Golden Rice project at the BRRI premises. He was also enthusiastic about the BRRI activities on plant breeding, biotechnology, farm mechanization, the Gene Bank and the institute’s preparedness in facing climate change during the visit.
He expects that zinc enriched rice as well as golden rice would play a vital role in ensuring nutrition security of the people of Bangladesh if it gets proper patronization from all the stakeholders here.

http://unb.com.bd/bangladesh-news/IRRI-DG-Dr-Matthew-Morell-visits-BRRI/64812

Rice self-sufficiency seen at 30% hybrid planting rate

By 

Anna Gabriela A. Mogato, BusinessWorld

 | , 12:20 AM

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Farmers in Nueva Ecija are seen in file photo by Bernard Testa, Interaksyon

MANILA – The Department of Agriculture (DA) said rice self-sufficiency will be attained when the rate of adoption for hybrid seed hits 30% of the 4 million hectares of rice land, compared with the current rate of 10%.

Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Ariel T. Cayanan said Tuesday that the run-up to self-sufficiency also means the country needs to wean itself from rice imports.

“Without the (hybrid seed) program, the country is at a risk of food shortages, because rice exporting countries are vulnerable to climate change and when supply from them falters, global prices will shoot up,” he added.

Mr. Cayanan said a 30% planting rate for hybrid seed will leave Philippine rice output “more than sufficient” for domestic needs.

Mr. Cayanan said the strategy for improving farm productivity should also involve improved irrigation and use of technology.

“We do not need to expand our (planting) area as of this time. We just need to improve the use of technology. If we raise productivity to two tons per hectare, that will be 2 million tons from 1 million hectares., and we won’t need to import,” he added.

The Philippine government is set to sign an agreement to use land in Papua New Guinea for rice production.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, speaking to reporters, said even when self-sufficiency is achieved, importing small amounts of rice will still be necessary as an insurance policy.

On Wednesday, hybrid rice producer SL Agritech Corp. held its first SL-8H Super Hybrid Rice harvest festival in Lubao, Pampanga.

The 250 hectares in Lubao are part of the DA’s hybrid rice program.

SL Agritech chief executive officer and chairman Henry Lim Bon Liong told reporters that the company estimates that hybrid seed has been planted over 400,000 hectares.

“[By the end of the year, it could be] about 500,000 to 600,000 hectares. I still have to see what can happen,” he added.

Mr. Lim said the company is looking forward to offering hybrid seed in other countries like India, Myanmar and Indonesia.

“India has 46 million hectares for rice. But only 2 million hectares are for hybrid so there’s a lot of opportunities there,” he added.

http://www.interaksyon.com/rice-self-sufficiency-seen-at-30-hybrid-planting-rate/

 

Of online trolls and Benham Rise

By

 Val A. Villanueva

 -

Online trolls have been on overdrive to support government efforts to unseat Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno from her office. The pattern is easy to discern: Throw as much mud as you can to vilify Sereno, and attack with vitriol and threaten physically those who support her.

One may wonder where on Earth these trolls get their energy to burn the Net with their divisive and venomous rants in support of their idol, President Duterte. Why, even some of them, most prominently the so-called queen of fake news Mocha Uson, now holds sensitive positions in government.

With an estimated 60 million Filipinos engaged in Facebook, this kind of operation requires enormous wherewithal. While I can believe that some of them genuinely support Duterte, going online 24/7 just to patrol the Net would need more than adulation for the president.

On December 7 of last year, Bloomberg came up with a story penned by Lauren Etter, entitled “What happens when the government uses Facebook as a weapon?” Etter detailed how the Duterte  administration evolved through the expert use of social media, particularly Facebook, to curb detractors of the administration. She exposed how the so-called die-hard Duterte supporters (DDS) have been abusing social media to manipulating public opinion in their favor by jointly and violently attacking people with anti-Duterte sentiment.

The question now is: Who is funding the troll farm?

A report that circulated in social media pointed to Jo Soliman, a Duterte businessman-friend engaged primarily in agriculture. The entrepreneur, owner of the Pure Group of Cos., is also reportedly a close friend of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol.

A source closely identified with Piñol but who declined to be identified flatly denied such report as “a lot of bull.” He admitted that Piñol, indeed, knows Soliman. He, however, claimed that Soliman “plays fair,” is “clean” and even does philanthropic work.

But in May of this year, Soliman, with the help of Piñol, got an approval from President to affirm the Benham Rise as a protected food supply exclusive zone. Duterte also decided to build a large cold-storage facility on Benham Bank, the shallowest portion of the region. “This will serve as a research facility and advance command post center in the area to avoid rampant cases of illegal fishing,” Piñol was then quoted as saying. According to the agriculture Secretary, he was tasked by the President to find out whether it is feasible to put up such a structure in Benham Rise.

Piñol then sought an extra P5 billion in his department’s 2018 budget, which will be used for the expansion of the 13-million-hectare Benham Rise as a protected food-supply zone. He said the additional amount is on top of the P213-billion proposed allocation next year, bringing the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) total proposal to P218 billion.

“The proposed P5-billion budget for Benham Rise was submitted a few months ago to the Department of Budget and Management [DBM] during the technical committee hearing on the DA’s budgetary requirements for 2018,” Piñol said.

Soliman is reportedly about to bag a billion-peso deal for the Benham Rise development. In turn, he will build the edifices needed for the project.

Again, the BusinessWise DA source denied the deal, and blamed the media for spreading black propaganda, tracing it to a certain Chinese individual with a two-letter surname. “He is funding this campaign,” the source alleged. “He benefits from the National Food Authority’s [NFA] rice import business. The recent fake NFA rice shortage is part of their play. There is no such budget for Benham Rise, only P500 million for research and not with the DA.”

According to the source, the department’s approved budget is only P65 billion. Piñol proposed P213 billion, but the DBM did not approve it, and Malacañang submitted only P65 billion, which Congress approved under the 2018 General Appropriations Act.

“The estimated take for corrupt rice importation is P50 per 100-kilo bag,” the source explained. “With 250,000 metric tons for importation, that’s about P2 billion in profit. These black ops are intended to destroy Piñol [among] the rice importers. You just don’t realize how afraid we are to be scolded by the President if any irregularities or anomalies happen in the DA. This is why we are very careful, especially the secretary, in making sure [there is] no overstepping of the rules, especially [those that concern] public bidding and budget use.”

But Soliman, who is allegedly the financier of the troll farm, is the same businessman who was implicated in rice-hoarding activities during the Aquino administration. Then-Interior and Local Government  Secretary Manuel A. Roxas stumbled upon the then-new modus operandi among rice hoarders in which imported rice from Thailand was blended with broken rice intended for animal feed. The hoarders, were selling the mixed rice as premium Sinandomeng rice. The hoarded rice stocks were discovered in a warehouse in Malolos City,
Bulacan province.

“The broken rice residue intended for animal feeds came from Vietnam and was being mixed with the Blue Diamond rice imported from Thailand, and then repacked and being sold as ‘Golden Bee’ premium Sinandomeng rice,” Roxas then said in a statement.

The inspection team was made up of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Bulacan local officials and representatives of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the NFA and the Bureau of Customs.

Roxas identified the rice hoarder as Jo Soliman, the owner of Purefeeds Corp. The operations of the rice mill were suspended, and charges of violating Philippine trade laws were filed against Soliman.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/of-online-trolls-and-benham-rise/

 

‘Only NFAC can talk about rice situation’

By

 Bernadette D. Nicolas

 -

Malacañang has ordered the National Food Authority (NFA) to desist from  making pronouncements about the current rice situation, saying the food agency’s statements about its stockpile may have caused the recent increase in rice prices.

Starting on Tuesday, Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said the NFA Council (NFAC)—the highest policy-making body of the NFA—s the only one authorized to speak on the country’s rice situation.

“During the Cabinet meeting on Monday, there was an acknowledgment that the statements made by NFA Administrator Jason L.Y. Aquino caused panic, which probably caused prices to rise,” Roque told reporters in a news briefing in Malacañang.

Roque also said there was “some disagreement” on the figures presented by the NFAC on Monday but, “ultimately, there was agreement that there is no rice shortage.” He added, however, that Aquino did not attend the Cabinet meeting.

“The President instructed that there will be a cluster Cabinet meeting for about two hours in the next Cabinet meeting next month, and Aquino will be invited to that meeting,” he said.

Roque said the NFAC told the members of the Cabinet that there is “absolutely no shortage of rice.”

In January the NFA revealed that its stockpile has fallen to less than 100,000 metric tons (MT), or equivalent to three days of national consumption. The food agency attached to the President had urged the NFAC to import rice to beef up its dwindling stockpile.

The NFAC green-lighted the proposal of the food agency to import, but its requested volume of 250,000 MT would only arrive in June, after rice farmers have harvested the dry-season crop.

Because it has been mandated to ensure national food security and stable prices, the NFA buys paddy from farmers and imports rice. Part of its stockpile is sold to the poor at a lower price.

“The reality is that NFA rice constitutes just a fraction of the Philippines’s rice supply. The bulk of our national inventory constitutes commercial rice. Henceforth, it will be the NFAC that shall speak on the current rice situation,” Roque said.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told the BusinessMirror that the Department of Agriculture (DA) is not covered by the President’s directive.

“[The order] only pertains to the rice supply of the NFA. The DA can always report on the country’s rice output. Besides, we are not part of the NFAC,” Piñol said.

Piñol disclosed that it was Roque himself who made the proposal to task the NFAC to speak on the NFA’s rice situation to ensure that the public would get only “accurate information.”

With Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

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https://businessmirror.com.ph/only-nfac-can-talk-about-rice-situation/

 

Government must promote high-value crops

By

 BusinessMirror Editorial

 -

Demand for chocolates and specialty coffee continues to rise in many countries including the Philippines, yet Filipino coffee and cacao planters remain unable to cash in on this trend. Imports continue to fill the shortfall in domestic production and the requirement of local manufacturers. Farmers in other countries are earning from the inability of the Philippines to expand its plantation for high-value crops like coffee and cacao.

According to the latest data from the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), cocoa beans prices averaged $2,000 per metric ton (MT) as of March 2. Historical data from the ICCO also showed that from January 2012 up to March 2017, the international price of cocoa remained above $2,000 per MT. It even breached $3,000 per MT in 2014 and 2015. The average daily price of cocoa fell to $1,957 per MT in January but recovered and reached $2,265 per MT on March 1. These figures only show that demand for cocoa beans remains strong.

As for coffee, data from Bloomberg indicated that it was priced at $121.10 per pound. Data from the International Coffee Organization also showed that the price of coffee beans did not fall below $100 per pound since 2012. Despite the favorable international price, farmers are unable to expand output. In fact, the Philippines continues to import some 70,000 MT of coffee beans just to fill the increasing demand of local consumers.

Experts and even those from the private sector have sought government assistance to hike the output of the two high-value crops. The government has already drawn up road maps that outline strategies to expand the output of cacao and coffee. The end-goal of the two road maps is to wipe out imports by the time the President steps down from office.

But rolling out interventions required to achieve this goal would require lots of political will and money. Farmers and even non-government groups have been urging the government to offer affordable production loans. This is because farmers can only start earning from planting coffee and cacao after three years.

The Philippines would soon be removing its rice-import quotas, which would make it more difficult for farmers to earn from planting the staple. What the government can do now is to help farmers find alternative crops they can plant should cheap rice starts flooding the country. In areas where cacao and coffee can be grown, the government should encourage the cultivation of these two high-value crops by providing farmers the support they need.

Government agencies are now in the process of crafting their budget. The Department of Agriculture said earlier that it would again aspire for a higher allocation for 2019. It is hoped that part of this increase would go to funding interventions outlined in road maps that are aimed at boosting the production of high-value crops like cacao and coffee. Encouraging the output of high-value crops is a viable alternative for some rice farmers who would soon lose their livelihood with the entry of cheap imports after the import quota is lifted.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/government-must-promote-high-value-crops/

 

‘Audu Ogbeh is a Liar’, Thailand Ambassador Rejects Minister’s Claims on Rice Imports

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on March 7, 2018 at 10:02 am

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Wattana Kunwongse, Thailand’s ambassador to Nigeria, has rejected as falsehood, claims reportedly made by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, that Thailand accused Nigeria of being responsible for the collapse of its seven rice mills following the drastic fall in rice importation from the country.

The ambassador, in a letter sent to Premium Times on Tuesday, described the minister’s claim as “misleading and a distortion of the actual discussion that transpired between them”.

A News Agency of Nigeria report on Friday showed that Ogbeh made the claim, at a meeting of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) and the leadership of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers of Nigeria (FEPSAN) held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to the report, the minister said “just like two weeks ago, the Ambassador of Thailand came to my office and said to me that we have really ‘dealt’ with them.

“But I asked what did we do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 per cent, it has gone up to four per cent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 per cent on rice alone”.

However, the diplomat said Mr. Ogbeh may have lied.

“The report is not only misleading but a distortion of the actual conversation between myself and the honourable Minister of Agriculture at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on 30th January 2018, which was nothing short of positivity and optimism on both sides.

“During which I praised President Buhari’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the essence of which is the endeavour to move the country to a self-sufficiency and export-oriented economy, and to that worthy cause, Thailand stands ready to work closely with the Nigerian Government in the field of technological transfer and agricultural machineries.

“At the same meeting, the honourable minister and I had reached the conclusion that I as Ambassador 0f Thailand to Nigeria will be working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and rural development to establish a platform to discuss our mutual benefits in the form of MOU on Agricultural Cooperation and by forming a bilateral Working Committee toward that end.”

He added that the report could not have been farther from the truth as Thailand’s official figures demonstrate that its rice export to the world in 2017 reached 11.48 million tons worth $5.1 billion.

“Thailand’s rice export to the world in 2017 (January-December 2017) reached 11.48 million tons equalising to $5.1 billion (USD), a 15.54 per cent increase compared to previous years, which is one of the highest figures on the history Thailand’s rice exportation. There is no proof of any shutdown of Thailand’s major rice mills,” he said.

Despite the minister’s “misquotation”, the Ambassador said he remains optimistic and looks forward to working together with the Nigerian Government in all fronts in the development of Nigerian agricultural sector.

He noted that based on the warm reception from Mr. Ogbeh when he visited the ministry, he believes the minister is “a great man of integrity who has been working so hard to help Nigeria achieve the goal of self-sustainability in food and agriculture.”

When asked to respond to the ambassador’s rebuttal of Mr. Ogbeh’s statement, the special adviser to the minister on media and publicity, Olukayode Adeleye, said he would have “to crosscheck facts” before responding. He was yet to respond as at the time of this report.

http://www.signalng.com/audu-ogbeh-liar-thailand-ambassador-rejects-ministers-claims-rice-imports/

 

VFA urged to increase high-quality rice production

VNA TUESDAY, MARCH 06, 2018 - 20:28:00 PRINT

Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)


HCM City (VNA) - The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) was urged to work with other units to continue shifting rice production towards higher output of high-quality rice and applying technological advances in production and processing to maximize the value of rice.

The call was made at the association’s eighth congress in Ho Chi Minh City on March 6 during which participants elected Nguyen Ngoc Nam, Acting Director General of Vinafood 2, as VFA President in the 2018-2023 tenure, to replace Huynh The Nang, who retired. 

In the new tenure, the association has set to increase its membership in order to coordinate actions to counter price squeeze and dumping and unhealthy competition.

VFA will work closely with other State agencies and authorities of localities to accelerate productive production and business.

Tran Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development asked the association to work with the ministry’s units and localities in screening the planning of rice growing areas to adjust production scale and output to fit the demand for local consumption and export.

The association should boost production connectivity and develop cooperatives so as to proactively prepare supplies of quality rice for export to specific markets, he said.

Duong Phuong Thao, deputy head of the Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade reminded VFA members to take into account changes in import-export policies being implemented by major markets. 

Vietnam may export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018, with high-quality rice accounting for a large proportion of total rice export volume and normal rice making up less than 20 percent.

The country sold 861,000 tonnes of rice abroad in the first two months of this year, earning 419 million USD, up 17 percent in volume and 34 percent in value compared with the same period last year.

The Philippines was the biggest importer of Vietnamese rice, accounting for 26.9 percent of the market share. It was followed by China, with 23.5 percent.

In 2017, Vietnam earned 2.6 billion USD from the shipment of 5.8 million tonnes of rice abroad.-VNA

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https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vfa-urged-to-increase-highquality-rice-production/127474.vnp

 

Groupe Nduom  Foods Makes Inroads *In Food Manufacturing Industry

 

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Groupe Nduom Foods Company Limited, an entity of Groupe Nduom, a multinational conglomerate, has shown its determination to become an active producer in the Ghanaian food manufacturing industry.  The company which is currently into rice production is poised to expand its tentacles to cover crop production like cassava, maize, sorghum, soya and cashew.

The company invested in the Worawora Rice Mill based in the Northern part of the Volta Region, in 2016 and has since replaced the milling equipment with new ones.  This mill currently produces 100 metric tons of rice a day.  The company is in the process of building one more mill in the Central Region and another one in the Northern Region so as to increase its production capacity to 300 metric tonnes a day by the end of this year.

In December last year, the compnay sold some of its rice to an American based charity, which is supporting about 18 missions across the country.  The charity organisation has been supporting several orphanages and other charity projects across the country.  According to Mr. Percival Ofori Ampomah, the US based charity was formerly importing about 274 metric tons of rice into Ghana for consumption but has now stopped this rice importation after building a relationship with Groupe Nduom Foods.

The tremendous role that the company is currently playing in the country cannot be over emphasized.

“We have seen a very high rate of imports, which is not good for the economy. Ghana, in 2016 alone, imported close to 2 billion dollars’ worth of food – in a country that has plenty of land, very highly qualified people, and plenty of skills. Though some personnel are not trained, at least you have people who are able to operate machinery. So, why is this happening in Ghana? It’s a clear example of the Dutch disease. This is something that needs to be addressed,” World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Henry Kerali, made these statements at a stakeholders’ forum organised by the American Chamber of Commerce, Ghana recently.

These sentiments can also be backed by statistics from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) which shows that more than 60% of rice consumed in Ghana is imported which puts a huge pressure on our foreign exchange reserves thereby also putting pressure on the Ghana cedi. 

It is against this backdrop that Groupe Nduom Foods has targeted and, is already making strong inroads to hit with a modular approach with the addition of other mills to increase rice production so that millions dollars of import bills can be substituted. 

“As we build more factories and expand processing capacity, we increase our demand for paddy rice, which means more work for local farmers and most importantly more money to the farmer to support his family.  While these factories themselves will create a large number of jobs for the local communities in which they are cited, the real gains in terms of employment will come from the impact our out grower operations will have on the farmers and the farming communities,” General Manager Mr. Ampomah explained further.

He said these are some of the strategies and steps that the company has put in place to lead in the transformation of the food manufacturing industry to become an exporter in the near future.

The company is optimistic that by making such strategic investments, it will help create a trail for other investors to follow and invest in the sector and build more factories and expand processing capacity.

http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/business/industry/201803/346197.php Worldwide Rice Bran Oil Market Key Market Overview 2022 Companies, Region, Imports and Exports Analysis

March 7, 2018 - amit.p - Leave a Comment

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IRRI DG Dr Matthew Morell visits BRRI

UNB NEWS

Wednesday 07 March, 2018 08:20:17 pm

Dhaka, Mar 7 (UNB) – Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Dr Matthew Morell visited Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) in Gazipur on Wednesday. 

During the visit BRRI Director General Dr Md Shahjahan Kabir discussed with Dr Morell on ways and means to strengthen collaboration between BRRI and IRRI on some frontier technologies and projects such as Golden Rice, C4 Rice, Zinc Enriched Rice, and Transforming Rice Breeding (TRB) etc.

BRRI Director (Administration and Common Service) Dr Md Ansar Ali, Director (Research) Dr Tamal Lata Aditya, heads of the research divisions of the institute, the senior scientists and officials along with IRRI Representative for South Asia Dr Nafees Meah and IRRI Representative for Bangladesh Dr Humnath Bhandari attended the meeting.  

Dr Morell’s visit was aimed at exchanging ideas between scientists and policy makers as well as knowledge sharing on modern rice technologies as well as ongoing collaboration and promotional activities.

During the discussion the speakers stressed on the need for quick dissemination of modern rice production technologies including farm machinery, seeds of salt tolerant rice varieties as well as how farmers are trying to cope with unfavourable environments using high yielding rice varieties and other inputs to the farm level especially in the south-western and southern coastal belt of the country.

Dr Shahjahan Kabir said “In collaboration with IRRI we have developed a multi-year work plan through which we will be able to increase rice production of the country.”

Referring to the impacts of global warming Dr Morell said, “Rice cultivation in Bangladesh is on the frontline to face the challenges of climate change. And we have to double our efforts to cope with changing climate.”

IRRI DG also lauded BRRI for transforming rice breeding project related activities and expressed satisfaction after getting some latest information about BRRI technologies and their role in helping the resource poor farmers of the country.  He also expressed willingness to extend all out cooperation to BRRI.

Dr Morell showed special interest while taking a look at the confined field trial of the Golden Rice project at the BRRI premises. He was also enthusiastic about the BRRI activities on plant breeding, biotechnology, farm mechanization, the Gene Bank and the institute’s preparedness in facing climate change during the visit.
He expects that zinc enriched rice as well as golden rice would play a vital role in ensuring nutrition security of the people of Bangladesh if it gets proper patronization from all the stakeholders here.

http://unb.com.bd/bangladesh-news/IRRI-DG-Dr-Matthew-Morell-visits-BRRI/64812

 

NSW DPI rice event to attract hundreds at Yanco Agricultural Institute

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Talia Pattison

 

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RICE will thrust into the spotlight at Yanco next week. 

Hundreds of rice growers, researchers and agribusiness representatives will meet at the Yanco Agricultural Institute on March 15 to attend the annual rice industry field day.

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) southern cropping director, Deb Slinger, said the event will showcase results from the Australian Rice Partnership, which links NSW DPI, SunRice and AgriFutures Australia.

“Results for current rice varieties from 14 NSW DPI experiments in the Murrumbidgee and Murray Valleys investigating water, nitrogen and agronomic management, are highlights of the field day,” Ms Slinger said.

“NSW DPI researchers are helping to fine-tune agronomic practices which deliver water savings and can increase gross margins by up to 59 per cent.

“A combination of direct drill sowing and delayed permanent water can save growers up to 4.5 megalitres per hectare compared with aerial sowing and traditional rice irrigation, and that extra water is available to grow more rice and increase gross margins.”

NSW DPI’s rice breeding program is a major focus of the partnership and the field day will feature trials of new varieties due for potential release in the near future.

The latest results from a joint project between NSW DPI and Charles Sturt University, through the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Functional Grains, will focus on factors affecting whole rice grain yield.

The project explores how irrigation management, plant densities, nitrogen rates and timing of nitrogen application affect grain quality to identify management practices which can improve grain quality and profitability.

Growers will hear the latest information on pest and disease management, grain and milling quality research results and see precision rice sowing and harvesting equipment.

A bus tour of NSW DPI’s Yanco Agricultural Institute and Leeton Field Station will inspect research trials designed to inform and boost rice production.

The field day will run from 9.30 am until 1.30 pm, with a complimentary lunch followed by a SunRice update

https://www.irrigator.com.au/story/5271823/mammoth-event-will-throw-rice-into-the-deep-end-at-yanco/

 

Researchers Develop New Method to Improve Crops

Technique using plant's own DNA could produce crops that are more resistant to drought and disease

By University of Georgia 

William Jordan (left) and Lexiang Ji look over one of many sets of Arabidopsis thaliana, which were used to research a new plant breeding technique.PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIAA team of University of Georgia researchers has developed a new way to breed plants with better traits. By introducing a human protein into the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, researchers found that they could selectively activate silenced genes already present within the plant.

Using this method to increase diversity among plant populations could serve to create varieties that are able to withstand drought or disease in crops or other plant populations, and the researchers have already begun testing the technique on maize, soy, and rice.

They published their findings in Nature Communications.

The research project was led by Lexiang Ji, a doctoral student in bioinformatics, and William Jordan, a doctoral student in genetics. The new method they explored, known as epimutagenesis, will make it possible to breed diverse plants in a way that isn’t possible with traditional techniques.

“In the past this has been done with traditional breeding. You take a plant, breed it with another plant that has another characteristic you want to create another plant,” said Jordan. “The problem with that is getting an individual that has all of the characteristics you want and none of the characteristics that you don’t want. It’s kind of difficult. With our new technique, you can modify how the genes are turned on and off in that plant without having to introduce a whole other set of genes from another parent.”

The idea for the method evolved originally from working in the lab with department of genetics professor Robert Schmitz, the corresponding author on the study. In his lab, researchers were studying DNA methylation, which controls expressed genetic traits, and creating maps of where DNA methylation is located in many plant species, including crops. When DNA methylation is removed, researchers found that they could selectively turn on previously silenced genes in the underlying genome of the plant.

“We saw repeatedly that lots of genes are silenced by DNA methylation and thought it was kind of curious,” said Schmitz. “There are lots of discussions you can have about why these exist, but the reality is that they are there. So we wondered, how can we leverage them? Let’s use the plant already in the field and reawaken some of those silenced genes to generate trait variation.”

Related Article: A Sweet Route to Greater Crop Yields

To turn these dormant or silenced genes on, researchers introduced a human enzyme, known as a ten—eleven translocation enzyme, to plant seedlings using specially modified bacteria as a delivery vector. Introducing this human protein allows researchers to remove DNA methylation and thereby turn on previously silenced genes.

Figuring out the best way to introduce the protein to the plant species has been a trial and error process. With Ji’s expertise in bioinformatics, researchers are able to look at large sets of data about their experiment and make decisions on how to best proceed with the project.

“The data has really helped us brainstorm and coordinate what we should do next,” said Ji. “That was particularly important in the beginning of this project because we just didn’t know what was going to happen with this new technique.”

“Thousands of years ago you’d plant out hundreds of plants and one of them does really well so you’d breed out generations of that plant. Doing this though, you narrow down the genetic diversity until they’re basically very, very similar,” said Jordan. “While that’s beneficial for yield or other plant characteristics that you might want, if there’s a stress that they’re not well adapted to because they’re all so similar they’re all going to respond in the same way. That creates a potentially vulnerable crop.”

“If they don’t have the genetic differences to respond, then it can really wipe out crops,” added Schmitz. “This isn’t a savior, but it’s an alternative strategy that has not been tried before. The idea is to access genes that people haven’t been studying because they’re not expressed but they’re there. We think this method to reactivate these genes could lead to increased trait variation which could be useful for biotechnology applications.”

The study, “TET-mediated epimutagenesis of the Arabidopsis thaliana methylome,” was published in Nature Communications March 1, 2018, and is available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03289-7

http://www.labmanager.com/news/2018/03/researchers-develop-new-method-to-improve-crops#.WqKM7Oxubm4

 

USA Rice Offers Aid to Mexico's Most Vulnerable Populations 

By Asiha Grigsby

 

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO -- Spreading the word about U.S. rice is not only an opportunity to create global partnerships but also a strategic element in the fight against hunger for the world's most vulnerable populations.  In several major Mexican metropolitan cities, U.S. rice was used to inform and nourish as part of outreach by community meal programs here that are facilitated by the Mexican government's Ministry of Social Development and Comedores Comunitarios (community kitchens).

In January, USA Rice sponsored three foodservice seminars for community kitchens in Mexico City, Mexico State, and Querétaro.  These establishments function much like soup kitchens in the United States by offering hot meals for the hungry and people of limited resources.  The meals offered in the community kitchens featured U.S. rice as a healthy, nutritious ingredient necessary in the fight against hunger.

Guest chefs explained the health benefits and versatility of U.S.-grown rice, and stressed the importance of proper cooking techniques.  They shared wholesome recipes that are easy to prepare.  The demonstrations were followed by interactive cooking instruction and Q&A sessions.

"These community meal programs are doing their part to make a positive change in the health and well-being of people in Mexico's cities," said Brian King, chairman of USA Rice and chairman of the USA Rice Western Hemisphere Promotion Committee.  "USA Rice provides hands-on instruction for foodservice workers to ensure these community kitchens are providing the best, most healthful offerings for those in need."

 

 

 

1.     Business

2.     » Myanmar fixes 2018 paddy price at K500,000 per 100 baskets

Myanmar fixes 2018 paddy price at K500,000 per 100 baskets

HTOO THANT 08 MAR 2018

Myanmar’s State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi speaks during the Myanmar Rice Federation Stakeholder Forum 2018 at Myanmar International Convention Center 2 in Naypyitaw. Photo - EPA

A floor price for paddy has been set at K500,000 for every 100 baskets of rice for the 2018 paddy harvesting period, the Myanmar Rice Federation announced Tuesday at the Myanmar Rice Federation Stakeholder Forum 2018 in Nay Pyi Taw. (One basket weighs 46lb or 20.86kg).

It is the first time Myanmar is setting a floor price for locally harvested rice. All MRF member rice mills, rice traders and agents and private companies will buy rice that meet with designated quality standards, at the new price, the announcement said. 

The floor price excludes high-grade rice such as Paw San Hmwe and Ae-Ma-Hta. These varieties of rice will trade at the prevailing market price of between K700,000 and more than K1 million per 100 baskets.

The 2018 basic price set by MRF will cover ordinary rice varieties grown by the majority of Myanmar farmers. As rice prices are usually volatile during harvesting periods, a basic floor price has been set to protect farmers against runaway losses. 

paddy-price-2.jpg

Photo: EPA

The MRF will adjust the basic paddy price in the future by reviewing production costs and benefits as well as domestic and international rice prices. 

It is the first time Myanmar is setting an annual floor price for paddy. The move is expected to enhance cooperation between traders and farmers, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said at the forum. “I would like you all to see it as the beginning of effective cooperation within the agricultural sector. I hope to see improvement,” she said.

“Buyers will be able to buy good quality paddy at a fixed price. But there is also fixed quality. Not all rice will be sold at K500,000,” said Dr Thant Myint, Union Minister for Ministry 

of  Commerce.

Quality of rice 

While a floor price will help farmers weather the price volatility, some pointed out that meeting the rice quality necessary under those prices may be challenging. Among the requirements is ensuring the final rice moisture content is at least 14 percent. This is because overly wet paddy results in extra drying costs and spoilage. 

“The main challenge is the moisture content. The famers do not know the rice must have 14pc moisture content. They also face difficulties drying out the paddy as it sometimes raining during the harvesting of monsoon paddy. It is not very easy for us,” said U San Win, a farmer from Lewe.

paddy-price-3.jpg

Myanmar farmers plant rice ahead of the summer season in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, 06 March 2018. Nyan Zay Htet/The Myanmar Times

“Our country is poor. It is not easy to afford that many moisture meters and other measuring equipment.

It will be convenient if the government provides drying machines for us,” said U Win Thant, secretary of the Rice Millers Association of Magwe Region.

He added that a standard measuring unit for weighing rice should be fixed to ensure consistency and fairness. 

Aggregating price 

In Myanmar, more than 1,300 baskets of paddy are produced yearly. As the selling system in each region is different, farmers are also concerned about how the MRF will buy paddy from the various regions, U San Win said.

In Ayeyarwaddy Region for example, sellers personally deliver paddy to their customers. But in other regions, the buyers have to go to the sellers. “We have to go to the farmers’ houses to buy paddy in Magwe,” he said.

U Win Thant said problems that arise as a result of the new fixed price system will be solved as they arise. “We will do practically. We will find out the solutions depending on the problems,” he said. 

https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-fixes-2018-paddy-price-k500000-100-baskets.html

 


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Bisc 357 students use CRISPR genome editing technology in an effort to improve the ability of rice and wheat to flourish in hot and dry conditions.

LEARNING

SFU students use CRISPR genome editing technology in hopes of improving yields of rice and wheat

March 07, 2018

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Hands-on training for using a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR is giving SFU biological sciences undergrads new insight into how rice and wheat might be genetically altered to improve yield.

By Diane Mar-Nicolle

The United Nations predicts that by 2050 our growing global population will require 70 per cent more food than is available today. Compounding this enormous shortfall is a loss of agricultural land to urbanization, and the effects of global warming—particularly high temperatures—on crop growth.

SFU biological sciences faculty Jim Mattsson and Kathleen FitzPatrick, together with students in their Genetic Engineering (BISC 357) course, are working towards a solution using CRISPR genome-editing technology.

“Rice and wheat are essential to diets around the world,” says Matsson. “That’s why there is a worldwide effort to improve rice and, eventually, wheat so they can be productive at higher temperatures.”

His students are using the cutting-edge CRISPR technology to decipher which rice and wheat genes need to be modified to improve growth.

Plant species such as sugarcane and millet, for example, have naturally evolved to produce at higher temperatures, but that hasn’t happened in their relatives, rice and wheat.

Mattsson figures that by identifying the genes responsible for forming veins in millet leaves (more veins permit greater photosynthesis and therefore growth), it should be possible to reverse engineer more veins in rice and wheat plants.

So during the fall 2017 term, Mattsson and FitzPatrick challenged their students to learn how to use CRISPR to identify the genes behind the evolution of heat stress tolerance in millet.

With this successfully accomplished, future classes will compare these millet genes to their cousin genes in rice to see how the rice genes need to be changed or reverse engineered to gain heat tolerance. 

“The students were thrilled to discover that they had successfully put together DNA fragments capable of inactivating, one by one, over 30 individual genes in living millet plants,” says Matsson. “They knew the theory behind CRISPR, but to get a chance to actually splice genes was pretty exciting for them.”

Student Serina Li says, “I found that the course provided me with a really good foundation for the molecular cloning techniques and applications that are currently used in labs. “We were working on specific projects while learning the techniques involved, so that we were able to apply what we learned right away. This was one of my favourite aspects of the course, as it made the material easier to learn and also was more relevant to how one would conduct these types of experiments as a real scientist.”

Around the world, scientists have high expectations of CRISPR technology, mainly for treating human disease.

Mattsson is equally delighted with CRISPR’s prospects for plant engineering.

He says, “In my class alone, students are discovering what genes are doing with a precision and scale that was unheard of just a few years ago.”

Bisc 357 students achieved lab results that may improve rice and wheat plants' abilities to flourish in hot and dry conditions.

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Bisc 357 students use CRISPR genome editing technology in an effort to improve the ability of rice and wheat to flourish in hot and dry conditions.

LEARNING

SFU students use CRISPR genome editing technology in hopes of improving yields of rice and wheat

March 07, 2018

Tweet Facebook Pinterest Email Print

Hands-on training for using a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR is giving SFU biological sciences undergrads new insight into how rice and wheat might be genetically altered to improve yield.

By Diane Mar-Nicolle

The United Nations predicts that by 2050 our growing global population will require 70 per cent more food than is available today. Compounding this enormous shortfall is a loss of agricultural land to urbanization, and the effects of global warming—particularly high temperatures—on crop growth.

SFU biological sciences faculty Jim Mattsson and Kathleen FitzPatrick, together with students in their Genetic Engineering (BISC 357) course, are working towards a solution using CRISPR genome-editing technology.

“Rice and wheat are essential to diets around the world,” says Matsson. “That’s why there is a worldwide effort to improve rice and, eventually, wheat so they can be productive at higher temperatures.”

His students are using the cutting-edge CRISPR technology to decipher which rice and wheat genes need to be modified to improve growth.

Plant species such as sugarcane and millet, for example, have naturally evolved to produce at higher temperatures, but that hasn’t happened in their relatives, rice and wheat.

Mattsson figures that by identifying the genes responsible for forming veins in millet leaves (more veins permit greater photosynthesis and therefore growth), it should be possible to reverse engineer more veins in rice and wheat plants.

So during the fall 2017 term, Mattsson and FitzPatrick challenged their students to learn how to use CRISPR to identify the genes behind the evolution of heat stress tolerance in millet.

With this successfully accomplished, future classes will compare these millet genes to their cousin genes in rice to see how the rice genes need to be changed or reverse engineered to gain heat tolerance. 

“The students were thrilled to discover that they had successfully put together DNA fragments capable of inactivating, one by one, over 30 individual genes in living millet plants,” says Matsson. “They knew the theory behind CRISPR, but to get a chance to actually splice genes was pretty exciting for them.”

Student Serina Li says, “I found that the course provided me with a really good foundation for the molecular cloning techniques and applications that are currently used in labs. “We were working on specific projects while learning the techniques involved, so that we were able to apply what we learned right away. This was one of my favourite aspects of the course, as it made the material easier to learn and also was more relevant to how one would conduct these types of experiments as a real scientist.”

Around the world, scientists have high expectations of CRISPR technology, mainly for treating human disease.

Mattsson is equally delighted with CRISPR’s prospects for plant engineering.

He says, “In my class alone, students are discovering what genes are doing with a precision and scale that was unheard of just a few years ago.”

Bisc 357 students achieved lab results that may improve rice and wheat plants' abilities to flourish in hot and dry conditions.

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SFU News This site SFU.ca A-Z DIRECTORY SIGN IN HOME CONTACT US ABOUT SFU NEWS PEOPLE SPORTS RESEARCH COMMUNITY LEARNING FACULTY AND STAFF SFU IN THE NEWS ARCHIVES FEEDBACK Bisc 357 students use CRISPR genome editing technology in an effort to improve the ability of rice and wheat to flourish in hot and dry conditions. LEARNING SFU students use CRISPR genome editing technology in hopes of improving yields of rice and wheat March 07, 2018 Tweet Facebook Pinterest Email Print Hands-on training for using a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR is giving SFU biological sciences undergrads new insight into how rice and wheat might be genetically altered to improve yield. By Diane Mar-Nicolle The United Nations predicts that by 2050 our growing global population will require 70 per cent more food than is available today. Compounding this enormous shortfall is a loss of agricultural land to urbanization, and the effects of global warming—particularly high temperatures—on crop growth. SFU biological sciences faculty Jim Mattsson and Kathleen FitzPatrick, together with students in their Genetic Engineering (BISC 357) course, are working towards a solution using CRISPR genome-editing technology. “Rice and wheat are essential to diets around the world,” says Matsson. “That’s why there is a worldwide effort to improve rice and, eventually, wheat so they can be productive at higher temperatures.” His students are using the cutting-edge CRISPR technology to decipher which rice and wheat genes need to be modified to improve growth. Plant species such as sugarcane and millet, for example, have naturally evolved to produce at higher temperatures, but that hasn’t happened in their relatives, rice and wheat. Mattsson figures that by identifying the genes responsible for forming veins in millet leaves (more veins permit greater photosynthesis and therefore growth), it should be possible to reverse engineer more veins in rice and wheat plants. So during the fall 2017 term, Mattsson and FitzPatrick challenged their students to learn how to use CRISPR to identify the genes behind the evolution of heat stress tolerance in millet. With this successfully accomplished, future classes will compare these millet genes to their cousin genes in rice to see how the rice genes need Quote of the Day

 

"One person can make a difference and everyone should try."
                                                                                        - John F. Kennedy

to be changed or reverse engineered to gain heat tolerance.  “The students were thrilled to discover that they had successfully put together DNA fragments capable of inactivating, one by one, over 30 individual genes in living millet plants,” says Matsson. “They knew the theory behind CRISPR, but to get a chance to actually splice genes was pretty exciting for them.” Student Serina Li says, “I found that the course provided me with a really good foundation for the molecular cloning techniques and applications that are currently used in labs. “We were working on specific projects while learning the techniques involved, so that we were able to apply what we learned right away. This was one of my favourite aspects of the course, as it made the material easier to learn and also was more relevant to how one would conduct these types of experiments as a real scientist.” Around the world, scientists have high expectations of CRISPR technology, mainly for treating human disease. Mattsson is equally delighted with CRISPR’s prospects for plant engineering. He says, “In my class alone, students are discovering what genes are doing with a precision and scale that was unheard of just a few years ago.” Bisc 357 students achieved lab results that may improve rice and wheat plants' abilities to flourish in hot and dry conditions. Admission Programs Learning Research Community About Maps + directions Library Academic Calendar Road Report Give to SFU CONNECT WITH US Facebook Twitter YouTube CONTACT US Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 Terms and conditions © Simon Fraser University SFU News This site SFU.ca A-Z DIRECTORY SIGN IN HOME CONTACT US ABOUT SFU NEWS PEOPLE SPORTS RESEARCH COMMUNITY LEARNING FACULTY AND STAFF SFU IN THE NEWS ARCHIVES FEEDBACK Bisc 357 students use CRISPR genome editing technology in an effort to improve the ability of rice and wheat to flourish in hot and dry conditions. LEARNING SFU students use CRISPR genome editing technology in hopes of improving yields of rice and wheat March 07, 2018 Tweet Facebook Pinterest Email Print Hands-on training for using a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR is giving SFU biological sciences undergrads new insight into how rice and wheat might be genetically altered to improve yield. By Diane Mar-Nicolle The United Nations predicts that by 2050 our growing global population will require 70 per cent more food than is available today. Compounding this enormous shortfall is a loss of agricultural land to urbanization, and the effects of global warming—particularly high temperatures—on crop growth. SFU biological sciences faculty Jim Mattsson and Kathleen FitzPatrick, together with students in their Genetic Engineering (BISC 357) course, are working towards a solution using CRISPR genome-editing technology. “Rice and wheat are essential to diets around the world,” says Matsson. “That’s why there is a worldwide effort to improve rice and, eventually, wheat so they can be productive at higher temperatures.” His students are using the cutting-edge CRISPR technology to decipher which rice and wheat genes need to be modified to improve growth. Plant species such as sugarcane and millet, for example, have naturally evolved to produce at higher temperatures, but that hasn’t happened in their relatives, rice and wheat. Mattsson figures that by identifying the genes responsible for forming veins in millet leaves (more veins permit greater photosynthesis and therefore growth), it should be possible to reverse engineer more veins in rice and wheat plants. So during the fall 2017 term, Mattsson and FitzPatrick challenged their students to learn how to use CRISPR to identify the genes behind the evolution of heat stress tolerance in millet. With this successfully accomplished, future classes will compare these millet genes to their cousin genes in rice to see how the rice genes need to be changed or reverse engineered to gain heat tolerance.  “The students were thrilled to discover that they had successfully put together DNA fragments capable of inactivating, one by one, over 30 individual genes in living millet plants,” says Matsson. “They knew the theory behind CRISPR, but to get a chance to actually splice genes was pretty exciting for them.” Student Serina Li says, “I found that the course provided me with a really good foundation for the molecular cloning techniques and applications that are currently used in labs. “We were working on specific projects while learning the techniques involved, so that we were able to apply what we learned right away. This was one of my favourite aspects of the course, as it made the material easier to learn and also was more relevant to how one would conduct these types of experiments as a real scientist.” Around the world, scientists have high expectations of CRISPR technology, mainly for treating human disease. Mattsson is equally delighted with CRISPR’s prospects for plant engineering. He says, “In my class alone, students are discovering what genes are doing with a precision and scale that was unheard of just a few years ago.” Bisc 357 students achieved lab results that may improve rice and wheat plants' abilities to flourish in hot and dry conditions. Admission Programs Learning Research Community About Maps + directions Library Academic Calendar Road Report Give to SFU CONNECT WITH US Facebook Twitter YouTube CONTACT US Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 Terms and conditions © Simon Fraser University ShareThis Copy and Paste

https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2018/03/sfu-students-use-crispr-genome-editing-technology.html

 

 

Popular Rice Prize Wheel Returns to Farm & Gin Show  

By Lesley Dixon

 

MEMPHIS, TN -- USA Rice hosted a booth last weekend at the 66th annual Mid-South Farm and Gin Show, providing attendees with information about the U.S. rice industry and activities conducted by USA Rice via games, pamphlets, and giveaways.  The show included ag updates by Carl Brothers, senior vice president and COO of Riceland Foods and USA Rice board member, and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

USA Rice staff engaged visitors of all ages with the now-famous Think Rice Wheel, a trivia game that awards correct answers about U.S.-grown rice with prizes such as branded letter openers, and crayons and coloring books.  Contestants compete by spinning the big wheel and answering multiple-choice questions based on a variety of rice topics.  The game is always a hit, particularly with the younger crowd, and staff working the wheel were never short on participants throughout the two-day trade show. 

"This year was really successful," said Jenni Bryant of USA Rice, who staffed the booth both days.  "The wheel really grabbed people's attention, especially the kids.  But adults got into it too.  I think everybody who played learned something new about rice."  Bryant also said the foot traffic around the booth was non-stop, and busier than previous years. 

"Engagement with both USA Rice members and other show attendees was at an all-time high," added Mary Jemison, who works at USA Rice's field office in Louisiana and introduced the trivia wheel to the USA Rice booth several years ago.  "We had a lot of repeat attendees - people who recognized our booth and our brand from previous shows we've participated in and went out of their way to find us again." 

Friday's ag update meeting kicked off with a discussion by Carl Brothers about the outlook for U.S. rice exports and domestic markets, noting that while the U.S. is seventh in the world trade market share, domestic usage is up 92 percent since 1980. 

Secretary Perdue addressed the crowd on Saturday and talked about the Farm Bill, trade, regulation, and legislative issues of concern to rice farmers, such as Waters of the United States (WOTUS) and the recent confirmation of Bill Northey as undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service.  He also visited the exhibit hall where he met with attendees and took in the latest farming machinery on display.

 

 


Rice Webinar:  Thursday March 8  

 

Tune in Thursday, March 8 at 3:00 p.m. Central Time, for a new rice webinar hosted by Dr. Bobby Coats, with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the University of Arkansas.  Rachel Trego, an international economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service responsible for analyzing the global wheat and rice markets and reporting on supply and demand and price information, will discuss the global rice market and China's role within it.

Go 
here to register for the webinar.

 

 

Bangladesh developing more biotech crops, says Matia  

UNB NEWS

Tuesday 06 March, 2018 07:13:22 pm

Dhaka, Mar 6 (UNB) – Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury today acknowledged the positive impact of biotech crops and their potential to help Bangladesh meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030.  

Inspired by the success of the country's first commercially released biotech crop in 2013 – Bt. brinjal – the minister said, Bangladesh is now developing three more crops derived through applications of agro-biotechnology. These are: vitamin-A rich Golden Rice, bollworm resistant Bt. cotton and late blight resistant potato.  

Speaking at a stakeholder workshop on Golden Rice at CIRDAP International Conference Centre in Dhaka on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister expressed the government’s firm resolve to support genetically modified crop cultivation in the country. 

Matia Chowdhury said, “We do not have enough land for cultivation but have a huge population. What else will we have if people die for the absence of food for the stance on pure foods? We also do not want to struggle from the aristocratic conservativeness that we will not accept, assimilate new technology by breaking our taboo to increase production.”

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) organised the daylong workshop where IRRI Director General Dr. Matthew Morell, its Regulatory Affairs and Stewardship Leader Donald MacKenzie, BRRI DG Dr. Md. Shahjahan Kabir, IRRI Bangladesh Representative Dr Humnath Bhandari and senior ministry officials also spoke with Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council Dr. Md. Kabir Ikram-ul Haque in the chair.

During the session key officials and policymakers for agriculture, environment and biosafety were appraised of the latest developments on Golden Rice. IRRI's regional representative for South Asia, Dr. Nafees Meah, and its Head of Communications Temina Lalani-Shariff were also present, among others. 

“Bangladesh has emerged as a global model for combating hunger and obtained great success in becoming a country of food surplus from chronic food shortages. [Now,] we are trying to make our staple nutritionally enriched to build a hunger free and healthier nation,” said BRRI Director General Dr. Md. Shahjahan Kabir. 

At present, rice contributes 70 percent of the daily caloric intake of the Bangladesh population, while the national consumption of vitamin-A is estimated at half the recommended daily allowance. Advances such as beta-carotene fortified GR2E Golden Rice are an important part of an overall strategy to reduce vitamin-A deficiency in the country. 

Spearheaded by BRRI in Bangladesh and a flagship product of IRRI’s Healthier Rice program, GR2E Golden Rice is the first nutritionally enhanced Genetically Modified (GM) rice to receive regulatory approval for use in food. GR2E Golden Rice recently completed its regulatory application with Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ).  

IRRI Director General Dr. Matthew Morell affirmed that a robust regulatory landscape is essential to amplify the impact of Golden Rice and other nutritionally fortified rice varieties such as high zinc rice. “FSANZ’s approval process, which ensures the highest standard of health protection, provides a model for decision-making in all countries wishing to reap the benefits of Golden Rice” asserts Morell. 

The application for environmental and food safety assessment of GR2-E BRRI dhan29 Golden rice was lodged with the Ministry of Agriculture on November 26 last year and the Ministry of Environment and Forest on December 4 the same year. 

Morell adds, “Each regulatory application that Golden Rice completes with national regulatory agencies, including those currently under process in Bangladesh takes us one step closer to bringing Golden Rice to the people who need it the most.”
 

http://www.unb.com.bd/bangladesh-news/Bangladesh-developing-more-biotech-crops-says-Matia- /64701

 

 

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Basmati Rice Market Research Report 2023: Industry Trends, Market Overview and Top Company Profiles

March 6, 2018 - akshay.j - Leave a Comment

Basmati Rice Market report 2023 focuses on the major Types and Applications for the key players. Basmati Rice market research report also provides analysis of the market share, segmentation, revenue forecasts and geographic regions of the market. The Basmati Rice market research report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of Basmati Rice Industry.

Short Details About Basmati Rice Market : Basmati rice has a typical pandan-like (Pandanus amaryllifolius leaf) flavour caused by the aroma compound 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline. Basmati grains contain about 0.09 ppm of this aromatic chemical compound naturally, a level that is about 12 times more than non-basmati rice varieties, giving basmati its distinctive spicy fragrance and flavour. This natural aroma is also found in cheese, fruits and other cereals. It is a flavoring agent approved in the United States and Europe, and is used in bakery products for aroma.,The global Basmati Rice market will reach xxx Million USD in 2017 and CAGR xx% 2011-2017. The report begins from overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of Basmati Rice by product, region and application, in addition, this report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report.

Ask for Sample PDF of Basmati Rice Market Report @ 

https://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/request-sample/11304107 

Basmati Rice Market Report provides detailed analysis of the market with structure along with forecast of the various segments and Analysis of the Global and North America Basmati Rice market.

Key Manufacturers of Basmati Rice Market: LT Foods, Amira Nature Foods, Best Foods, KRBL Limited, Kohinoor Rice, Aeroplane Rice, Tilda Basmati Rice, Amar Singh Chawal Wala, Hanuman Rice Mills, Adani Wilmar, Galaxy Rice Mill, Dunar Foods, Sungold And many more…

 Basmati Rice Market Types : Indian Basmati Rice, Pakistani Basmati Rice

 Basmati Rice Market Applications: Direct Edible, Deep Processing

Regions of Basmati Rice market:

·         North America (USA, Canada, Mexico)

·         Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia, etc.)

·         Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia, etc.)

·         South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, etc)

·         Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa, etc.)

Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert for Basmati Rice Market Report @ httpss://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/11304107 

Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global Basmati Rice market including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis.

Key questions answered in Basmati Rice market report:

·         What will the market size be in 2023and what will the growth rate be?

·         What are the key Basmati Rice market trends?

·         What is Key Top Manufactures this market?

·         What are the challenges to Basmati Rice market growth?

·         What are the Basmati Rice market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global Basmati Rice market?

·         What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by types and applications of Basmati Rice market?

·         What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by regions of Basmati Rice market?

Price of Report: $ 2980 (Single User License)

Purchase Report @ https://www.360marketupdates.com/purchase/11304107 

The report then estimates to 2023 market development trends of Basmati Rice market. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Basmati Rice market before evaluating its feasibility.

SOURCE Opinion Investor https://opinioninvestor.com/

https://opinioninvestor.com/basmati-rice-market-research-report-2023-industry-trends-market-overview-and-top-company-profiles/114779/

 

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Rice Flour Market Research Report: Market Analysis on the Future Growth Prospects and Market Trends Adopted by the Competitors, Regions with Forecast by 2022

March 6, 2018 - akshay.j - Leave a Comment

The Global Rice Flour Market  research report is a valuable source of guidance and direction. It is helpful for established businesses, new entrants in the market as well as individuals interested in the market. The Rice Flour Market report provides important statistics on the existing state of the said market.

With the slowdown in world economic growth, the Rice Flour industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Rice Flour market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 2.01% from 6350 million $ in 2013 to 6740 million $ in 2016, Industry analysts believe that in the next few years, Rice Flour market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2021 , The market size of the Rice Flour will reach 7560 million $.

Request Sample Report for Detailed Information @ https://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/request-sample/11120247  

Rice Flour market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including as per bellow: Burapa Prosper, Thai Flour Industry, Rose Brand, CHO HENG, Koda Farms, BIF, Lieng Tong, Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, Pornkamon Rice Flour Mills, Huang Guo

Rice Flour Market by Product Type Segment Analysis, Industry, Channel(Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2014-2022): Product Type Segmentation (Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Glutinous Rice Flour)Industry Segmentation (Rice Noodle and Rice Pasta, Sweets and Desserts, Snacks, Bread, Thickening Agent), Channel (Direct Sales, Distributor) Segmentation

Several important areas are covered in this Rice Flour market research report, Some key points among them:

·         What Overview Rice Flour Says? This Overview Includes Diligent Analysis of Scope, Types, Application, Sales by region, manufacturers, types and applications

·         What Is Rice Flour Competition considering Manufacturers, Types and Application? Based on Thorough Research of Key Factors

·         Who Are Rice Flour Market Key Manufacturers? Along with this survey you also get their Product Information (Type, Application and Specification)

·         Rice Flour Manufacturing Cost Analysis –This Analysis is done by considering prime elements like Key RAW Materials, Price Trends, Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials, Proportion of Raw Materials and Labour Cost in Manufacturing Cost Structure

·         Rice Flour Industrial Chain Analysis

·         Rice Flour Marketing strategies analysis by

·         Rice Flour Market Positioning

·         Pricing and Branding Strategy

·         Client Targeting

·         Rice Flour Effect Factor Analysis

·         Technology Process/Risk Considering Substitute Threat and Technology Progress In

·         Rice Flour Industry

·         Consumer Needs or What Change Is Observed in Preference of Customer

·         Political/Economical Change

·         What is Rice Flour forecast (2018-2022) Considering Sales, Revenue for Regions, Types and Applications?

For Any Query on Rice Flour Market, Speak to Expert @https://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/11120247

Rice Flour Market Report covers the manufacturers’ data, including: shipment, price, revenue, gross profit, interview record, business distribution etc., these data help the consumer know about the competitors better.

Rice Flour market report also covers all the regions and countries of the world, which shows a regional development status, including market size, volume and value, as well as price data. The Region Coverage as per bellow:

·         North America Country (United States, Canada)

·         South America

·         Asia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea)

·         Europe Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy)

·         Other Country (Middle East, Africa, GCC)

Price of Report: 2350 (Single User Licence)

Purchase Rice Flour Market Report @ https://www.360marketupdates.com/purchase/11120247  

In the end, the Rice Flour Market report includes investment come analysis, and development trend analysis. The key rising opportunities of the fastest growing international Rice Flour industry segments are coated throughout this report. This report additionally presents product specification, producing method, and products cost structure. Production is separated by regions, technology and applications. In conclusion, it is a deep research report on Global Rice Flour market. If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.

SOURCE Opinion Investor https://opinioninvestor.com/

https://opinioninvestor.com/rice-flour-market-research-report-market-analysis-on-the-future-growth-prospects-and-market-trends-adopted-by-the-competitors-regions-with-forecast-by-2022/110727/

Red Rice Market Analysis, Overview, Growth, Demand And Forecast Research Report To 2022

March 6, 2018 - Mangesh Kanase - Leave a Comment

The “Red Rice Market” Report offers an inclusive and decision-making overview, including definitions, classifications and its applications. The Red Rice market is anticipated to reflect a positive growth trend in forthcoming years. The essential driving forces behind the growth and popularity of Red Rice market is analysed detailed in this report.

Ask Sample of Red Rice Market Report @ https://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/request-sample/11095487

Red Rice Market Report Provides Comprehensive Analysis as Following:

·         Market segments and sub-segments

·         Market size & shares

·         Market trends and dynamics

·         Market Drivers and Opportunities

·         Competitive landscape

·         Supply and demand

·         Technological inventions in Red Rice industry

·         Marketing Channel Development Trend

·         Red Rice Market Positioning

·         Pricing Strategy

·         Brand Strategy

·         Target Client

·         Distributors/Traders List included in Red Rice Market

Global Red Rice market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Red Rice sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players including:

·         Company 1

·         Company 2

·         Company 3

·         Company 4

Inquire for further detailed information about Red Rice Market Report @ https://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/11095487

The Red Rice Market report provides basic information about Red Rice industry, definition, classification, application, industry chain structure, industry overview; international market analysis. This report studies sales (consumption) of Red Rice market, focuses on the top players, with sales, price, revenue and market share with volume and value for each region.

On the basis of Product Type, Red Rice market report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into:

·         Type 1

·         Type 2

·         Type 3

·         Type 4

On the basis on the end users/applications, Red Rice market report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, including:

·         Application 1

·         Application 2

·         Application 3

·         Application 4

Purchase Full Report @ https://www.360marketupdates.com/purchase/11095487

Along with Red Rice Market research analysis, buyer also gets valuable information about global Red Rice Production and its market share, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin, Supply, Consumption, Export, Import volume and values for following Regions:

·         North America

·         Europe

·         China

·         Japan

·         Middle East & Africa

·         India

·         South America

·         Others

Red Rice Market highlights following key factors:

·         A complete background analysis of Red Rice industry, which includes an assessment of the parental market.

·         Emerging trends by segments and regional markets.

·         Significant changes in market dynamics & market overview.

·         Market breakdown up to the second or third level.

·         Market shares and approaches of key players in Red Rice market.

·         Current and predictable size of Red Rice market from the perspective of both value and volume.

·         Reporting and estimation of recent industry developments.

·         References to companies for establishment their position in the market

Thus, the Red Rice market report provides comprehensive analysis covering all the major regions, competitors, and dynamic aspects of the Red Rice industry.

https://opinioninvestor.com/red-rice-market-analysis-overview-growth-demand-and-forecast-research-report-to-2022/115587/

 



fit

TheQuint

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o    THE QUINT

o    QUINT HINDI

o    BLOOMBERG QUINT

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o    HEART

o    CANCER

o    HEALTH NEWS

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o    SEXOLVE

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But who would have thought these home brews can actually improve your mental well-being ?(Photo: iStockphoto/ Altered by FIT)

Cheers! Raise a Glass of Rice Beer For Your Mental Well-Being

SAHANA GHOSHUPDATED: 06.03.18

CHEW ON THIS5 min read

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For tourists, soaking in the spirit of Northeast India often translates into tasting the local brew, dominated by fermented rice beverages such as Apong from Arunachal Pradesh or ‘Xaj Pani’ of the Ahoms. But who would have thought these home brews can actually improve your mental well-being ?

Bring me a tumbler already!

Too caught up to read? Listen to the story here:

Consumption of cereal-based beverages such as rice beer, is intricately linked with the socio-cultural heritage of the northeast and eastern states in India. They are naturally loaded with a variety of probiotics (live microorganisms that, when consumed in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host).

Now, researchers are exploring how rice-based drinks from Northeast India could potentially be used as therapeutics (or as an adjunct to other treatments) for tackling anxiety, depression, stress and improve overall mood.

Rice Beer to Make You Happy

Rice beer preparations, having potentially positive effects on mood and anxiety-like symptoms, can be potent psychobiotics- a cocktail of probiotics and prebiotics (nutrition for the probiotic microbes) that can influence your mental well-being, say experts.

It’s only in the last 10 to 15 years, that the gut-brain connection (gut microbes regulate mental health and state of mind) was cemented by scientific research. Diet is a vital factor in regulating the gut–brain link.

As recently as 2013, Irish scientists introduced the term ‘psychobiotic’. At that point, it was referred to as a subset of probiotics: microbes with a positive impact on mental health. Prebiotic was added to its fold subsequently.

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Infact, a new book “The Psychobiotic Revolution” delves deeply into the concept of ‘you are what you eat’ and ‘you are what your gut microbes eat’.

Experts estimate that globally, a staggering 5000 varieties of fermented food and beverages are being consumed by billions. And 90 percent of naturally fermented foods and alcoholic beverages are still produced at home in traditional style. Fermented foods and beverages account for approximately one-third of the human diet globally.

Rice-based alcoholic beverages are very popular in many countries including India, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and many others. In India, it is prepared by different tribes of northeast India, West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand.

Ahom, Jou Bishi, Xaj Pani... Rice Beer is Part of Our Tradition

In Assam, the beverage is known by different names: Apong by Mising, Xaj Pani by Ahom and Jou Bishi by Boro tribes.

Infact every tribe has its own recipe to prepare the ‘starter cake’ (often in the form of round balls or flat cakes) that's used to kick-start the fermentation process. These starters are crafted from rice powder, herbs and leaves (guava, pepper, jackfruit etc.) and contain functional microorganisms that biochemically transform steamed rice into the brew.

Popular rice beers are Apong, Xaj Pani and Jou Bishi.(Photo: Sahana Ghosh)

No celebration, ritual or even funeral is complete without rice beer. Containers or pots whittled out of dried, hollow gourds or bamboo add to the appeal of these brews.

For the Rabha tribes, drinking of rice beer is an important part of the Khoksi puja. Some tribes also offer it to their deceased forefathers. In Bihu, one of the most important festivals of Assam, it’s an integral part of the celebration. It is also associated with hospitality and is served as a welcome drink.

Mojibur Khan, Researcher, Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology, Guwahati

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The microbial consortium and the process of fermentation of these beers not only enhance nutrition, they also infuse them with a dose of probiotics.

How does it happen?

The process involves breakdown of starch into sugars by microbes (in a process called amylolysis), followed by conversion of the sugar to alcohol ( alcoholic fermentation by yeasts).

During the course of fermentation, a group of metabolites such as lactic acid, alcohol, enzymes, antimicrobial substances, aromatic compounds, organic acids etc. are produced.

Mojibur Khan

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Rice Beer to Beat the Stress

In folklore, rice beer is believed to have positive health effects including stimulation of the immune system, reduction of the cholesterol levels, prevention of gastrointestinal ailments and expelling worms.

It also gives a kick - stimulates the brain and shoots down stress!

As a substantial portion of the population consumes it regularly, our research group has been actively trying to understand the effects of traditional rice beer on human health. One of our objectives in this study is to understand it’s effect on human gut microbiota and if it has, then how it effects the ‘gut-brain axis.’

Mojibur Khan

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To assess this, studies were carried out in mouse model, where they were fed with different preparations of rice beer at a pre-determined rate and for a specified period.

Results indicate that the animals that consumed the solid fraction of rice beer (containing microbes, rice debris and undissolved solids) and the low alcohol-containing diluted rice beer, showed reduced anxiety-related symptoms. The same groups of animals also had better learning capacity and memory.

These findings were presented by research scholar Bhuvan Bhaskar at a conference organised by IIT-Guwahati.

Treatment with rice beer reduced anxiety and improved the memory, which is an indication of psychobiotic effect. Studies on the components of rice beer associated with such effects are on going.

Bhuvan Bhaskar, Research Scholar

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So What’s Next...

The group is exploring the possibilities of developing such psychobiotics from rice beer.

“Rice beer consists of dietary fiber, nutraceuticals, lactic acid bacteria etc. and therefore, may have influential role in changing the micro-environment of the gut by producing metabolites. These may activate the neural network of gut and transmit the information to the mid regions of our brain, which may lead to secretion of different neurotrophic factors for regulating the psychiatric illness,” Khan explains.

Sikkim University’s officiating vice chancellor JP Tamang, a veteran researcher on fermented foods and beverages, says fermented beverages produced by using such starters in India are generally mildly alcoholic (4–5 percent) and have several health benefits.

“Ethnic fermented beverages and alcoholic drinks have the potential to grow into a robust industry if proper scientific and technical support are applied to the existing indigenous practices of home based alcoholic fermentation,” Tamang adds.

(Sahana Ghosh is a microbiologist-turned-journalist. She writes on science and environment and is interested in science in remote areas.)

First Published: 06.03.18

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All They Want To Do is Die

The Supreme Court has upheld passive euthanasia and sanctioned Living Will in a landmark order. But ‘active’ euthanasia, seeking death when you are healthy, is still very much illegal.

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This Couple Wants to Die: Where Does the Euthanasia Debate Stand?

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She is 78. He is 88. And all they want to do is die. Narayan and Iravati Lavate are healthy, financially stable, and leading a routine life in Mumbai. But they see no purpose in going on living.

The Supreme Court has upheld passive euthanasia and sanctioned Living Will in a landmark order. But ‘active’ euthanasia, seeking death when you are healthy, is still very much illegal.

If the law doesn’t help us, we’ll take the law in our hands. I will kill her and I will go to the gallows and face the consequences.

Narayan Lavate

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The Lavates’ never wanted children and they don't have any. So, they say they have “no ties” holding them back.

“We have to die some day or the other, so why not go early? The earlier the better,” adds the 88-year-old.

HEALTH NEWS

SAMEEKSHA KHARE

UPDATED: 01H 45M AGO

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FIT
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      Seed Researchers Reviving Food Traditions 

Mar 06, 2018 11:20AM ● Published by Emily Stevenson

By Emily Stevenson
Photos provided by Clemson University

As high-end chefs are regarded as demi-gods and diners require more and more from their culinary experiences, ingredients beyond the generic, flavorless grocery-store staples are in hot demand. Researchers and scientists across the state are helping revive crops and food traditions from the antebellum era and beyond that were thought to be gone with the wind.

Brian Ward, a research scientist with the Plant and Environmental Science Department, Coastal Research and Education Center of Clemson University, is one of those folks.

“I specialize in organic vegetable production and also in old heirloom crops, bringing back crops that have gone away because modern lines have been bred to be more productive,” he says.

One such example is the Carolina African Runner Peanut.

Brought over to the United States by slaves in the 1600s, it was the premier peanut in the south, beloved for its sweet flavor and high-quality oil. However, the crop was nearly extinct by the Great Depression, overlooked in favor of the Virginia or Valencia peanuts.

To bring back the peanuts, at the urging of chefs such as Husk’s Sean Brock, Ward collaborated with David S. Shields, a historian specializing in both food and agriculture. Only 40 seeds of the Carolina African Runner Peanuts remained on earth, but Shields tracked them down, where they were preserved in a cold-storage seed vault at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

He and Ward were eventually given 20 of the seeds to grow. Of the 20, 12 lived the first year, resulting in a harvest of 1,200 seeds. The next year, Ward planted 900 of the 1,200, with a resulting 60,000 seeds. The third year, Ward planted 45,000 seeds. The yield was more than one million. 

At that point, it was safe to start distribution.

“That’s when I distributed all over the Southeast to peanut butter companies, candy companies, vaccine companies to test out,” says Ward.

Another distribution point for Ward’s peanut crop: chefs such as Brock. In a Jan. 19 article for Food and Wine magazine, Brock admits that if one of the peanuts happens to fall to the floor, the staff knows not to throw it out. Instead, they wash it off carefully and put it right back in the ingredient lineup.


History & Heritage


The importance of heirloom crops goes further than mere culinary decadence.

“In the beginning, the great impetus was the demand from the chefs, but what happens is that people go to the restaurants and taste the stuff and realize there are tastes there that they remember from their grandmothers, or something like that,” says Shields, a Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences, and the chairman of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation.

He traces the search for heirloom crops back to the 1990s, when people began looking at the food being made in the Lowcountry - and found it lacking.

“They knew they had the recipes right, but the flavor wasn’t coming out,” Shields says. “We took a look, and the problem was that people were making Hoppin’ John using California canned black-eyed peas and mahatma rice. They weren’t using the things that originally made Hoppin’ John savory.”

Glenn Roberts, founder of Anson Mills and president of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, puts it this way:

“When I first moved to Charleston, everyone said they ate rice and worshipped their ancestors, but it was Uncle Ben’s,” he says. “Now they’re eating Carolina Gold or Charleston Gold [rice].”

Roberts describes the “Carolina Rice Kitchen,” or the cuisine native to Georgia and South Carolina, as a fully formed cuisine, meaning that it is a place-based culturally identifiable food system, from the ground up, that was shared by a large population. Although prevalent throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, it was essentially lost by World War II.

“There wasn’t a lot of, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to have indigenous Carolina cuisine,’” says Roberts. “The idea of Carolina rice having an identity disappeared almost completely for decades.”

The crucial bit, though, is that the state had the cuisine - and has the documentation to prove it. 

“We’re one of the few places in America where the documentation is rock-solid,” Roberts adds.

There are plenty of primary sources referencing well-known crops and recipes. Shields says it’s these flavorful, original heirloom crops that built the original cuisine of the Lowcountry and made it famous.

“The loss of flavor, in a way, caused those cuisines to decline into mere cookery,” he says. “We want them to be cuisines again and to have all the potentials that existed prior to that.”

Further, traditional Carolina cuisine was shared by everyone across the state—rich, poor, free, slaves, and everyone else.

“This is everybody’s history who grew up during those periods,” says Ward. “It wasn’t just one group of people. The historical aspect is important.”

Roberts says that understanding the genetic system behind the cuisine is still the biggest challenge in resurrecting lost ingredients. But the reemergence of these crops brings with it a host of other questions: How to make it fair to all communities, not just researchers and scientists? How to make these ingredients fair-trade food for everyone, not just the wealthy? How to honor food that may or may not have belonged to any one sector of society at any given time?

“There’s a whole canon of the Carolina Rice Kitchen that belongs to slaves and freemen that was not shared in the planters’ society, and vice versa,” he says. “How do you untangle that? It goes to social and political things that are way above my pay grade, but you can’t ignore them.”

Dollars & Sense

In the world of heirloom agriculture, there’s more than just nostalgia and history at play. Agriculture is one of South Carolina’s largest industry clusters, with a roughly $3 billion impact annually. Heirloom crops, especially if grown organically, demand extremely high prices compared to traditionally grown modern crops.

“The aspect to give growers another niche or opportunity to make money is important,” says Ward. “There’s a huge monetary incentive for growers.”

One of Ward’s current projects includes work on organic watermelons. Until now, organic melons haven’t really existed because they are susceptible to disease, particularly soil-borne diseases. Ward has experimented with grafting, taking a watermelon top and grafting it to the bottom of a squash or gourd plant, which are in the same family. However, the squash has a large amount of disease resistance in its root system, making the watermelon suddenly resistant to soil-borne diseases.

Ward and his team received good yields, particularly by the third year of planting. A grower saw the yields and decided to plant 10 acres of the organic grafted watermelons. He had a fair amount of success - both harvest-wise and monetarily.

“The current price of watermelons was 10 cents a pound,” says Ward. “But to sell organic watermelons, he got 46 cents a pound. He was getting tremendous return.” 

According to Ward, that’s not an uncommon phenomenon.

“There’s so much money to be made by growers,” he says. “There’s paperwork involved, but it’s not overwhelming like a lot of growers think it is, and the profits can be quite lucrative. There’s money to be made in organics.”

Be that as it may, those who work in agriculture often do so for the love of the industry, not monetary gain. Roberts says that they don’t typically monetize the heirloom seeds they’ve revived.

“We want to make it available to everyone,” he says. “We work for public good, pro bono.”

Shields agrees.

“I do this thing as a pro bono expression of my responsibility as a Carolina Distinguished Professor,” he says. “I let the farmers profit because they’re putting their time and labor on the line.”

http://www.greenvillebusinessmag.com/2018/03/06/168372/seed-researchers-reviving-food-traditions

Seed Researchers Reviving Food Traditions 

Mar 06, 2018 11:20AM ● Published by Emily Stevenson

By Emily Stevenson
Photos provided by Clemson University

As high-end chefs are regarded as demi-gods and diners require more and more from their culinary experiences, ingredients beyond the generic, flavorless grocery-store staples are in hot demand. Researchers and scientists across the state are helping revive crops and food traditions from the antebellum era and beyond that were thought to be gone with the wind.

Brian Ward, a research scientist with the Plant and Environmental Science Department, Coastal Research and Education Center of Clemson University, is one of those folks.

“I specialize in organic vegetable production and also in old heirloom crops, bringing back crops that have gone away because modern lines have been bred to be more productive,” he says.

One such example is the Carolina African Runner Peanut.

Brought over to the United States by slaves in the 1600s, it was the premier peanut in the south, beloved for its sweet flavor and high-quality oil. However, the crop was nearly extinct by the Great Depression, overlooked in favor of the Virginia or Valencia peanuts.

To bring back the peanuts, at the urging of chefs such as Husk’s Sean Brock, Ward collaborated with David S. Shields, a historian specializing in both food and agriculture. Only 40 seeds of the Carolina African Runner Peanuts remained on earth, but Shields tracked them down, where they were preserved in a cold-storage seed vault at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

He and Ward were eventually given 20 of the seeds to grow. Of the 20, 12 lived the first year, resulting in a harvest of 1,200 seeds. The next year, Ward planted 900 of the 1,200, with a resulting 60,000 seeds. The third year, Ward planted 45,000 seeds. The yield was more than one million. 

At that point, it was safe to start distribution.

“That’s when I distributed all over the Southeast to peanut butter companies, candy companies, vaccine companies to test out,” says Ward.

Another distribution point for Ward’s peanut crop: chefs such as Brock. In a Jan. 19 article for Food and Wine magazine, Brock admits that if one of the peanuts happens to fall to the floor, the staff knows not to throw it out. Instead, they wash it off carefully and put it right back in the ingredient lineup.


History & Heritage


The importance of heirloom crops goes further than mere culinary decadence.

“In the beginning, the great impetus was the demand from the chefs, but what happens is that people go to the restaurants and taste the stuff and realize there are tastes there that they remember from their grandmothers, or something like that,” says Shields, a Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences, and the chairman of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation.

He traces the search for heirloom crops back to the 1990s, when people began looking at the food being made in the Lowcountry - and found it lacking.

“They knew they had the recipes right, but the flavor wasn’t coming out,” Shields says. “We took a look, and the problem was that people were making Hoppin’ John using California canned black-eyed peas and mahatma rice. They weren’t using the things that originally made Hoppin’ John savory.”

Glenn Roberts, founder of Anson Mills and president of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, puts it this way:

“When I first moved to Charleston, everyone said they ate rice and worshipped their ancestors, but it was Uncle Ben’s,” he says. “Now they’re eating Carolina Gold or Charleston Gold [rice].”

Roberts describes the “Carolina Rice Kitchen,” or the cuisine native to Georgia and South Carolina, as a fully formed cuisine, meaning that it is a place-based culturally identifiable food system, from the ground up, that was shared by a large population. Although prevalent throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, it was essentially lost by World War II.

“There wasn’t a lot of, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to have indigenous Carolina cuisine,’” says Roberts. “The idea of Carolina rice having an identity disappeared almost completely for decades.”

The crucial bit, though, is that the state had the cuisine - and has the documentation to prove it. 

“We’re one of the few places in America where the documentation is rock-solid,” Roberts adds.

There are plenty of primary sources referencing well-known crops and recipes. Shields says it’s these flavorful, original heirloom crops that built the original cuisine of the Lowcountry and made it famous.

“The loss of flavor, in a way, caused those cuisines to decline into mere cookery,” he says. “We want them to be cuisines again and to have all the potentials that existed prior to that.”

Further, traditional Carolina cuisine was shared by everyone across the state—rich, poor, free, slaves, and everyone else.

“This is everybody’s history who grew up during those periods,” says Ward. “It wasn’t just one group of people. The historical aspect is important.”

Roberts says that understanding the genetic system behind the cuisine is still the biggest challenge in resurrecting lost ingredients. But the reemergence of these crops brings with it a host of other questions: How to make it fair to all communities, not just researchers and scientists? How to make these ingredients fair-trade food for everyone, not just the wealthy? How to honor food that may or may not have belonged to any one sector of society at any given time?

“There’s a whole canon of the Carolina Rice Kitchen that belongs to slaves and freemen that was not shared in the planters’ society, and vice versa,” he says. “How do you untangle that? It goes to social and political things that are way above my pay grade, but you can’t ignore them.”

Dollars & Sense

In the world of heirloom agriculture, there’s more than just nostalgia and history at play. Agriculture is one of South Carolina’s largest industry clusters, with a roughly $3 billion impact annually. Heirloom crops, especially if grown organically, demand extremely high prices compared to traditionally grown modern crops.

“The aspect to give growers another niche or opportunity to make money is important,” says Ward. “There’s a huge monetary incentive for growers.”

One of Ward’s current projects includes work on organic watermelons. Until now, organic melons haven’t really existed because they are susceptible to disease, particularly soil-borne diseases. Ward has experimented with grafting, taking a watermelon top and grafting it to the bottom of a squash or gourd plant, which are in the same family. However, the squash has a large amount of disease resistance in its root system, making the watermelon suddenly resistant to soil-borne diseases.

Ward and his team received good yields, particularly by the third year of planting. A grower saw the yields and decided to plant 10 acres of the organic grafted watermelons. He had a fair amount of success - both harvest-wise and monetarily.

“The current price of watermelons was 10 cents a pound,” says Ward. “But to sell organic watermelons, he got 46 cents a pound. He was getting tremendous return.” 

According to Ward, that’s not an uncommon phenomenon.

“There’s so much money to be made by growers,” he says. “There’s paperwork involved, but it’s not overwhelming like a lot of growers think it is, and the profits can be quite lucrative. There’s money to be made in organics.”

Be that as it may, those who work in agriculture often do so for the love of the industry, not monetary gain. Roberts says that they don’t typically monetize the heirloom seeds they’ve revived.

“We want to make it available to everyone,” he says. “We work for public good, pro bono.”

Shields agrees.

“I do this thing as a pro bono expression of my responsibility as a Carolina Distinguished Professor,” he says. “I let the farmers profit because they’re putting their time and labor on the line.”

http://www.greenvillebusinessmag.com/2018/03/06/168372/seed-researchers-reviving-food-traditions

 

Floating rice: The climate-resilient alternative for Cambodia’s food production

Grown in floods and thriving without pesticides, floating rice offers Cambodia a sustainable alternative for its eco-friendly food production amid threats from climate change.

image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==

A Cambodian boy rides on a buffalo on his way back from a floating rice field. Once common in the Lower Mekong Basin, this eco-friendly farming method is drifting towards disappearance in the region. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==

 

 Pichayada Promchertchoo @PichayadaCNA

06 Mar 2018 06:30AM (Updated: 06 Mar 2018 07:33PM)

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KAMPONG THOM, Cambodia: The sky is pitch black when Than Bunthorn leaves home for the paddy field. His body sways atop an old oxcart as it bumps along a small dirt track. Dawn is still some hours away. But for the farmer, work begins as early as 3am.

The 51-year-old has another long day ahead of him. Six hectares of rice field takes him a month to cultivate and seed. He owns no farm machinery, only two oxen and a wooden plough. But that is enough to get work done before the annual floods, when water fills his land and rice begins to float.

A resident of Tnot Village in Kampong Thom province, Bunthorn is among a few remaining farmers in Cambodia who still grow floating rice in deep water. The technique is a traditional farming method that could offer a sustainable, eco-friendly alternative for the country’s rice production in the face of climate change.

“Floating rice grows with floods,” Bunthorn said. His rough, sunburnt skin hints at decades of toiling in harsh weather.  

“No matter how deep it is, the rice can survive. It can float high above the ground and doesn’t need much care until harvest time.”

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940252/0x0/3008/2008/3c5b763ba50e13e2adbadd1562e88f31/zp/-pp--tapestry-rice2.jpg

A boy rows his boat on submerged land, heading towards a floating rice field. Many farmers in Kampong Thom province still grow rice in deep water during flooding season, when water from Tonle Sap River inundates a vast area of land. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

Grown in floods and thriving without pesticide, floating rice – sometimes known as deep water rice – has nourished generations of people in the Lower Mekong Region. In Cambodia, the traditional cultivation is still present around Tonle Sap Lake, in low-lying provinces such as Kampong Thom, Kampong Chhnang, Siem Reap, Pursat and Banteay Meanchey.

The unique characteristic of floating rice is its ability to elongate and adapt to floods. The stem lengthens as water rises, with heights ranging between 1 and 6 metres. For three months, usually from August to October, its foliage floats and ripens on the surface, while deep water keeps pests at bay.

During the submergence, Bunthorn says sediment from the floods turns into natural fertiliser and helps farmers like himself minimise the use of agrochemicals.

“We don’t have to pay for chemical fertiliser or pesticides. We just need rainwater and floods. Our produce, as a result, is organic and healthy."

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940266/0x0/3008/2008/151b5f60a9442d85c76705a4826ab6b/Pe/-pp--tapestry-rice4.jpg

Farmers in Tnot Village are on their way home after harvesting floating rice. The plant is cropped once a year and takes several months to grow - one of the main reasons why many Cambodian farmers have switched to double-cropped, dry-season varieties. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

The crops’ resilience to inundation and low reliance on agrochemicals has led researchers to believe there are many benefits of growing floating rice in the Lower Mekong Basin, particularly in Cambodia.

Based on a study by USAID and the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change, Cambodia is among the most vulnerable countries in Southeast Asia to climate change impact.

“Increased frequency of large storms will result in more flooding and related costs, especially in low-lying areas such as the extensive floodplains surrounding Tonle Sap Lake including southern and central parts of Kampong Thom province,” the study said.

Among the most vulnerable crops, it adds, are dry-season and lowland rain-fed rice. Last year alone, Cambodia’s National Committee for Disaster Management reported 3,456 hectares of rice crops were damaged by rain and the overflowing of rivers, not mentioning more than 300 hectares of other crops.

FLOATING RICE: A FADING CULTURE

In Tnot Village, the threat of flooding does not worry deep water rice farmers so much.

"Floating rice can withstand floods; it grows well when water rises. The farming itself is also easy and that’s why it’s still alive,” Bunthorn said.

“If Mother Nature gives us good weather, the harvest can reach 3 tonnes a year.”

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940260/0x0/2960/1976/516343c0d07ef4aba647e1dab8868059/eu/-pp--tapestry-rice3.jpg

Floating rice grows with floods. The stem can elongate up to 6 metres while its foliage floats and ripens on the water surface. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

Farming is the only career he has known since the age of 18. As a little boy, he used to follow his father to their rice field, where he learnt the art of farming rice in deep water. Like other families in the village, his has been growing floating rice for generations – a tradition he hopes will live on.

But data from the Agriculture Ministry shows floating rice continues to disappear from Cambodia’s floodplains. Its major decline was recorded around 1975-1979, when the country witnessed one of the darkest chapters in its history.

During four years under the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia went through a mass genocide that is believed to have wiped out up to 2 million people or a quarter of its then population. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, millions of people were forced to farm in the countryside as the regime hoped to turn the society into an agrarian utopia.

As a result, single-cropped floating rice was deemed valueless and higher-yielding types were used to accelerate rice production. Much of its cultivation has been replaced by dry-season varieties, which allow farmers to harvest twice or thrice a year.

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940420/0x0/3008/2008/ecb66814d3e99a648028425d55c270fb/YN/-pp--tapestry-rice7.jpg

During flooding season, floating farmers catch wild fish in their inundated rice fields as they turn into a fertile fishing ground. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

“The market for dry-season rice is expanding in Cambodia. The crops only take three months to grow and that’s why farmers are switching to this type,' said Chim Choeung, member of the Kampong Svay Commune Council in Kampong Thom.

"They can earn more this way."

In Cambodia, rice is the staple food and primary commodity. In 2017, the country exported more than 635,000 tonnes of rice and recorded a 17.3 per cent growth from the previous year, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

As the country develops, the government is determined to further increase rice production as it aims to transform Cambodia into the world’s “rice basket”.

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9941436/0x0/3008/2008/628854e38594fa17d3f680eec948dcf1/gf/-pp--tapestry-rice7.jpg

By supporting high-yield rice varieities, the government aims to transform Cambodia into the world's "rice basket" and better compete in the global rice market. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)



Still, global rice market remains a competitive space dominated by India, Thailand and Vietnam. Last year, Cambodia saw its two neighbouring countries export more than 17 million tonnes of rice, 11.25 million tonnes from Thailand and 5.9 million tonnes from Vietnam.

MORE CHEMICALS, MORE YIELDS

In a bid to up its game, the Cambodian government has been promoting short-term high-yield rice cultivation, which targets a continued expansion of dry-season rice farming area. What followed was a sharp decline of floating rice farming.

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940268/0x0/2956/1973/8778c620bbe7a55aea4657338dd6b55a/Uz/-pp--tapestry-rice5.jpg

Many floating rice farmers in Cambodia do not own farming machinery and use oxen or water buffaloes and wooden ploughs to cultivate their land. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

In 1975, there were 410,000 hectares of the crops in Cambodia, according to research by the Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society. By 2015, the area had shrunk by 88.6 per cent to 46,759 hectares.

“While high-yield variety rice has a clear domestic and international market acceptability, the same cannot be said for floating rice,” said Dr Van Kien Nguyen and Assoc Prof Jamie Pittock in their research.

The crops, they added, are unpopular in urban markets and largely consumed by farmers, who believe in their health benefits.

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940408/0x0/2469/1648/626e2f719d5f1cd6a8f63d09f1c4690a/GE/-pp--tapestry-rice6.jpg

Floating rice farming is the main source of income for many people living around Tonle Sap Lake, low-lying areas that are seasonally inundated by Tonle Sap River and the Mekong. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

In Tnot village, the sale of floating rice is falling gradually.

“In the past, everyone here was growing floating rice. But today many people have changed to dry-season rice because of higher yields. They grow it for export,” said rice seller Thorn Thol.

But despite its shorter cultivation period, Thol said dry-season rice requires more care, more fertiliser and pesticides.

“When farmers plough the land, they’ll have to spray pesticide. When rice starts to grow, they’ll spray it again. Other chemicals are also used to stop weeds. And when the rice plants are tall, more pesticides are applied,” she said.

“It’s not great for your health. But many people prefer dry-season rice farming."

For the likes of Bunthorn however, whose land is submerged every year, a change in farming method is unlikely.

"We can't change the nature of our land," the farmer said. 

In front of him, his floating rice field looks like a golden sea in the sun. Water is good this year and he is looking forward to the harvest.

For more on this and other projects around Southeast Asia, tune in to Tapestry: The Heart of ASEAN on Channel NewsAsia every Tuesday from Feb 27 to Mar 27 at 11pm.


Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/floating-rice-cambodia-food-production-alternative-9937896
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/floating-rice-cambodia-food-production-alternative-9937896

 

 

Researchers develop new method to improve crops

March 6, 2018 by Jessica Luton, University of Georgia

William Jordan (left) and Lexiang Ji look over one of many sets of Arabidopsis thaliana, which were used to research a new plant breeding technique. Credit: UGA

A team of University of Georgia researchers has developed a new way to breed plants with better traits. By introducing a human protein into the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, researchers found that they could selectively activate silenced genes already present within the plant.

Using this method to increase diversity among plant populations could serve to create varieties that are able to withstand drought or disease in crops or other plant populations, and the researchers have already begun testing the technique on maize, soy and rice.

They published their findings in Nature Communications.

The research project was led by Lexiang Ji, a doctoral student in bioinformatics, and William Jordan, a doctoral student in genetics. The new method they explored, known as epimutagenesis, will make it possible to breed diverse plants in a way that isn't possible with traditional techniques.

"In the past this has been done with traditional breeding. You take a plant, breed it with another plant that has another characteristic you want to create another plant," said Jordan. "The problem with that is getting an individual that has all of the characteristics you want and none of the characteristics that you don't want. It's kind of difficult. With our new technique, you can modify how the genes are turned on and off in that plant without having to introduce a whole other set of genes from another parent."

The idea for the method evolved originally from working in the lab with department of genetics professor Robert Schmitz, the corresponding author on the study. In his lab, researchers were studying DNA methylation, which controls expressed genetic traits, and creating maps of where DNA methylation is located in many plant species, including crops. When DNA methylation is removed, researchers found that they could selectively turn on previously silenced genes in the underlying genome of the plant.

"We saw repeatedly that lots of genes are silenced by DNA methylation and thought it was kind of curious," said Schmitz. "There are lots of discussions you can have about why these exist, but the reality is that they are there. So we wondered, how can we leverage them? Let's use the plant already in the field and reawaken some of those silenced genes to generate trait variation."

To turn these dormant or silenced genes on, researchers introduced a human enzyme, known as a ten-eleven translocation enzyme, to plant seedlings using specially modified bacteria as a delivery vector. Introducing this human protein allows researchers to remove DNA methylation and thereby turn on previously silenced genes.

Figuring out the best way to introduce the protein to the plant species has been a trial and error process. With Ji's expertise in bioinformatics, researchers are able to look at large sets of data about their experiment and make decisions on how to best proceed with the project.

"The data has really helped us brainstorm and coordinate what we should do next," said Ji. "That was particularly important in the beginning of this project because we just didn't know what was going to happen with this new technique."

"Thousands of years ago you'd plant out hundreds of plants and one of them does really well so you'd breed out generations of that plant. Doing this though, you narrow down the genetic diversity until they're basically very, very similar," said Jordan. "While that's beneficial for yield or other plant characteristics that you might want, if there's a stress that they're not well adapted to because they're all so similar they're all going to respond in the same way. That creates a potentially vulnerable crop."

"If they don't have the genetic differences to respond, then it can really wipe out crops," added Schmitz. "This isn't a savior, but it's an alternative strategy that has not been tried before. The idea is to access genes that people haven't been studying because they're not expressed but they're there. We think this method to reactivate these genes could lead to increased trait variation which could be useful for biotechnology applications.



Read more at: 
https://phys.org/news/2018-03-method-crops.html#jCp https://phys.org/news/2018-03-method-crops.html

 

No SRP on rice – DTI

18

SHARES

Updated March 7, 2018, 7:02 AM

By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat

The imposition of a suggested retail price on rice will have to be decided by the economic managers and the Department of Agriculture (DA), according to Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon M. Lopez.

Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez
(ALBERT ALCAIN/PPD / MANILA BULLETIN)

Lopez said this yesterday after meeting with the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) to assess prices of basic and prime commodities. An SRP on rice was raised during a Senate hearing on rice.

“An SRP on rice is a policy issue so it is not just a decision of the NPCC but of the economic managers and the Department of Agriculture,” said Lopez, who chairs the NPCC.

The price of regular milled rice has increased from P37 to P40 per kilo, well-milled also went up to P42 from P40 last year and premium rice to P46 from P45 last year. The special rice was also up to P55 from P50 last year.

Lopez, however, made clear they are not reimposing the era where SRPs have to be approved by the DTI. The only thing the DTI is doing is to influence or a moral suasion on manufacturers on their pricing scheme.

Prices stable

Lopez also reported that prices of basic goods and commodities have remained stable and that the DTI has tightened its monitoring to prevent profiteering and influence to keep prices within suggested retail prices down to the grassroots level.

Lopez said that his agency monitors prices on a weekly basis and that out of 20 basic items carried in the supermarkets and groceries only one can be said to have imposed higher price than the SRPs.

There was no instance also that a retailer has been caught profiteering, which is a price higher than 10 percent.

In fact, other products, such as refined sugar, have gone down by P5-P50 this year from P55 last year. Agricultural products are also stable while some items such as tomatoes and papayas have reduced prices.

Canned goods

The canned goods manufacturers have already informed DTI of their intention to raise prices by P1 to P2 due to higher cost of tinplates and the foreign exchange rate, but Lopez said their computation showed the increase should only be between 36 to 50 centavos per can.

He, however, said that they will not prevent a price adjustment as long as this is limited to one or two brands only.

A sardines brand has minimal price hikes but the same brands have lower prices in the regions.

The DTI is also launching the “Suking Tindahan” to sari-sari stores that will volunteer to adhere to the SRP prices in an effort to ensure that prices remained at the SRP level even up to the grassroots level. Those with the badge of “Suking Tindahan” will have the benefit of getting supplies from manufacturers at wholesale rates.

Tags: Department of AgricultureDTINational Price Coordinating CouncilNo SRP on rice – DTINPCCSecretary Ramon M. LopezSRPSuggested retail price

https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/03/06/no-srp-on-rice-dti/

 

Duterte doesn't want NFA chief Jason Aquino speaking on rice supply

The decision comes after Cabinet members agreed Jason Aquino made a misleading claim that there was a rice shortage, causing prices to increase

 

Pia Ranada

@piaranada

Published 3:29 PM, March 06, 2018

Updated 7:07 PM, March 06, 2018

DECISIONS, DISCUSSIONS. President Rodrigo Duterte presides over the 23rd Cabinet Meeting in Malacañang. Malacañang file photo

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte wants only the National Food Authoriy (NFA) Council to make announcements about rice supply in the country.

This was among the major decisions made during the Cabinet meeting on Monday, March 5, Malacañang announced on Tuesday, March 6.

"The President said that, henceforth, all information on the country's rice supply must emanate from the NFA Council," said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque during a Palace press briefing.

This comes after senators slammed NFA Administrator Jason Aquino for making a public pronouncement on the shortage of NFA rice which caused panic among consumers and an increase in the prices of rice, a critical commodity for Filipino households.

This "misleading" claim of Aquino was discussed during the Cabinet meeting.

"There was an acknowledgment that statements made by the NFA administrator caused panic, which probably caused prices to rise," said Roque.

The NFA Council, members of which were present at the Cabinet meeting, explained that there is no rice shortage in the country. According to Roque, the Cabinet "agreed" this was the case.

"It was agreed that there is no rice shortage because the figure of only 1.5 days of rice was misleading. [The supply duration of] 1.5 days is only if it is NFA that is the only rice supplier in the Philippines, which is not the case," said Roque.

The NFA Council, chaired by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr, explained that NFA rice constitutes only a small portion of the country's rice supply. Most of the supply is provided by commercial traders.

While Aquino was not present at the Cabinet meeting, Duterte ordered that he be asked to attend a Cabinet Cluster meeting in April.

The rift between Evasco and Aquino, said to be close to Special Assistant to the President Bong Go, is well known. When Aquino refused to comply with NFA Council orders on import permits for traders, Evasco wanted him fired. –Rappler.com

https://www.rappler.com/nation/197539-duterte-jason-aquino-speak-rice-supply

 

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Rice Theft: Police Quizzes Edo PDP Chair

3 days ago

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Chief Dan Orbih: PDP chairman in Edo State

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

Edo State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Dan Orbih was on Tuesday quizzed by the State police command over allegations of fraud in the distribution of relief items for internally displaced persons in Benin by the state government.

Orbih had at a recent press conference, accused the State Government of allegedly diverting over 4,000 bags of rice donated by the Nigeria Customs Service to internally displaced persons in Uhogua.

It was gathered that Orbih was invited by the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Johnson Kokumo, following a petition by the Governor, which urged the police to ask the PDP chairman to proof the criminal allegations.

The petition which was signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Osarodion Ogie, and addressed to the police commissioner, read in part: “The purpose of this complaint is to formally bring these weighty and unsubstantiated allegations to your attention and to request a thorough investigation with a view to establishing the veracity or otherwise of same.

“It is the contention of the Edo State Government that Chief Dan Orbih should be called upon to provide evidence of the serious crimes he has alleged to have been committed by the Edo State Government and to furnish your command with facts, details and proof of the allegations he has made in the public domain.”

A police source disclosed that Orbih made a statement and was questioned for several hours by police officers at the Command headquarters in Benin.

The development however sparked a protest by supporters of the party, who accused the State Government of using the police to intimidate the opposition.

Speaking shortly after his interaction with the Police Commissioner, Orbih said his statement to the police substantiated his claims.

“From my own statement, it has been well established that the government of Edo State misappropriated the rice meant for the IDPs. I also want to commend the Edo State Police Command for the mature and professional way they have handled this issue.

“Now that they (State Government) have decided to ask the police to be investigating, we will be giving more information so that they can write more petitions to the police for investigation.

“I think these are very weighty allegations. In my own opinion, it is being put forward by the government to incite members of the public against the PDP in Edo State. In a democracy, there must be opposition,” Orbih said.

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https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2018/03/06/rice-theft-police-quizzes-edo-pdp-chair/ Ogbeh and Thailand’s rice export

by Editorial March 6, 2018 12:45 am 



Last week Friday at the meeting of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) and the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers of Nigeria (FEPSAN) presided over by president Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja, minister of agriculture, claimed Nigeria’s reduced rice import from Thailand has decline by about 95 percent and has led to the collapse of seven rice mills in Thailand and raised unemployment rate to four percent in the country. Ogbeh was quoted as saying:
“… two weeks ago, the Ambassador of Thailand came to my office and said to me that we have really dealt with them…But I asked what did we do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 per cent, it has gone up to four per cent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 per cent on rice alone.
“So, Mr President we thank you for the support and we thank all the agencies and those of you in the private sector for your resilience…”
Even the president recently claimed that Nigeria’s rice import was down by 90 percent and that rice import will be completely stopped this year to encourage local production.
However, a simple check reveals that both the president and minister of agriculture were greatly mistaken and the figures they advertised are not true.
First, Thailand’s rice export has been on a continuous growth trajectory, reaching a record high of 11.2 million tonnes last year. Data shows rice exports grew at 37.2 percent year-on-year.
Information available on the Rice Exporters Association of Thailand website shows Nigeria’s import of rice for the last three years has been negligible – 58, 260, 644, 131 and 23, 192 metric tonnes in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Second, the unemployment figure in Thailand stands at 1.3 percent as at January 2018. So, it is neither true that rice mills have been shut down due to Nigeria’s low imports nor that unemployment figure has gone up to four percent in Thailand. Even if we are to believe the minister that Thailand’s ambassador made that claim, he has a responsibility to cross-check and not make claims that are obviously false and which makes a mockery of us as a country.
Although the government has been claiming success and taking the glory for reducing rice imports, the reality is more nuanced and doesn’t cover us in glory like the minister and president want us to believe. Rice importation through the land borders have been banned since 2015 and can only be brought in legally through the ports at a discouragingly high tariff of 70 percent. So, technically Nigeria has banned rice importation.
However, as legal importation to Nigeria drops drastically, neighbouring countries such as Benin, Cameroun, Niger and others have greatly increased their import of parboiled rice, which ironically, is consumed only in Nigeria.
Data by the Thai Rice Exporters Association shows that Benin Republic’s imports from Thailand from January to November 2017 stood at 1.64 million metric tonnes, a 32 percent increase from 1.24 million metric tonnes within the same period in 2016, and an increment of 104.45 percent from 805,765 metric tonnes exported to Benin republic in 2015. Cameroun also imported 663, 667 metric tonnes of parboiled rice from Thailand between January and November 2017, a 47.64 percent increase from 449, 513 within the same period in 2016, and 449, 297 metric tonnes in 2015. It is safe to say that most of the imports to these countries end up in the Nigerian market through smuggling.
An investigation carried out by BusinessDay some months ago also shows that smuggling is rife along the official border points and despite the claim that rice importation is banned through the borders, traders continue to import the commodity through official border points usually after settling customs officials. To add to our woes, the price of the smuggled rice are way lower than those of locally produced rice, which means the problem will remain with us for a long time to come.
It is noteworthy that the government wants to ensure self-sufficiency in rice production. But this must be done in the right way and with regards to the realities on the ground. The bandying of false data and official import figures the reality will continue to make a mockery of us as a country.

https://www.businessdayonline.com/ogbeh-thailands-rice-export/

 

Kebbi can produce 50% rice needs of Nigerians – Commissioner

3 days ago

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·         Nigeria to start rice exportation in 2017

Kebbi: Rice millers explain high cost of local rice

By Rotimi Ijikanmi

Kebbi State has assured the nation it has the capacity to deliver 50 per cent of the rice needs of Nigerians with the continuous support of Federal Government’s Anchor Borrowers Programme.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Garba Dandiga, conducting a team of journalists on inspection of 50 kilometre by 20 kilometre FADAMA rice plantation in Suru on Monday.

The Minister of Information and Culture , Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had on Sunday led the newsmen to Kebbi to assess the progress of rice revolution championed by the federal government in the state.

Dandiga said 16 local government areas were in serious rice production in the state and millions of youths and retirees were engaged in rice farming across the state.

Specifically, the commissioner said that with expectations of bounty harvest in 2018, the Suru Fadama farms will turn out 2.5 million tons of paddy.

He recalled that in 2017, 1.5 million tons of paddy were harvested from the Suru farms.

Dandiga said that there were eight bigger paddy farms across the state supported with value chains of mills and markets.

He said Suru is an organised rice value chain with method that ensures that every bag and lorry load of paddy out of the place is recorded.

The Commissioner said that in order to boost production, the government recently procured 100 tractors, 300 power tillers, 300 thrashers and 200 reapers to support the farmers.

Price of local rice drops 

He said the state government was giving the tractors at subsidised rate upon a part payment by interested farmers who would be given time to pay the balance in instalment.

Dandiga commended the federal government for its fertiliser policy which he said were readily available to farmers at a cheaper rate of N5,500 per bag compared to N9000 price in the open market.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that earlier, the team had inspected the Lambunmaba Fadama rice farms in Kamba, a border community with Niger Republic.

One of the farmers, Alhaji Ibrahim Salihu said Niger Republic was about one kilometre from the town and the borderline were a lined up of local palm tree.

He said they co-exist peacefully and during planting and harvesting seasons they source labour from Niger Republic to work on the Fadama rice farms

Salihu said the major challenge of farmers was sourcing petrol to power generator that pumped underground water from the wells dug in the farms.

NAN reports that during the inspection there were movement of motor bikes each ferrying not less than eight 50 litres jerry cans of petrol into the farms.

Salihu called on government to provide solar powered pumping machines for the farmers to ease their sufferings and to prevent possible smuggling of petroleum products across the border.

A man carries a bag of Lake Rice 

At Oroba Fadama farms also in Kamba Dandiga, the agric commissioner said the rice plantations span 40 kilometres and the farmers were preparing for dry season cultivation.

NAN reports that the commissioner also conducted the team on inspection of a rice mill under construction also at Kamba in Dandi local government area.

He said the mill owned by an indigenous entrepreneur was borne out of the rice revolution to ensure offtakers for paddy.

Alhaji Mahmudu Fanna, the district head of Kamba said that the mill had two production lines of 120 tons and 250 tons daily productions respectively.

The team were also at Kamba rice market where Fanna told newsmen that not less than 10 truck loads of paddy were sold daily to the big rice millers.(NAN)

http://www.nan.ng/agriculture/kebbi-can-produce-50-rice-needs-of-nigerians-commissioner/

 

 

 

New irrigation method drives agriculture in Anambra ON MARCH 7, 20184:56 AMIN AGRIC, NEWS1 COMMENT By Vincent Ujumadu AWKA- AGRICULTURE, which is one of the four pillars on which Governor Willie Obiano’s administration is anchored, is getting the desired attention in most of the food production belts of the state, thanks to the support by the FADAMA III Additional Financing and the international donor agencies, including the World Bank, which introduced new irrigation method currently being enjoyed by farmers in the state. •Governor Willie Obiano (3rd right) being briefed by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Afam Mbanefo, on the operation of the irrigation system. Known as Center Pivot Irrigation System, the technology is capable of providing irrigation water to farmlands of about 100 hectares radius within minutes, with the result that rice production now takes place in Anambra State three times in a year including the dry season. Boreholes to service the new system have been sunk in Ogbaru, Ihiala and Ifite Ogwari, while the one at Ogboji would be serviced by surface flooding. It is expected that the contractors that installed the irrigation systems would manage them for one year during which period they would train farmers to take ownership of the project and sustain them. Eight local government areas where FADAMA is intervening with the new irrigation technology in rice and cassava production are Ogbaru, Ihiala, Anambra West, Anambra East, Orumba North, Orumba South, Ayamelum and Awka North. In the eight local government areas, which are where rice is grown in large quantity, the expectation is that there would be increase in yield from  the current 345,000 metric tons to 600,000 metric tons this year. To facilitate the envisaged increase in production, FADAMA is seriously improving infrastructure in the affected areas. For instance, 11 roads are being constructed in the hard- to-reach areas where cluster farmers have been operating. The roads are located at Ogbakuba in Ogbaru, Aribo in Anambra West, Aguleri in Anambra East, Ihiala, Ogboji, Ezira and Ufuma all in Orumba, as well as in Omor, Anaku, Igbakwu/Ifite Ogwari all in Ayamelum. With the roads in place, evacuation of produce had become easy. The boost in agriculture became very visible in the past three years, especially in rice and cassava production, with yield tripling within the period. Already, three aggregation centers for the storage of produce have been established at Ifite Ogwari, Amanuke and Atani. The state project coordinator of FADAMA III, Mr. Chukwuka Egbueh told South-East Voice that the idea was to ensure that produce would no longer waste as there would be proper storage all year round. As part of the efforts to sustain increase in yield, FADAMA had also set up Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprise (AEHE), at Omor to enhance mechanised farming. According to Egbueh, the enterprise is being managed by farmers themselves, adding that so far, they had lived up to expectation. He explained that to date, 6,160 farmers have benefitted directly from FADAMA in terms of land mechanisation, agro inputs, production and processing, as well as in capacity-building, just as 18 youth and women groups have been assisted through the provision of rice mills, tricycles, rice threshers, de-stoners, among others. He also said that FADAMA had built drying slabs at Umumbo, Ogbaru, Amanuke and Ifite Ogwari to ensure faster drying of rice, adding that the 600,000 metric tons target would surely be met with the inputs made by the state government. Egbueh said that following the success recorded in rice production, cassava had been added because of the comparative advantage Anambra State has in the growing of cassava. “Before now, FADAMA was intervening in rice production only, but we added cassava in 2017 and sorghum may be added this year because conducive environment for growing them has been provided,” he said. The state governor, Chief Willie Obiano is expected to commission the irrigation projects this month. In the meantime, the governor has been inspecting the progress of work preparatory to the inauguration. At Egwe Agwa Ogbakuba in Ogbaru Local Government Area and Ubahuekwem Ihiala, the elated governor said with the plans being made, Anambra State would become net exporter of rice as its local demand would soon be surpassed. “What is happening in the agricultural sector is good for us. When we came in, Anambra State was producing only 80 metric tons of rice, but today, the state is producing 345,000 metric tons annually. The success we made in rice production has encouraged us to go into cassava and sorghum,” he said. Obiano added that the Onitsha-based SabMillar Breweries was a ready market for the sorghum to be produced in the state. According to the governor, the installation of the new irrigation system in four locations in the state was to  ensure all year round rice production, with the attendant multiplier effect of empowering about 2500 farmers in the state. He explained that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had agreed to provide funds to Anambra State government to buy off all the paddy rice produced in the state, while millers would buy all the paddy rice from government, adding that by so doing, the issue of unsold rice produced by the farmers would not arise. He also said the state government would support the training of youth farmers to update their knowledge in modern agriculture and commended the people of the state for keying into the state government’s agricultural policy. The joy of the farmers knew no bounds as they commended the state government and FADAMA for helping them enjoy modern farming. Mr. Christian Ogbodo, a farmer, said it was the first time help was coming from government since he started farming over 20 years ago “I never believed that vehicles can drive to this location, but here we are seeing a motorable road constructed for us. Now we can take our crops to the cities with ease and sell, which is something we never dreamt of in the past,” Ogbodo said.

Read more at:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/new-irrigation-method-drives-agriculture-anambra/

 

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Home  Business  Indian companies re-branding Pakistani rice fraudulently—REAP Claims

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Indian companies re-branding Pakistani rice fraudulently—REAP Claims

By

 Yasir Zeb

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According to Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) Indian companies are trying to rebrand Pakistan rice and export to Indonesia with their own label on it.

REAP has called upon the ministry of commerce and urged them to take necessary action against this fraud which is being conducted by various Indian companies. REAP has also warned its members to be aware of these companies and avoid trade with them in order to stay away from illegal activities.

Indonesian governmental body BULOG has disseminated rice procurement tender and awarded tenders to various countries including India, the contract winners are required to fulfill the order in 30 days, some Indian companies approached their trade partners in Pakistan for delivering Irri-6 in order to dispatch the consignment to Indonesia on time. Pakistan’s Irri-6 is much better in quality and price as compared to Indian Irri-6 therefore; Indian companies are asking Pakistani exporters for procurement of Irri-6. According to Senior Vice Chairman REAP, Rafique Suleman, Indian companies are approaching Pakistani exporters for procurement with the condition that they will not print anything on the rice bags.

Rice collected from Pakistan will be exported to Indonesia with Indian brand name and address on it, which is extremely unlawful and illegal, it also hurts our name, REAP strongly condemns such acts, he added.

REAP has already sent letters to Federal Advisor on Finance Dr. Miftah Ismail, Revenue and Economic Affairs, Ministry of National Food Security & Research, Ministry of Commerce, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue FBR, Secretary Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Chief Collector Customs Enforcement, Collector Customs Exports and some others in order to take timely and necessary action against this development.

Pakistani rice export has started progressing in the last couple of years and came out of the crisis with the efforts of Pakistani departments including REAP, the department is working hard for the betterment of Pakistani Rice Export globally but these kinds of fraudulent activities could hurt Pakistani rice exports the Chairman said. This is neither legal nor in the interest of Pakistan, authorities should not tolerate this matter and take it seriously, he added.

He said, we have also asked the ministry of commerce about the status of Indian labeled rice which is actually Pakistani rice, they confirmed that it is 100% illegal and strict action would be taken against those who are involved in such activity.

REAP is working hard to promote Pakistani Rice in international markets, REAP is to organize Biryani Festival on Pakistan Day March 23 which will be attended by a delegation from Mauritius, on one side REAP is promoting rice exports to the international audience and these illegal activities are being done in the background is not going to work together, we must protect our name and ensure transparency in exports.

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https://www.researchsnipers.com/indian-companies-re-branding-pakistani-rice-fraudulently-reap-claims/ Rice basmati rises on uptick in demand

PTI | Mar 6, 2018, 14:14 IST

New Delhi, Mar 6 () Rice basmati prices firmed up by Rs 100 per quintal at the wholesale grains market today due to pick up in demand from retailers.

Wheat also strengthened on increased offtake by flour mills against fall in arrivals from producing belts.

Traders said pick up in demand from retailers mainly led to rise in rice basmati prices.

In the national capital, rice basmati common and Pusa-1121 variety moved up by Rs 100 each to Rs 7,700-7,800 and Rs 6,700-6,800 per quintal, respectively.

Wheat dara (for mills) also advanced by Rs 10 to Rs 1,800-1,805 per quintal. Atta chakki delivery followed suit and edged up by a similar margin to Rs 1,810-1,815 per 90 kg.

Following are today's quotations (in Rs per quintal):

Wheat MP (desi) Rs 2,080-2,280, Wheat dara (for mills) Rs 1,800-1,805 Chakki atta (delivery) Rs 1,810-1,815, Atta Rajdhani (10 kg) Rs 260-300, Shakti Bhog (10 kg) Rs 255-290, Roller flour mill Rs 960-970 (50 kg), Maida Rs 980-9,90(50 kg)and Sooji Rs 1,040-1,050 (50 kg).

Basmati rice (Lal Quila) Rs 10,700, Shri Lal Mahal Rs 11,300, Super Basmati Rice Rs 9,800, Basmati common new Rs 7,700-7,800, Rice Pusa (1121) Rs 6,700-6,800, Permal raw Rs 2,325-2375, Permal wand Rs 2,375-2,425, Sela Rs 2,800-3,000 and Rice IR-8 Rs 1,975-2,025, Bajra Rs 1,200-1,205, Jowar yellow Rs 1,400-1,450, white Rs 2,800-2,900, Maize Rs 1,410- 1,415, Barley Rs 1,480-1,490. KPS ADI ADI

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/rice-basmati-rises-on-uptick-in-demand/articleshow/63184771.cms

 

 

Strong January for Thai rice exports February looks worse

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Gary Howard@GaryLeeHowardgary.howard@informa.com

Thailand’s rice exports rose by 16.8% on-year in January 2018 to 961,859 tonnes, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

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Cabinet expresses resolve to provide uninterrupted power to consumers in summer

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ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over the power situation and resolved to provide uninterrupted power to the consumers during the upcoming summer season and Ramzan.

The meeting also appreciated the efforts of the incumbent as well as former Minister for Power for addressing sectoral issues relating to power.

It was emphasised during the meeting to lay greater focus on addressing administrative and management issues regarding transmission, distribution and recovery of power dues.

Secretary Power Division briefed the cabinet on projections of electricity demand and supply and the available generation capacity for catering to the power requirements during the summer season, particularly during Ramzan.

It was informed that additional power would be added to the national grid from Tarbela-IV and Neelum-Jhelum Hydro-power projects during next months which would further augment the existing generation capacity.

The meeting was also briefed about the current load-management plan.

The prime minister stated that as a result of untiring efforts of the government power generation had significantly increased since 2013. He said that provision of uninterrupted power supply had remained the priority of the present government in order to meet domestic, commercial and industrial requirements.

In order to discourage cigarette smoking, the cabinet approved banning of sale of loose cigarettes by amending the “Prohibition of Sale of Cigarettes to Minors Rules, 2010.

The federal cabinet accorded approval for signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Governments of Somalia and Government of Pakistan for rendering NADRA’s Services to Somalia. Approval was granted to initiate legislation on Geographical Indications Protection Bill, 2017. 

Geographical Indications (GIs) is a form of intellectual property rights which identifies a product originating from a specific area, whose quality or reputation is attributable to its place of origin.

Possible GIs for Pakistan can include Basmati Rice, Ajrak and Pashmina shawls, Peshawari Chappal, Truck Art, Apricots, Handicrafts, Ornaments etc.

The Cabinet approved the appointment of Presiding Officer, Special Court (Offences in Banks), Islamabad.

Cabinet ratified the recommendations of the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) in its meeting held on 22nd February, 2018 and Cabinet Committee on Privatization held on February 16, 2018.

Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Sartaj Aziz briefed the Cabinet in detail regarding measures to enhance cotton production and exports from Pakistan.

Cabinet approved transfer of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee and Cotton related matters from Ministry of Textile Industry to Ministry of National Food Security & Research.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/185099-cabinet-expresses-resolve-to-provide-uninterrupted-power-to-consumers-in-summer Cabinet bans sale of loose cigarettes

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ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has decided to put a ban on the sale of loose cigarettes to discourage the smoking trend in youth. For the purpose, the “Prohibition of Sale of Cigarettes to Minors Rules, 2010” is being amended.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who returned from Kathmandu after paying an official overnight visit to Nepal, chaired a meeting here at the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday. The cabinet was briefed that enough generation capacity would be available for catering to the power requirements during the summer season, particularly during the holy month of Ramazan falling in May and June.

Besides, additional power would be added to the national grid from Tarbela-IV and Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower projects in the next months, which would further augment the existing generation capacity. The meeting was also briefed about the current load management plan.

The prime minister said as a result of untiring efforts of the government, power generation has significantly increased since 2013. He said the provision of uninterrupted power supply has remained the priority of the present government to meet domestic, commercial and industrial requirements.

The cabinet expressed satisfaction over the power situation and resolved to provide uninterrupted power to consumers during the upcoming summer season and Ramazan. The meeting also appreciated the efforts of the incumbent as well as former minister for power for addressing sectoral issues relating to power. It was emphasised to lay greater focus on addressing the administrative and management issues viz-a-viz transmission, distribution and recovery of power dues.

The cabinet also accorded approval for signing of memorandum of understanding between Pakistan and Somalia for rendering the National Database and Registration Authority’s services to Somalia.

The cabinet granted approval to initiate legislation on Geographical Indications Protection Bill, 2017. Geographical Indications (GIs) is a form of intellectual property rights, which identifies a product originating from a specific area, whose quality or reputation is attributable to its place of origin. Possible GIs for Pakistan can include Basmati rice, Ajrak and Pashmina shawls, Peshawari chappal, truck art, apricots, handicrafts, and ornaments, etc.

The cabinet approved appointment of presiding officer, Special Court (Offences in Banks), Islamabad. It ratified the recommendations of the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) in its meeting held on February 22, and the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation held on February 16.

The deputy Chairman Planning Commission Sartaj Aziz briefed the cabinet regarding measures to enhance cotton production and exports from Pakistan. It approved the transfer of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee and Cotton related matters from the Ministry of Textile Industry to the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/289212-cabinet-bans-sale-of-loose-cigarettes

 

 

Lack of value-addition keeps exports low

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By Mansoor Ahmad

LAHORE: We are an agricultural economy still we import food; textile is our major export earner but our global share is less than 1.5 percent; services account for over 53 percent of our GDP but its contribution in revenues is dismal.

The next decade is very important for Pakistan as the country has to choose the path it intends to pursue in future. Our actions will decide whether we remain an agricultural economy, an industrial hub or a trade corridor only. We could even end up as providers of low value jobs or rise to become exporters of high-tech finished goods.

In agriculture, Pakistan produces in bulk low crops like wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton. The excess wheat we produce costs higher than the global wheat rates and hence cannot be easily exported.

India in the last decade has emerged as a tough competitor in rice. Our basmati exports have declined in recent years due to gains made by Indian long grain rice varieties.

We produce less cotton than our domestic needs but our textile producers cannot compete globally in low value-added items; they lack the expertise to go for higher value-addition. Our market share in textiles has declined sharply in the last five years.

The sugar produced from the sugarcane in Pakistan is very costly in our country and to export this commodity the millers have regularly been getting huge subsidies every year. So, despite being an agricultural economy our costs are so high that it is not possible to dispose off excess production in global markets. Agriculture accounts for 19 percent of our GDP.

We are not into high value-added textiles; we export raw fruits without any value-addition and in some cases the products of the same fruit are imported into Pakistan at 10 times higher rates.

We are the fourth largest producers of milk in the world, still we import huge quantities of powdered milk.

Halal food and Pakistan are synonymous but we hardly export any meat or processed chicken to even Muslim countries that import Halal meat from non-Muslim economies.

Manufacturing has a share of only 20 percent in our GDP. Almost all industries are based on 20th century technologies, while most of the industrialised world has shifted to 21st century efficient technologies.

The obsolete technologies being inefficient are an impediment in exports.

The country suffered from severe power shortages in the past. Now, though the shortages have been addressed, the cost of power is higher.

Higher power tariff becomes unbearable for the inefficient technologies. This is the reason that consumption of everything is increasing in Pakistan but exports are declining.

Another worrying aspect is that products made efficiently abroad are edging out the local products from domestic markets. Increasing imports are proof of this change.

We would not benefit from CPEC opportunities in manufacturing if we fail to upgrade technology. It is not only textiles but leather, carpets, surgical instruments and sports items that are unable to compete with efficient producers from other economies.

Services sector is booming in Pakistan be it telecommunication, transport or trade- all are moving up. Baring some exports from software companies, the rest unfortunately serve mostly the domestic market only.

Most of the service sector would soon feel the heat from global players as the economy further opens up. The telecom sector has upgraded its technologies but its services are not up to the global standards.

The transport sector is highly inefficient and unorganised. It costs more to send a container from Lahore to Karachi than sending the same container from Karachi to Shanghai.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route would need efficient and high-tech transport, otherwise the roads would be choked. If we do not upgrade the transport system, and equip it with digital trackers, the transport of goods would be taken over by foreign companies. The rail has to be revamped to carry bulk of goods.

Hospitality services seem to be the only hope for locals as CPEC route would need lot of side hotels, restaurants, vehicle mechanics, tyre repair shops and vehicle service stations. But this sector would not create sufficient jobs.

The jobs would come from manufacturing only and unfortunately we are not well prepared in this regard.

Floating rice: The climate-resilient alternative for Cambodia’s food production

Grown in floods and thriving without pesticides, floating rice offers Cambodia a sustainable alternative for its eco-friendly food production amid threats from climate change.

image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==

A Cambodian boy rides on a buffalo on his way back from a floating rice field. Once common in the Lower Mekong Basin, this eco-friendly farming method is drifting towards disappearance in the region. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==

 

 Pichayada Promchertchoo @PichayadaCNA

06 Mar 2018 06:30AM (Updated: 06 Mar 2018 07:33PM)

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KAMPONG THOM, Cambodia: The sky is pitch black when Than Bunthorn leaves home for the paddy field. His body sways atop an old oxcart as it bumps along a small dirt track. Dawn is still some hours away. But for the farmer, work begins as early as 3am.

The 51-year-old has another long day ahead of him. Six hectares of rice field takes him a month to cultivate and seed. He owns no farm machinery, only two oxen and a wooden plough. But that is enough to get work done before the annual floods, when water fills his land and rice begins to float.

A resident of Tnot Village in Kampong Thom province, Bunthorn is among a few remaining farmers in Cambodia who still grow floating rice in deep water. The technique is a traditional farming method that could offer a sustainable, eco-friendly alternative for the country’s rice production in the face of climate change.

“Floating rice grows with floods,” Bunthorn said. His rough, sunburnt skin hints at decades of toiling in harsh weather.  

“No matter how deep it is, the rice can survive. It can float high above the ground and doesn’t need much care until harvest time.”

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940252/0x0/3008/2008/3c5b763ba50e13e2adbadd1562e88f31/zp/-pp--tapestry-rice2.jpg

A boy rows his boat on submerged land, heading towards a floating rice field. Many farmers in Kampong Thom province still grow rice in deep water during flooding season, when water from Tonle Sap River inundates a vast area of land. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

Grown in floods and thriving without pesticide, floating rice – sometimes known as deep water rice – has nourished generations of people in the Lower Mekong Region. In Cambodia, the traditional cultivation is still present around Tonle Sap Lake, in low-lying provinces such as Kampong Thom, Kampong Chhnang, Siem Reap, Pursat and Banteay Meanchey.

The unique characteristic of floating rice is its ability to elongate and adapt to floods. The stem lengthens as water rises, with heights ranging between 1 and 6 metres. For three months, usually from August to October, its foliage floats and ripens on the surface, while deep water keeps pests at bay.

During the submergence, Bunthorn says sediment from the floods turns into natural fertiliser and helps farmers like himself minimise the use of agrochemicals.

“We don’t have to pay for chemical fertiliser or pesticides. We just need rainwater and floods. Our produce, as a result, is organic and healthy."

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940266/0x0/3008/2008/151b5f60a9442d85c76705a4826ab6b/Pe/-pp--tapestry-rice4.jpg

Farmers in Tnot Village are on their way home after harvesting floating rice. The plant is cropped once a year and takes several months to grow - one of the main reasons why many Cambodian farmers have switched to double-cropped, dry-season varieties. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

The crops’ resilience to inundation and low reliance on agrochemicals has led researchers to believe there are many benefits of growing floating rice in the Lower Mekong Basin, particularly in Cambodia.

Based on a study by USAID and the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change, Cambodia is among the most vulnerable countries in Southeast Asia to climate change impact.

“Increased frequency of large storms will result in more flooding and related costs, especially in low-lying areas such as the extensive floodplains surrounding Tonle Sap Lake including southern and central parts of Kampong Thom province,” the study said.

Among the most vulnerable crops, it adds, are dry-season and lowland rain-fed rice. Last year alone, Cambodia’s National Committee for Disaster Management reported 3,456 hectares of rice crops were damaged by rain and the overflowing of rivers, not mentioning more than 300 hectares of other crops.

FLOATING RICE: A FADING CULTURE

In Tnot Village, the threat of flooding does not worry deep water rice farmers so much.

"Floating rice can withstand floods; it grows well when water rises. The farming itself is also easy and that’s why it’s still alive,” Bunthorn said.

“If Mother Nature gives us good weather, the harvest can reach 3 tonnes a year.”

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940260/0x0/2960/1976/516343c0d07ef4aba647e1dab8868059/eu/-pp--tapestry-rice3.jpg

Floating rice grows with floods. The stem can elongate up to 6 metres while its foliage floats and ripens on the water surface. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

Farming is the only career he has known since the age of 18. As a little boy, he used to follow his father to their rice field, where he learnt the art of farming rice in deep water. Like other families in the village, his has been growing floating rice for generations – a tradition he hopes will live on.

But data from the Agriculture Ministry shows floating rice continues to disappear from Cambodia’s floodplains. Its major decline was recorded around 1975-1979, when the country witnessed one of the darkest chapters in its history.

During four years under the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia went through a mass genocide that is believed to have wiped out up to 2 million people or a quarter of its then population. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, millions of people were forced to farm in the countryside as the regime hoped to turn the society into an agrarian utopia.

As a result, single-cropped floating rice was deemed valueless and higher-yielding types were used to accelerate rice production. Much of its cultivation has been replaced by dry-season varieties, which allow farmers to harvest twice or thrice a year.

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940420/0x0/3008/2008/ecb66814d3e99a648028425d55c270fb/YN/-pp--tapestry-rice7.jpg

During flooding season, floating farmers catch wild fish in their inundated rice fields as they turn into a fertile fishing ground. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

“The market for dry-season rice is expanding in Cambodia. The crops only take three months to grow and that’s why farmers are switching to this type,' said Chim Choeung, member of the Kampong Svay Commune Council in Kampong Thom.

"They can earn more this way."

In Cambodia, rice is the staple food and primary commodity. In 2017, the country exported more than 635,000 tonnes of rice and recorded a 17.3 per cent growth from the previous year, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

As the country develops, the government is determined to further increase rice production as it aims to transform Cambodia into the world’s “rice basket”.

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9941436/0x0/3008/2008/628854e38594fa17d3f680eec948dcf1/gf/-pp--tapestry-rice7.jpg

By supporting high-yield rice varieities, the government aims to transform Cambodia into the world's "rice basket" and better compete in the global rice market. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)



Still, global rice market remains a competitive space dominated by India, Thailand and Vietnam. Last year, Cambodia saw its two neighbouring countries export more than 17 million tonnes of rice, 11.25 million tonnes from Thailand and 5.9 million tonnes from Vietnam.

MORE CHEMICALS, MORE YIELDS

In a bid to up its game, the Cambodian government has been promoting short-term high-yield rice cultivation, which targets a continued expansion of dry-season rice farming area. What followed was a sharp decline of floating rice farming.

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940268/0x0/2956/1973/8778c620bbe7a55aea4657338dd6b55a/Uz/-pp--tapestry-rice5.jpg

Many floating rice farmers in Cambodia do not own farming machinery and use oxen or water buffaloes and wooden ploughs to cultivate their land. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

In 1975, there were 410,000 hectares of the crops in Cambodia, according to research by the Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society. By 2015, the area had shrunk by 88.6 per cent to 46,759 hectares.

“While high-yield variety rice has a clear domestic and international market acceptability, the same cannot be said for floating rice,” said Dr Van Kien Nguyen and Assoc Prof Jamie Pittock in their research.

The crops, they added, are unpopular in urban markets and largely consumed by farmers, who believe in their health benefits.

image: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/image/9940408/0x0/2469/1648/626e2f719d5f1cd6a8f63d09f1c4690a/GE/-pp--tapestry-rice6.jpg

Floating rice farming is the main source of income for many people living around Tonle Sap Lake, low-lying areas that are seasonally inundated by Tonle Sap River and the Mekong. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)

In Tnot village, the sale of floating rice is falling gradually.

“In the past, everyone here was growing floating rice. But today many people have changed to dry-season rice because of higher yields. They grow it for export,” said rice seller Thorn Thol.

But despite its shorter cultivation period, Thol said dry-season rice requires more care, more fertiliser and pesticides.

“When farmers plough the land, they’ll have to spray pesticide. When rice starts to grow, they’ll spray it again. Other chemicals are also used to stop weeds. And when the rice plants are tall, more pesticides are applied,” she said.

“It’s not great for your health. But many people prefer dry-season rice farming."

For the likes of Bunthorn however, whose land is submerged every year, a change in farming method is unlikely.

"We can't change the nature of our land," the farmer said. 

In front of him, his floating rice field looks like a golden sea in the sun. Water is good this year and he is looking forward to the harvest.

For more on this and other projects around Southeast Asia, tune in to Tapestry: The Heart of ASEAN on Channel NewsAsia every Tuesday from Feb 27 to Mar 27 at 11pm.


Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/floating-rice-cambodia-food-production-alternative-9937896
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/floating-rice-cambodia-food-production-alternative-9937896

 

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How women rice weeders in Italy took on fascism and became heroines of the left

March 7, 2018 7.16pm AEDT

Bramfab via Wikipedia

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1.     Flora Derounian

Module Tutor in Sociology, University of Gloucestershire, PhD Candidate in Italian, University of Bristol

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In an era before the dawn of pesticides and mechanisation, an all-female workforce was employed to “disinfect” and harvest Italy’s rice crops. These Italian rice weeders may be a thing of the past, but they have a remarkable political legacy.

Italy was, and remains, Europe’s largest rice producer. The rice weeders, known in Italian as “mondine”, could be found knee-deep in flooded fields from May until July, across Italy’s “rice belt” which spans the northern regions of Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy and the Veneto. In my ongoing research, I study oral histories of rice weeders who worked between 1940 and 1965, collected from several interview projects and documentaries.

Idyllic though the glassy mirrors of the flooded rice fields may seem now, the paddies often resounded with the sound of weeders’ protest songs. To avoid punishment for talking during working hours, weeders developed an incredible repertoire of polyphonic call-and-response songs, often lamenting miserable working conditions or exploitative employers.

As one Italian senator put it in 1953, the labour of rice weeders deserved its own circle of hell in Dante’s inferno. Apart from eight-hour days under the beating sun, rice weeders were tormented by malaria-carrying mosquitoes and malnourishment, and suffered much higher miscarriage rates than other women workers.

When the actress Silvana Mangano was shown how to imitate the rice weeders’ labour for her role in cult left-wing film Bitter Rice in 1949, she reportedly said: “Like this, for eight hours? I wouldn’t do this work even for a million a day!” A number of the women in the interviews I’m studying met with Mangano in 1948 as extras on the set of the movie.

Knee-deep in protest

It is perhaps because of these exploitative conditions that collective and political activism thrived in the rice fields. From the 1900s, rice weeders joined up in their droves to left-wing organisations such as the Italian communist and socialist parties, but also to the Unione donne italiane(the Italian Women’s Union) and working class institutions such as the Case del popolo (People’s Houses) and cooperatives.

Under Italian fascism, between 1922 and 1943, other left-wing groups were forced underground. But the rice weeders won important concessions from the fascist government through strikes and protest. These concessions included paid travel, and improved provisions for food and shelter.

During the Nazi occupation of Italy, many rice weeders deserted the rice fields, and in 1944 refused to work for their oppressors. Some did not return to work until the fall of fascism.

The rice weeders were also active in Italy’s liberation from the Nazis. Many interviewees were part of the Italian Resistance. Some recalled hiding partisans in their homes, or acting as couriers between battalions.

Tragically, as with women’s wider participation in the liberation of Italyfrom the Nazis and fascists, the weeders’ contributions to the war have often gone unrecognised. One interviewee who was a rice weeder and member of the resistance recalled how after the war her husband was given an award for his role as a partisan. When she too was offered an award, her husband intervened, saying “one in the house is enough”.

Sisters of Togliatti

The weeders also protested against their replacement by agricultural machinery. One rice weeder who worked in Filo, Bologna during World War II, recounted in an interview:

We went up against the combine harvesters, together on the land … and we stopped them. My husband told me ‘One of these days they won’t stop’. I replied, ‘I would happily die for my work’.

The weeders’ role was definitively replaced by pesticides and mechanisation in the 1960s.

In the interviews I’m studying, the women made frequent references to left-wing figures, such as Italian communist leader Palmiro Togliatti, who they sung about as a “workers’ champion”. Others declared themselves to be the “sisters of Togliatti”. One woman, who lived in Medicina, recounted:

We felt that the fight for liberation was, yes, a fight against the Germans and the fascists, but also a great source of hope for us peasants, who were so exploited and poor.

Heroines and martyrs

Today, Italy’s rice weeders have gained a cult following for their songs and their dress. Choirs now perform the weeders’ songs at festivals in Italy and abroad, sometimes in incongruous collaborations with young rock bands.

A trailer for the film Bitter Rice.

The success of the film Bitter Rice catapulted the weeders into the public consciousness because of how they dressed. Previously, the weeders had worn long skirts in the fields, but in the film Mangano wore shorts and ripped stockings. The weeders subsequently adopted this style, and it became their most remembered – and reproduced – characteristic.

The weeders are also remembered for the assassination of Maria Margotti, who was shot by a member of the police during an agricultural protest in May 1949. Her death was used by the Italian left as evidence of the state’s repression and abuse of the working classes. Elements of the Italian communist party used Margotti’s death to encourage popular resistance to the Christian Democrat government.

Because of the weeders’ reputation for left-wing support, it was convenient for the Italian left to portray Margotti as a weeder. However, my ongoing research shows that Margotti was not, in fact, a contracted rice weeder, but worked at the local brickyard. After Margotti’s death, the ANPI, the National Association of Italian Partisans for ex-resistance members, offered to care for her children. Her daughters subsequently received intense media exposure, and she continues to be used as a martyr for left-wing causes.

The rice weeders’ activism and agitation was remarkable. Yet, my research has revealed that over time their memory has been in turn silenced, sexualised, or – as Margotti’s case shows – used for political ends.

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Lao gov't sets agriculture, forestry growth target at 2.8 pct in 2018

 

Source: Xinhua   2018-03-07 10:28:29

VIENTIANE, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The agriculture, forestry and rural development of Laos will strive to expand at a sustainable level of 2.8 percent in 2018, accounting for 15.73 percent of GDP, state-run daily Vientiane Times reported on Wednesday.

To attain this target, the Lao government, especially the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, will continue to implement projects of national priority such as commercial production and food security.

Agriculture and forestry experts from around the country are currently meeting with government officials, provincial deputy governors and development partners here to review achievements in the sector, and to discuss plans for development in 2018.

To fulfill the ministry's four major plans concerning food security, commercial agriculture promotion, forestry and forest resource management, and rural development for poverty reduction, more cooperation and assistance is needed to implement essential measures and policies, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Lien Thikeo told the meeting.

"This especially applies to trade promotion policy, electricity generation policy and loan interest rates," the daily quoted him as saying at the meeting.

With regard to food security, the Lao government has allocated rice, vegetables and oranges, along with pork, fish and beef, as the main products to be prioritized.

The ministry is targeting a yield of 4.2 million tons of rice, along with 199,800 tons of meat, 179,000 tons of fish, and 34,450 tons of eggs this year.

Other commercial crops for domestic sale and export include 137,500 tons of coffee, 1.2 million tons of sweetcorn and 2.4 million tons of cassava.

The agriculture, forestry and rural development sector expanded slowly in 2017 due to extreme weather, damage to irrigation systems, and locust outbreaks, the daily quoted Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Phouangparisak Pravongviengkham as saying.

"Last year, about 30,000 hectares or 130,000 tons of rice were destroyed by flooding and locust outbreaks in 330 villages across 24 districts of five northern provinces," he said.

But production methods are changing from traditional techniques to new ways of farming and farmers are growing a wider variety of crops that are clean and sustainable, Phouangparisak said.

Using machinery and new technology in rice growing has reduced the cost of production from 2,300-2,500 kip (0.28 to 0.3 U.S. dollar) per kg for paddy rice to 1,400-1,900 kip (0.17 to 0.23 U.S. dollar) per kg, according to a demonstration project.

Although Laos was unable to reach its production targets last year, there was still surplus rice for consumption and export, and the government will promote other crops to ensure food security and more income for farmers, Phouangparisak added.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-03/07/c_137021625.htm Myanmar state counselor calls for efforts for regaining top rice exporting country status

Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-07 10:13:24|Editor: Yurou

 

Laborers work in a truck with rice bags at a jetty in Yangon, Myanmar, March 7, 2018. Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has called on farmers and stakeholders in the country to strive for regaining the past status of top rice exporting country by turning to new agricultural methods such as organic farming, Myanmar News Agency reported Wednesday. (Xinhua/U Aung)

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-03/07/c_137021560_2.htm Global Rice Starch Market 2022: New Research Reports Offers Market Opportunities and Threats Faced by Key Vendors

March 6, 2018 - amit.p

Rice Starch Market Analysis Report covers all Analytical and Statistical brief about Market Overview, Production, Consumption, Export, Import, Demand and Forecast Research with overview and solution in the complex world of Rice Starch Industry. From raw materials to downstream buyers of this industry will be analyzed scientifically, the feature of product circulation and sales channel will be presented as well. Rice Starch Market report focuses on the major drivers and restraints for the key players.

For More Detailed Information on Rice Starch Market Report visit at-https://www.absolutereports.com/global-rice-starch-industry-market-research-report-11272178

The scope of the Report:

This report analyses Rice Starch market based on regions, type and applications along with the manufacturing cost structure with Revenue ($), Consumption, Export followed by Major Players, Market Production, Market Segmentation and Forecast till 2022. Next Section in Rice Starch market report including tables and figures to provide Rice Starch Market outlook with Market Drivers and Opportunities along with increasing Market Share, Upstream Raw Material Supplier Analysis and Major Downstream Buyers of Rice Starch Market.

Major Regions play vital role in this market are: North America, Europe, China, Japan, Middle East & Africa, India, South America, Others

Top Companies:

·         Company-1

·         Company-2

·         Company-3

Ask for Sample PDF at-  https://www.absolutereports.com/enquiry/request-sample/11272178

Overall, the report provides a detailed insight of the industry covering all important parameters including, Market Dynamics, Opportunities, Market Share by Region, Price and Gross Margin, Competitive Landscape and Profile, New Project Feasibility Analysis, Analysis and Suggestions on New Project Investment.

By providing the above mentioned key elements on the Industry status of the Rice Starch Market this report is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.

Rice Starch Market by Type:

·         Type-1

·         Type-2

Market by Application:

·         Application-1

·         Application-2

Have any Query Regarding this Report? Contact us at-https://www.absolutereports.com/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/11272178

There are 13 Chapters to thoroughly display the Rice Starch market.

Chapter 1: Rice Starch Market Overview, Product Overview, Market Scope and Market Size Estimation, Market Dynamics, Limitations, Drivers, Opportunities and Industry News and Policies by Regions

Chapter 2: to describe the Industry Chain Analysis, Upstream Raw Material Suppliers, Major Players, Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis and Major Downstream Buyers of Rice Starch Analysis

Chapter 3: Value Analysis, Production, Growth Rate and Price Analysis by Type (2012-2017) of Rice Starch Market

Chapter 4: Consumption and Market Share and Downstream Buyers by Application Market Overview

Chapter 5: Production, Price and Gross Margin, Value ($) by Region (2012-2017) of keyword Market
Chapter 6: Rice Starch Production, Consumption, Export and Import by Regions (2012-2017)

Chapter 7: Rice Starch Market Status and SWOT Analysis by Regions

Chapter 8: Competitive Landscape, Product Introduction, Company Profiles and Market Positioning of Rice Starch

Chapter 9: Rice Starch Market Analysis and Forecast by Type and Application

Chapter 10: Market Value and Consumption Forecast (2017-2022) by Region of keyword Market

Chapter 11, Chapter 12 and Chapter 13: To describe Rice Starch New Project Feasibility Analysis, Research Data Source, Suggestions on New Project Investment, Research Finding and Conclusion, Appendix

Price of Report: $2960 (Single User Licence)

Purchase Rice Starch Market Report at-https://www.absolutereports.com/purchase/11272178

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https://factsweek.com/217749/global-rice-starch-market-2022-new-research-reports-offers-market-opportunities-and-threats-faced-by-key-vendors/ Bayer Inks Deal to Develop Sustainable Rice Production Method

March 6, 2018 by Emily Holbrook

 

Bayer AG, the German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company, announced it has signed a deal with the International Rice Research Institute to develop and promote an efficient and sustainable method for producing rice — one that would allow farmers to earn more.

The initiative, called the Direct Seeded Rice Consortium (DSRC), is developing a comprehensive, science-based, agronomic package adapted for direct seeded rice production in Asia, making direct seeded rice accessible and widely available to rice farmers, thereby enhancing the economic and ecological sustainability of rice production in Asia.

DSR has emerged as an efficient and economically viable alternative to traditional rice farming methods as it saves scarce and expensive resources such as labor and water and reduces GHG emissions. Recently, DSR has been widely practiced in many Asian countries such as Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines. Many other countries including South Asia are going through this transition from manual transplanting to mechanized DSR. In future, with labor and water becoming increasingly scarce and expensive; alternative rice establishment methods which are labor and water efficient, such as DSR, will be the preferred method of rice cultivation.

Under the agreement, Bayer will provide access to Bayer-owned genetic materials (hybrids), seed and drone technologies, as well as in-kind activities for DSRC research and testing.

Other agriculture initiatives

Also providing economic stability for farmers is a new agriculture certification structure, Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC). As Environmental Leader reported just yesterday, the new structure will help ensure soil health and ecological land management, model pasture-based animal welfare, create resilient regional ecosystems and communities, and provide economic stability for farmers and ranchers, the founding coalition hopes. ROC is being launched later this year by the Regenerative Organic Alliance, a coalition of organizations and businesses including Patagonia, Horizon Organic, Dr. Bronner’s, Rodale Institute, Grain Place Foods, White Oak Pastures, and more. It was created to “model an ecological and ethical system for agricultural production that addresses the problems of factory farming, climate change, and economic injustice, locally and globally,” the alliance states. Certification will also, over time, increase carbon capture in soil.

Only products that are certified under the USDA organic program are eligible to meet the ROC criteria.

 

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Duterte prohibits NFA Chief from talking about rice supply

By CNN Philippines Staff

Updated 16:39 PM PHT Wed, March 7, 2018

3084

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 7) — The government sets the tone on pronouncements about the rice situation: Only the National Food Authority (NFA) Council can speak publicly about it.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte gave the directive during Monday's Cabinet meeting.

Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco chairs the council with NFA Administrator Jason Aquino as vice chairman. It has a number of members including Bangko Sentral Governor Nestor Espenilla, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

Roque said the Cabinet discussed Aquino's announcement that the country only has two days of rice buffer stock, way below the required 15 days.

He said this is "misleading" as it gave the impression of a rice shortage, causing prices of  affordable and commercial rice to go up.

Roque said the limited supply of government-subsidized rice would only be considered a shortage if the NFA is the only rice supplier in the country, which is not the case.

"There was an acknowledgment that statements made by the NFA Administrator caused panic, which probably caused prices to rise. There was some disagreement on the figures presented yesterday by the NFA Council. But ultimately, it was agreed that there is no rice shortage because the figure of 'only 1.5 days worth of supply of rice' was misleading," he said on Tuesday.

Aquino was not in the Cabinet meeting, but Roque said the NFA Chief was asked to attend a two-hour cluster Cabinet meeting on rice in April.

The NFA Administrator also received a tongue-lashing from Senator Cynthia Villar during the Senate probe on the rice situation on February 27.

Villar confronted Aquino for sowing panic and confusion when the agency announced a shortage of affordable rice.

CNN Philippines Senior Correspondent Ina Andolong contributed to this report.

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Workers carrying rice in Jakarta, Jan. 9, 2018. Tempo/Tony Hartawan

HOMEECONOMY & BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY, 07 MARCH, 2018 | 15:40 WIB

10,000 tons of Imported Rice from India Arrives in Medan

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TEMPO.COJakarta - A ship from India has arrived in Indonesia, carrying 10,000 tons of importedrice. The ship has entered the Belawan Port in North Sumatra and is waiting to dock.

"The ship has reached Lampu Satu in Belawan and waiting to queue to dock," Misbah, the head of North Sumatra's Industry and Commerce Trade Office, said in Medan, Tuesday, March 6.

Read: Minister of Trade Inspects Rice Stock at Bulog

He said that the imported rice will be stored in Bulog's North Sumatra warehouse along with the 10,000 tons of imported rice from Thailand that arrived on Feb 24. 

The Office hopes that the addition of rice to Bulog's stock will stabilize rice prices in North Sumatera's markets to stay within the range of Rp9,500 to Rp10,000 per kg.

MARCH 7 2018 - 10:59AM

Market for rice in the Riverina strengthens

News

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·        

 Laurie Arthur

SunRice has announced an increase to the lower end of the price range for base grade medium grain (Reiziq) by $15 per tonne for the 2017 crop.

This is the crop that will, in fact, be marketed in the 2018 year.

The estimated range for base grade medium grain (Reiziq) is now $350 - $365/t, from the previous guidance of $335 - $365/t. 

In an update to growers, SunRice chairman,  Laurie Arthur said the positive $15/t adjustment was made possible by a combination of factors, including continuing positive trading conditions. 

He said the company was increasingly confident of achieving its full year projections as the end of the financial year on 30 April 2018. 

Mr Arthur said SunRice’s ability to take advantage of the recovery in world markets and prices since the challenging conditions had prevailed at the start of the year.

“The ongoing power of SunRice’s branded positions in markets has not only provided the company with resilience to minimise the impacts of cyclical downturns, but has also allowed the expansion of the brand premium when the markets recover,” he said. 

“We are delighted to announce this increase, which contributes to an overall $50/t uplift on the initial estimated range of $300 - $320/t for medium grain (Reiziq), announced in August 2017. 

“We are very pleased to be in a position to support our growers in this way, particularly as the 2018 crop harvest gets underway. This is a wonderful result and one that demonstrates SunRice’s ability to generate the best possible returns for Australian rice growers. 

“We are hopeful that with a continuation of the positive movements in global markets that this trend may continue,” he said. 

However, any softening in markets and a further strengthening of the Australia dollar was anticipated to naturally influence the final pool result. The positive $15/t adjustment was paid to growers as part of the scheduled third C17 Pool Payment on Tuesday 27 February 2018.

https://www.therural.com.au/story/5269779/rice-market-outlook-is-bright/

 

 

Nigeria: Anambra to Produce 600,000 Metric Tons of Rice This Year

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By David-Chyddy Eleke

Awka — Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano has said that the state's rice production is set to hit 600,000 metric tons of rice this year.

The governor said the new target follows the introduction of new irrigation technology in rice production in the eight local government areas of the state, where the crop was grown in large quantity.

He said it is confident that from its current yield of 345,000 metric tons, it would hit 600,000 metric tons this year.

The governor, who spoke during the inspection of the multi- million naira Center Pivot Irrigation System at Egwe Agwa Ogbakuba in Ogbaru local government area, said the state would by the production of that quantity of rice, become a net exporter of the product once the target was met.

He said this is because by such quantity, the state would be producing more than required for local consumption, hence the need to export the excesses.

According to the governor, the installation of the new irrigation system in four locations in the state was to ensure all year round rice production, with the attendant multiplier effect of empowering of about 2,500 farmers in the state.

Furthermore, the governor said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had agreed to provide funds to Anambra State government to buy off all the paddy rice produced in the state, while millers would buy all the paddy rice from government, adding that by so doing, the issue of unsold rice produced by the farmers would not arise.

He also said that the state government would support the training of young farmers to update their knowledge in modern agriculture and commended the people of the state for keying into the state government's agricultural policy.

Nigeria

Despite Buhari's Presence, Gunmen Attack Plateau Community

Less than 24 hours after the official launch of a five year road map for peace strategy in Plateau State by President… Read more »

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http://allafrica.com/stories/201803070553.html Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- March 06, 2018

Reuters Staff

7 MIN READ

·          

·          

Nagpur Foodgrain Prices – APMC/Open Market-March 6, 2018

 

Nagpur, Mar 6 (Reuters) – Gram prices firmed up again in Nagpur Agriculture Produce Marketing

Committee (APMC) on increased buying support from local millers amid tight supply from producing

belts. Notable hike on NCDEX, upward trend in Madhya Pradesh gram prices and repeated enquiries

from South-based millers also jacked up prices.

About 1,100 bags of gram reported for auction in Nagpur APMC, according to sources. 

 

    FOODGRAINS & PULSES

    

   GRAM

   * Desi gram raw showed upward tendency in open market here on good buying support from

     local traders.

  

   TUAR

     

   * Tuar varieties ruled steady in open market here on lack of demand from local traders

    amid ample stock in ready position.

 

   * Lakhodi dal reported higher in open market here on good demand from local traders.      

                                                                   

   * In Akola, Tuar New – 3,900-4,100, Tuar dal (clean) – 6,300-6,500, Udid Mogar (clean)

    – 7,200-8,000, Moong Mogar (clean) 7,000-7,400, Gram – 3,700-3,900, Gram Super best

    – 5,400-5,800

 

   * Wheat, rice and other foodgrain items moved in a narrow range in

     scattered deals and settled at last levels in weak trading activity.

      

 Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg

   

     FOODGRAINS                 Available prices     Previous close  

     Gram Auction                  3,200-3,600         3,100-3,500

     Gram Pink Auction            n.a.           2,100-2,600

     Tuar Auction                n.a.                3,600-4,100

     Moong Auction                n.a.                3,900-4,200

     Udid Auction                n.a.           4,300-4,500

     Masoor Auction                n.a.              2,600-2,800

     Wheat Mill quality Auction        1,700-1,758        1,700-1,760

     Gram Super Best Bold            5,500-6,000        5,500-6,000

     Gram Super Best            n.a.            n.a.

     Gram Medium Best            5,200-5,400        5,200-5,400

     Gram Dal Medium            n.a.            n.a

     Gram Mill Quality            3,900-4,000        3,900-4,050

     Desi gram Raw                3,850-3,950         3,800-3,900

     Gram Kabuli                12,500-13,100        12,500-13,100

     Tuar Fataka Best-New             6,600-6,800        6,600-6,800

     Tuar Fataka Medium-New        6,200-6,400        6,200-6,400

     Tuar Dal Best Phod-New        6,000-6,200        6,000-6,200

     Tuar Dal Medium phod-New        5,600-5,900        5,600-5,900

     Tuar Gavarani New             4,350-4,450        4,350-4,450

     Tuar Karnataka             4,550-4,750        4,550-4,750

     Masoor dal best            4,800-5,000        4,800-5,000

     Masoor dal medium            4,500-4,700        4,500-4,700

     Masoor                    n.a.            n.a.

     Moong Mogar bold (New)        7,500-8,000         7,500-8,000

     Moong Mogar Medium            6,500-7,000        6,500-7,000

     Moong dal Chilka            5,700-6,700        5,700-6,700

     Moong Mill quality            n.a.            n.a.

     Moong Chamki best            7,500-8,000        7,500-8,000

     Udid Mogar best (100 INR/KG) (New) 7,800-8,500       7,800-8,500

     Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG)    5,900-6,500        5,900-6,500   

     Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG)        5,900-6,100        5,900-6,100    

     Batri dal (100 INR/KG)        4,800-5,300        4,800-5,300

     Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg)          2,650-2,750         2,600-2,700

     Watana Dal (100 INR/KG)            3,400-3,500        3,400-3,500

     Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG)    4,200-4,300        4,200-4,300  

     Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG)        2,000-2,100        2,000-2,100

     Wheat Mill quality (100 INR/KG)    1,850-1,950        1,850-1,950  

     Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG)         2,150-2,350           2,150-2,350        

     Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG)    2,350-2,450        2,350-2,450   

     Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG)   2,100-2,200        2,100-2,200

     Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG)    n.a.            n.a.

     MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG)    3,200-4,000        3,200-4,000   

     MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG)    2,400-2,800        2,400-2,800          

     Rice BPT best (100 INR/KG)        3,500-4,000        3,500-4,000   

     Rice BPT medium (100 INR/KG)        3,000-3,400        3,000-3,400

     Rice BPT new (100 INR/KG)        3,500-4,000        3,500-4,000  

     Rice Luchai (100 INR/KG)         2,500-2,700        2,500-2,700     

     Rice Swarna best (100 INR/KG)      2,600-2,800        2,600-2,800  

     Rice Swarna medium (100 INR/KG)      2,400-2,500        2,400-2,500

     Rice Swarna new (100 INR/KG)      2,400-2,500        2,400-2,500  

     Rice HMT best (100 INR/KG)        4,200-4,800        4,200-4,800    

     Rice HMT medium (100 INR/KG)        3,600-4,200        3,600-4,200

     Rice HMT new (100 INR/KG)        4,200-4,600        4,200-4,600   

     Rice Shriram best(100 INR/KG)      4,900-5,500        4,900-5,500

     Rice Shriram med (100 INR/KG)    4,600-4,800        4,600-4,800

     Rice Shriram new (100 INR/KG)    5,000-5,500        5,000-5,500  

     Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG)    9,500-14,000        9,500-13,500    

     Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG)    5,000-7,500        5,000-7,500   

     Rice Chinnor best 100 INR/KG)    6,100-6,500        6,100-6,500   

     Rice Chinnor medium (100 INR/KG)    5,500-5,900        5,500-5,900

     Rice Chinnor new (100 INR/KG)    6,000-6,200        6,000-6,200  

     Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG)        2,000-2,200        2,000-2,100   

     Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG)         1,800-2,000        1,700-2,000

 

WEATHER (NAGPUR) 

Maximum temp. 36.6 degree Celsius, minimum temp. 20.0 degree Celsius

Rainfall : Nil

FORECAST: Mainly clear sky. Maximum and minimum temperature would be around and 37 and 20 degree

Celsius respectively.

 

Note: n.a.--not available

(For oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but

included in market prices

https://in.reuters.com/article/nagpur-foodgrain/nagpur-foodgrain-prices-open-march-06-2018-idINL4N1QO3CB March 6, 2018 11:00 am JST

Duterte's rice policy keeps the poor waiting for price relief

Philippines still caps private imports and self-sufficiency remains elusive: FTCR

A worker carries a sack of imported rice inside a government warehouse south of Manila. The lack of subsidized rice is forcing low-income households to buy rice commercially. © Reuters

Prices of basic goods and commodities are rising fast in the Philippines, and a dwindling government supply of rice -- the country's main staple and a politically important commodity -- is a prime reason.

Inflation surged to 4% in January, the highest in 39 months and the top end of the central bank's 2-4% target for this year. Aside from a weakening peso and higher fuel prices, inflation was driven by the low supply of government rice which is sold at subsidized rates to poor Filipinos. The lack of subsidized rice forced low-income households to buy rice commercially, driving prices up.

President Rodrigo Duterte has since approved additional rice imports to replenish government stocks and tackle inflation, but the short-term measure does not solve a longstanding problem. Although the Philippines has consistently failed to grow enough rice to feed its people, its laws continue to restrict rice imports (see chart), the bulk of which are carried out by the government for sale at subsidized prices.

 

Private import caps are set annually. This sometimes creates supply constraints that push rice prices up (see chart). The lossmaking practice has burdened the state National Food Authority with debts estimated at 152.6bn pesos ($2.91bn).

 

Supporting a policy that hurts the poor

Mr. Duterte's economic officials have been pushing to replace import caps with a tariff system -- with the revenues then invested in local farms -- implying an end to the administration's target of self sufficiency by 2019.

However, the agriculture minister decided to stick to the original plan, and Mr. Duterte extended the existing private import limits until 2020. Tariffs are still being considered, and will replace import limits if new laws are passed. However, the squabble within Mr. Duterte's cabinet makes it unlikely that protectionist rice policies will be shelved during his presidency. More importantly, Mr. Duterte is inclined to keep the system in place because it has strong support from farmer interest groups, who do not want foreign competition. The import caps that farmer interest groups support keep prices high, and are therefore detrimental to farm workers and tenant farmers, who are often net rice consumers, and tend to be poor (see chart).

 

Impractical policy

The Duterte administration's rice self-sufficiency policy is incompatible with its goal to bring down the poverty level from more than 21 per cent in 2015 to 14 per cent by 2022. The poorest Filipinos spend more than 30% of their food budget on rice, so when prices go up due to limited supply the poor are the ones who suffer.

Regular natural disasters also make the policy impractical because it is difficult to forecast rice production and imports. The government of Benigno Aquino III in 2013 almost met its rice self-sufficiency target but in the end failed after Typhoon Haiyan hit the country, and rice imports rose more than fivefold from 2013 to 2015 after drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon damaged local crops and prompted more shipments (see chart).

 

https://asia.nikkei.com/Features/FT-Confidential-Research/Duterte-s-rice-policy-keeps-the-poor-waiting-for-price-relief Duterte gags NFA admin on rice issue

Dharel Placido, ABS-CBN News

Posted at Mar 06 2018 03:45 PM

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MANILA - Acknowledging that the National Food Authority’s (NFA) statements on the rice supply in the country “caused panic” among consumers, Malacañang said Tuesday President Rodrigo Duterte has tasked the inter-agency NFA Council to be the only one to speak on the matter.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the NFA’s earlier announcement that its buffer stock was only good for 2 days, way below the 15-day requirement at any given time, triggered price hikes even if the NFA’s stock only represented a “minority” of the country’s overall rice supply.

“The President said that henceforth all information on the country’s rice supply must emanate from the NFA Council,” Roque said in a news conference, referring to the inter-agency body led by Secretary to the Cabinet Jun Evasco.

“There was an acknowledgment that statements made by the NFA administrator caused panic, which probably caused prices to rise.”

Senators Cynthia Villar and Grace Poe have urged NFA administrator Jason Aquino to resign for supposedly mismanaging the affairs in the agency.

Poe earlier noted that a Senate hearing on the reported shortage of NFA rice found that Aquino removed port officers tasked to prevent smuggling attempts of the staple.

Villar, on the other hand, said the NFA failed in its mandate to buy "palay" or unmilled rice from farmers at P17 per kilogram and sell milled rice to consumers at around P27 to P32.

The agency worsened the situation when they announced their failure, triggering panic among the public about a perceived rice shortage, Villar said.

Roque said Duterte has ordered a cabinet cluster meeting, to be attended also by Aquino, be held on the matter.

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/03/06/18/duterte-gags-nfa-admin-on-rice-issue

 

Rice supply situation info confined to NFA Council

25

SHARES

Updated March 8, 2018, 12:11 PM

By Genalyn Kabiling

The National Food Authority (NFA) Council is now the sole authority to speak about the country’s rice supply situation for clarity, Malacañang announced Tuesday.

The decision was reached during a Cabinet meeting convened by President Duterte last Monday following the confusion caused by NFA Administrator Jason Aquino’s pronouncement on the agency’s purported dwindling rice supply.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. (YANCY LIM/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)

“There was an acknowledgement that statements made by the NFA administrator caused panic, which probably caused prices to rise,” Roque said during a Palace news conference.

“That was discussed rather extensively and that was why the President said that henceforth all information on the country’s rice supply must emanate from the NFA Council,” he added.

In the Cabinet meeting, Roque said the NFA Council chaired by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. has assured that there is “absolutely no shortage of rice” in the country.

He said the previous claim that the country’s buffer stock stood at 1.5 days was “misleading” and “absolutely untrue.”

“The 1.5 day stockpile is if we did not have any other source of rice …Meaning, if we only had NFA in our possession, we would only have 1.5 days worth of supply,” he said.

“But the reality of course, is that NFA constitutes a minority of our rice supply, bulk of our rice supply consists of commercial rise and that henceforth, it will be the NFA Council that shall speak on the current rice situation,” he added.

He said Aquino was not present in Monday’s Cabinet meeting but would be asked to attend the next cluster assembly.

“The President instructed that there be a cluster Cabinet meeting for about two hours in the next Cabinet meeting next month and Mr. Jason Aquino (was told) to (attend) that meeting,” he said.

Earlier, Malacañang cautioned NFA officials to perform their job or risk facing dismissal by the President following reports on the agency’s low buffer stock.

Tags: buffer stockJason AquinoManila BulletinNFA Councilrice supply

https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/03/06/rice-supply-situation-info-confined-to-nfa-council/

 

 

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Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita. TEMPO/Tony Hartawan

HOMEECONOMY & BUSINESS

TUESDAY, 06 MARCH, 2018 | 16:04 WIB

Trade Minister Guarantees Rice Stock until Eid

Zoom Out Zoom In Normal

TEMPO.COBoyolali - Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita guarantees there is enough rice stock until Eid el Fitr, which falls in June. According to Enggartiasto, the current stock of rice—including those that will be imported—is enough to meet the demand of the people.

The minister also said that rice farmers will be harvesting soon, and hopes that it would help curb rice prices in markets. 

Read: Minister of Trade Inspects Rice Stock at Bulog

"After a grand harvest, rice prices will surely go back to normal," he said when visiting Giriroto Village in Boyolali Regency, Tuesday, March 6. Enggartiasto is in Boyolali to inaugurate pilot project of Hypermart Partnership Network with traditional stalls. 

To maintain the stability of rice prices in rural areas, Enggartiasto said his ministry will provide sufficient supply to each market. Therefore, Enggartiasto has asked the Logistics Agency (Bulog) to ensure there is enough supply of medium-quality rice.

"With adequate supply, we hope that rice prices will not burden the people, especially during Ramadan," said Enggartiasto.

https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2018/03/06/056916348/Trade-Minister-Guarantees-Rice-Stock-until-Eid VFA urged to increase high-quality rice production

VNA TUESDAY, MARCH 06, 2018 - 20:28:00 PRINT

Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)


HCM City (VNA) - The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) was urged to work with other units to continue shifting rice production towards higher output of high-quality rice and applying technological advances in production and processing to maximize the value of rice.

The call was made at the association’s eighth congress in Ho Chi Minh City on March 6 during which participants elected Nguyen Ngoc Nam, Acting Director General of Vinafood 2, as VFA President in the 2018-2023 tenure, to replace Huynh The Nang, who retired. 

In the new tenure, the association has set to increase its membership in order to coordinate actions to counter price squeeze and dumping and unhealthy competition.

VFA will work closely with other State agencies and authorities of localities to accelerate productive production and business.

Tran Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development asked the association to work with the ministry’s units and localities in screening the planning of rice growing areas to adjust production scale and output to fit the demand for local consumption and export.

The association should boost production connectivity and develop cooperatives so as to proactively prepare supplies of quality rice for export to specific markets, he said.

Duong Phuong Thao, deputy head of the Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade reminded VFA members to take into account changes in import-export policies being implemented by major markets. 

Vietnam may export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018, with high-quality rice accounting for a large proportion of total rice export volume and normal rice making up less than 20 percent.

The country sold 861,000 tonnes of rice abroad in the first two months of this year, earning 419 million USD, up 17 percent in volume and 34 percent in value compared with the same period last year.

The Philippines was the biggest importer of Vietnamese rice, accounting for 26.9 percent of the market share. It was followed by China, with 23.5 percent.

In 2017, Vietnam earned 2.6 billion USD from the shipment of 5.8 million tonnes of rice abroad.-VNA

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https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vfa-urged-to-increase-highquality-rice-production/127474.vnp Rice basmati rises on uptick in demand

PTI | Mar 6, 2018, 14:14 IST

New Delhi, Mar 6 () Rice basmati prices firmed up by Rs 100 per quintal at the wholesale grains market today due to pick up in demand from retailers.

Wheat also strengthened on increased offtake by flour mills against fall in arrivals from producing belts.

Traders said pick up in demand from retailers mainly led to rise in rice basmati prices.

In the national capital, rice basmati common and Pusa-1121 variety moved up by Rs 100 each to Rs 7,700-7,800 and Rs 6,700-6,800 per quintal, respectively.

Wheat dara (for mills) also advanced by Rs 10 to Rs 1,800-1,805 per quintal. Atta chakki delivery followed suit and edged up by a similar margin to Rs 1,810-1,815 per 90 kg.

Following are today's quotations (in Rs per quintal):

Wheat MP (desi) Rs 2,080-2,280, Wheat dara (for mills) Rs 1,800-1,805 Chakki atta (delivery) Rs 1,810-1,815, Atta Rajdhani (10 kg) Rs 260-300, Shakti Bhog (10 kg) Rs 255-290, Roller flour mill Rs 960-970 (50 kg), Maida Rs 980-9,90(50 kg)and Sooji Rs 1,040-1,050 (50 kg).

Basmati rice (Lal Quila) Rs 10,700, Shri Lal Mahal Rs 11,300, Super Basmati Rice Rs 9,800, Basmati common new Rs 7,700-7,800, Rice Pusa (1121) Rs 6,700-6,800, Permal raw Rs 2,325-2375, Permal wand Rs 2,375-2,425, Sela Rs 2,800-3,000 and Rice IR-8 Rs 1,975-2,025, Bajra Rs 1,200-1,205, Jowar yellow Rs 1,400-1,450, white Rs 2,800-2,900, Maize Rs 1,410- 1,415, Barley Rs 1,480-1,490. KPS ADI ADI


Get latest news & live updates on the go on your pc with News App. Download The Times of India news app for your device. Read more Business news in English and other languages.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/rice-basmati-rises-on-uptick-in-demand/articleshow/63184771.cms

 

 

    

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Home  Business  Economy  Lai Mohammed: Rice importation drops from 644,000 MT to 22,000 MT in...

Lai Mohammed: Rice importation drops from 644,000 MT to 22,000 MT in 2 years

By

Yemisi Adeolu

 -

File Photo

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the present administration’s agricultural revolution is not a mere propaganda but a reality, with enough evidence to back it up.

The Minister stated this at a banquet held in his honour in Birnin Kebbi by the Kebbi State Government.

The Minister, who was in Kebbi State on a tour of rice farms and other agricultural activities, said the fact that Nigeria has been able to cut down on rice importation from 644,000 metric tonnes to about 22,000 metric tonnes within two years is a clear demonstration that the agricultural revolution is working.

“We brought the media here today to let the world know that when we talk about agricultural revolution, it’s not about propaganda, it’s about reality, it’s about saying that Mr President’s vision that agriculture is the only way out is absolutely correct.

“The fact that the state today has grown from a meagre 2.5 metric tonnes of rice per hectare to as much as 10 or 11 metric tonnes from one hectare, I think it speaks louder than any propaganda you can think of,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed challenged the media to investigate and understand how the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme of the Federal Government is actually supporting farmers to increase their yields.

He said from the support of about N200,000 given to farmers per hectare of rice in form of inputs, improved seedling, water-pumps and extension services, they have been able to realise between N800,000 and N1.2 million as return on investment.

“This is not just about revolution, it’s about poverty reduction, it’s about inclusiveness in governance,” the Minister said.

Alhaji Mohammed said with less than N100 billion spent on the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme across the country so far, Nigeria is on the verge of exiting rice importation, with the establishment of more rice mills in the country and the closure of 7 rice mills in Thailand.

“We need to invest more in agriculture because the returns are very fast and are appreciable not just in terms of food sufficiency but also in terms of job creation and poverty reduction,” he said.

In his remarks, the Kebbi State Governor, Senator Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, said the state is succeeding in the agricultural revolution because it has keyed into the vision of President Buhari.

“What we are celebrating in Kebbi is as a result of the campaign promises of the All Progressives Congress to provide security, to provide economic opportunities for all, to fight corruption and all of these have been achieved quite significantly in Kebbi State, with the support and leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari and his very able and capable Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo,” he said.

The Governor recalled that the President launched the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme in Kebbi State and that, so far, N54 billion has been disbursed to 270,000 farmers in 31 states across the country.

He said the investment has triggered an unprecedented growth in agriculture, which is partly responsible for the country’s exit from recession.

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https://www.today.ng/business/economy/93792/lai-mohammed-rice-importation-drops-644000-22000-2-years Rice Prices

as on : 06-03-2018 11:36:16 AM

Arrivals in tonnes;prices in Rs/quintal in domestic market.

Arrivals

Price

Current

%
change

Season 
cumulative

Modal

Prev.
Modal

Prev.Yr
%change

Rice

Bindki(UP)

900.00

-10

15008.00

2240

2220

-

Bahraich(UP)

187.50

11.28

1803.70

2200

2200

-0.45

English Bazar(WB)

122.00

-0.81

1104.10

3600

3550

5.88

Akbarpur(UP)

85.00

NC

2281.50

2200

2200

1.38

Devariya(UP)

35.00

-12.5

1157.50

2150

2145

-0.92

Khalilabad(UP)

30.00

-40

685.00

2135

2140

-

Jayas(UP)

27.00

-40

701.50

2050

2040

1.74

Robertsganj(UP)

16.00

128.57

204.00

2210

2200

-

Deogarh(Ori)

9.50

NC

159.00

2500

2500

NC

Sehjanwa(UP)

8.50

-66

308.00

2000

2000

-

Mirzapur(UP)

6.50

-40.91

196.50

2135

2125

-

Unnao(UP)

6.00

NC

105.10

1950

2050

-4.88

Silapathar(ASM)

5.50

-

5.50

2600

-

-13.33

Chhibramau(Kannuj)(UP)

5.00

NC

145.50

2250

2250

0.45

Dibrugarh(ASM)

3.60

-47.06

243.30

2400

2400

6.67

Bonai(Bonai)(Ori)

2.50

150

46.40

2800

2800

12.00

Jahangirabad(UP)

2.50

-16.67

54.00

2590

2580

13.35

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/rice-prices/article22940432.ece

 

 

MARCH 6, 2018 / 1:21 PM / 3 DAYS AGO

Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- March 06, 2018

Reuters Staff

7 MIN READ

·          

·          

Nagpur Foodgrain Prices – APMC/Open Market-March 6, 2018

 

Nagpur, Mar 6 (Reuters) – Gram prices firmed up again in Nagpur Agriculture Produce Marketing

Committee (APMC) on increased buying support from local millers amid tight supply from producing

belts. Notable hike on NCDEX, upward trend in Madhya Pradesh gram prices and repeated enquiries

from South-based millers also jacked up prices.

About 1,100 bags of gram reported for auction in Nagpur APMC, according to sources. 

 

    FOODGRAINS & PULSES

    

   GRAM

   * Desi gram raw showed upward tendency in open market here on good buying support from

     local traders.

  

   TUAR

     

   * Tuar varieties ruled steady in open market here on lack of demand from local traders

    amid ample stock in ready position.

 

   * Lakhodi dal reported higher in open market here on good demand from local traders.      

                                                                  

   * In Akola, Tuar New – 3,900-4,100, Tuar dal (clean) – 6,300-6,500, Udid Mogar (clean)

    – 7,200-8,000, Moong Mogar (clean) 7,000-7,400, Gram – 3,700-3,900, Gram Super best

    – 5,400-5,800

 

   * Wheat, rice and other foodgrain items moved in a narrow range in

     scattered deals and settled at last levels in weak trading activity.

      

 Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg

   

     FOODGRAINS                 Available prices     Previous close  

     Gram Auction                  3,200-3,600         3,100-3,500

     Gram Pink Auction            n.a.           2,100-2,600

     Tuar Auction                n.a.                3,600-4,100

     Moong Auction                n.a.                3,900-4,200

     Udid Auction                n.a.           4,300-4,500

     Masoor Auction                n.a.              2,600-2,800

     Wheat Mill quality Auction        1,700-1,758        1,700-1,760

     Gram Super Best Bold            5,500-6,000        5,500-6,000

     Gram Super Best            n.a.            n.a.

     Gram Medium Best            5,200-5,400        5,200-5,400

     Gram Dal Medium            n.a.            n.a

     Gram Mill Quality            3,900-4,000        3,900-4,050

     Desi gram Raw                3,850-3,950         3,800-3,900

     Gram Kabuli                12,500-13,100        12,500-13,100

     Tuar Fataka Best-New             6,600-6,800        6,600-6,800

     Tuar Fataka Medium-New        6,200-6,400        6,200-6,400

     Tuar Dal Best Phod-New        6,000-6,200        6,000-6,200

     Tuar Dal Medium phod-New        5,600-5,900        5,600-5,900

     Tuar Gavarani New             4,350-4,450        4,350-4,450

     Tuar Karnataka             4,550-4,750        4,550-4,750

     Masoor dal best            4,800-5,000        4,800-5,000

     Masoor dal medium            4,500-4,700        4,500-4,700

     Masoor                    n.a.            n.a.

     Moong Mogar bold (New)        7,500-8,000         7,500-8,000

     Moong Mogar Medium            6,500-7,000        6,500-7,000

     Moong dal Chilka            5,700-6,700        5,700-6,700

     Moong Mill quality            n.a.            n.a.

     Moong Chamki best            7,500-8,000        7,500-8,000

     Udid Mogar best (100 INR/KG) (New) 7,800-8,500       7,800-8,500

     Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG)    5,900-6,500        5,900-6,500   

     Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG)        5,900-6,100        5,900-6,100    

     Batri dal (100 INR/KG)        4,800-5,300        4,800-5,300

     Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg)          2,650-2,750         2,600-2,700

     Watana Dal (100 INR/KG)            3,400-3,500        3,400-3,500

     Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG)    4,200-4,300        4,200-4,300  

     Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG)        2,000-2,100        2,000-2,100

     Wheat Mill quality (100 INR/KG)    1,850-1,950        1,850-1,950  

     Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG)         2,150-2,350           2,150-2,350        

     Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG)    2,350-2,450        2,350-2,450   

     Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG)   2,100-2,200        2,100-2,200

     Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG)    n.a.            n.a.

     MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG)    3,200-4,000        3,200-4,000   

     MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG)    2,400-2,800        2,400-2,800          

     Rice BPT best (100 INR/KG)        3,500-4,000        3,500-4,000   

     Rice BPT medium (100 INR/KG)        3,000-3,400        3,000-3,400

     Rice BPT new (100 INR/KG)        3,500-4,000        3,500-4,000  

     Rice Luchai (100 INR/KG)         2,500-2,700        2,500-2,700     

     Rice Swarna best (100 INR/KG)      2,600-2,800        2,600-2,800  

     Rice Swarna medium (100 INR/KG)      2,400-2,500        2,400-2,500

     Rice Swarna new (100 INR/KG)      2,400-2,500        2,400-2,500  

     Rice HMT best (100 INR/KG)        4,200-4,800        4,200-4,800    

     Rice HMT medium (100 INR/KG)        3,600-4,200        3,600-4,200

     Rice HMT new (100 INR/KG)        4,200-4,600        4,200-4,600   

     Rice Shriram best(100 INR/KG)      4,900-5,500        4,900-5,500

     Rice Shriram med (100 INR/KG)    4,600-4,800        4,600-4,800

     Rice Shriram new (100 INR/KG)    5,000-5,500        5,000-5,500  

     Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG)    9,500-14,000        9,500-13,500    

     Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG)    5,000-7,500        5,000-7,500   

     Rice Chinnor best 100 INR/KG)    6,100-6,500        6,100-6,500   

     Rice Chinnor medium (100 INR/KG)    5,500-5,900        5,500-5,900

     Rice Chinnor new (100 INR/KG)    6,000-6,200        6,000-6,200  

     Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG)        2,000-2,200        2,000-2,100   

     Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG)         1,800-2,000        1,700-2,000

 

WEATHER (NAGPUR) 

Maximum temp. 36.6 degree Celsius, minimum temp. 20.0 degree Celsius

Rainfall : Nil

FORECAST: Mainly clear sky. Maximum and minimum temperature would be around and 37 and 20 degree

Celsius respectively.

 

Note: n.a.--not available

(For oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but

included in market prices)

 

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MARCH 8 2018 - 10:00AM

NSW DPI rice event to attract hundreds at Yanco Agricultural Institute

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Talia Pattison

 

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RICE will thrust into the spotlight at Yanco next week. 

Hundreds of rice growers, researchers and agribusiness representatives will meet at the Yanco Agricultural Institute on March 15 to attend the annual rice industry field day.

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) southern cropping director, Deb Slinger, said the event will showcase results from the Australian Rice Partnership, which links NSW DPI, SunRice and AgriFutures Australia.

“Results for current rice varieties from 14 NSW DPI experiments in the Murrumbidgee and Murray Valleys investigating water, nitrogen and agronomic management, are highlights of the field day,” Ms Slinger said.

“NSW DPI researchers are helping to fine-tune agronomic practices which deliver water savings and can increase gross margins by up to 59 per cent.

“A combination of direct drill sowing and delayed permanent water can save growers up to 4.5 megalitres per hectare compared with aerial sowing and traditional rice irrigation, and that extra water is available to grow more rice and increase gross margins.”

NSW DPI’s rice breeding program is a major focus of the partnership and the field day will feature trials of new varieties due for potential release in the near future.

The latest results from a joint project between NSW DPI and Charles Sturt University, through the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Functional Grains, will focus on factors affecting whole rice grain yield.

The project explores how irrigation management, plant densities, nitrogen rates and timing of nitrogen application affect grain quality to identify management practices which can improve grain quality and profitability.

Growers will hear the latest information on pest and disease management, grain and milling quality research results and see precision rice sowing and harvesting equipment.

A bus tour of NSW DPI’s Yanco Agricultural Institute and Leeton Field Station will inspect research trials designed to inform and boost rice production.

The field day will run from 9.30 am until 1.30 pm, with a complimentary lunch followed by a SunRice update.

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South region harvests 11 million tonnes of Winter-Spring rice

VNA THURSDAY, MARCH 08, 2018 - 9:13:00 PRINT

Rice harvest in Mekong Delta region (Source: VNA)


An Giang (VNA) 
– The rice output during the 2017-2018 Winter-Spring crop in the southern region is estimated to reach 11.1 million tonnes, up over 1 million tonnes on a yearly basis. 

Reports delivered at a conference in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang province on March 7 said the increase was attributable partly to an expansion of 58,256 ha in total rice area and partly to a rise of 454kg per ha in rice yield. Southern localities planted rice on a total area of 1.6 million ha during the crop. 

According to the Department of Crop Production under the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD), the region will accelerate restructuring of cultivation in the 2018 Summer-Autumn crop through apply comprehensively technical solutions, towards increasing quality, sustainable value. 

In the 2018 Summer-Autumn crop, the region will cultivate rice on a total area of 1.74 million ha, with an estimated yield of 9.77 million tonnes, up 277,000 tonnes on a yearly basis. 

In his speech at the conference, MARD Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh noted that regional farmers had a bumper harvest in the 2017-2018 Winter-Spring crop. 

He asked localities in the region to devise measures to increase rice yield in the 2018 Summer-Autumn crop.

The southern region is the biggest rice production area in Vietnam. The country may export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan.

Last year, Vietnam earned 2.6 billion USD from exporting 5.8 million tonnes of rice.-VNA




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March 8, 2018 10:36 pm JST

Thai jasmine rice harvest set for first decline in a decade

Prices of premium agricultural export surge, helped by strong baht

APORNRATH PHOONPHONGPHIPHAT, Nikkei staff writer

Farmer transplanting rice in a field near Khon Kaen, northeastern Thailand. © Reuters

BANGKOK -- Thailand's production of premium rice has fallen this year for the first time since the country began growing the crop more extensively a decade ago in an effort to shift agriculture to more value-added export products.

Premium-grade white rice -- a long-grain, fragrant variety called hom mali, or jasmine rice -- is normally sold to upscale restaurants in China, Singapore, and Hong Kong, as well as some Thai restaurants in Europe.

The drop is due to both unfavorable weather and a U-turn in government policy. It will have an impact on overall rice exports for 2018 at a time when these are already challenged by the baht's strength against the dollar. 

Total output of premium Thai rice is expected to fall by 40% to around 4 million tons from 6.1 million tons (in paddy base) in 2017, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association. The association normally makes a fairly precise projection of the annual output based on surveys of farmers and the rice industry each March.

The reduced outlook has pushed up the price to $1,150 a ton this week, a more than 50% increase from $750 a ton last year.  

The initial target for this year was around 5 million tons. Farmers normally start sowing in May, near the time of the Royal Ploughing Ceremony in Bangkok at the start of the rainy season. Harvesting starts in October or November. 

Production of premium rice rose until 2016, when it reached 6.1 million tons, and remained little changed in 2017.

The reduced output of premium rice and higher prices could result in a bigger overall drop in Thailand's rice exports this year. Jasmine rice accounts for 30% to 40% of total annual exports of between 8 million tons and 10 million tons, in milled base. 

Charoen Laothamatas, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said Thailand faces "fierce competition" at a time when the strong baht has pushed Thai offer prices to uncompetitive levels. Major competitors include India and Vietnam.  

Charoen blamed the reduced output on excessive rains during the harvesting period that reduced yields.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Commodities/Thai-jasmine-rice-harvest-set-for-first-decline-in-a-decade Rice exports forecast to hit 4 million tonnes in two years

THIHA KO KO 08 MAR 2018

Myanmar farmer ploughs the land with a machine plougher to grow rice at a field. Photo - EPA

Myanmar rice exports are forecast to hit 4 million tonnes by the 2020-21 fiscal year, according to estimates provided by the Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) at the Myanmar Rice Federation Stakeholder Forum 2018 in Nay Pyi Taw Tuesday. 

At those levels, revenues from the export of rice could reach $1.5 billion within the two –year period. 

Myanmar exported around 3 million tonnes of rice worth $900 million during the 11 months between April 2017 and February of the current 2017-18 fiscal year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. That’s the highest level of rice exports for Myanmar in 70 years. 

The country is forecast to export around the same volume of rice in 2018-19, but expects to draw over $1 billion in revenues as local rice quality improves, according to the MRF. 

As production methods improve, the country is expected to export around 3.5 million tonnes of rice worth $1.2 billion in 2019-20.

Myanmar produces 13 million -14 million tonnes of rice every year. Around 10 million tonnes is consumed locally. That’s K5 trillion worth of local consumption during the 11 months to February 28 of the current fiscal year, according to the MRF.

Myanmar rice is mainly exported to China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, western Africa and parts of Europe.

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Rice exporters demand industry status

March 08, 2018

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Our Staff Reporter

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LAHORE - The Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has asked the government to declare the rice sector as an industry and provide it all incentives in line with other five zero rated export sectors.

This was expressed by the speakers of at a dinner reception held in honour of Punjab Governor Rafique Rajwana organized by the rice exporters here at a local hotel.

The reception was also addressed by the REAP chairman Samee Ullah Naeem, UBG chairman Iftikhar Malik, LCCI former president, REAP former chairman Shehzad Ali Malik, Pir Nazim Hussain and members of the Association.

Samee Ullah said that government's support and investment in holding foreign exhibitions should be made a policy to brand Pakistani basmati ricethe world over.

He said that Pakistan's share in overall basmati export has gradually decreased compared to India, mainly due to the bigger crop size in the neighboring country, and government support to farmers to keep growing the variety while focusing on crop yield with subsidized inputs.

Samee Ullah said that India is more organized, while in Pakistan individual millers try but remain inconsistent either due to lower international prices, product quality and lack of support from the government to establish brand image.

He believed that a diverse product range, including the export of rice , would help Pakistan tap international markets and increase its foreign exchange earnings.

Rajwana congratulated the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan for organizing a prestigious Award Ceremony recently in Dubai to promote riceexports.

He said that Pakistani rice has been exported to more than 100 countries of the world, expressing the hope that this trend will continue with the same zeal in future.

He assured REAP team of his support for the betterment of rice industry of Pakistan.

Iftikhar Malik said that demand for Pakistani rice has increased due to its special fragrance, colour and quality across the world.

He called for consistency in research and development work in agricultural sector besides raising investment in research to achieve food security in future.

He said that public-private sector should join hands for increasing investment in agriculture research.

He said that adding value to the farm produce is crucial for increasing farmers' income and establishing agri-related industries in the rural areas will not only provide employment but also help in minimizing migration to cities.

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https://nation.com.pk/08-Mar-2018/rice-exporters-demand-industry-status Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- March 07, 2018

Reuters Staff

7 MIN READ

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Nagpur Foodgrain Prices – APMC/Open Market-March 7, 2018

 

Nagpur, Mar 7 (Reuters) – Gram and tuar prices recovered in Nagpur Agriculture Produce Marketing

Committee (APMC) on good seasonal demand from local millers amid weak supply from producing

regions. Upward trend on NCDEX, fresh rise in Madhya Pradesh pulses and reported demand from

South-based millers also helped to push up prices.

About 1,800 bags of gram and 700 bags of tuar reported for auction in Nagpur APMC, according to

sources. 

 

    FOODGRAINS & PULSES

    

   GRAM

   * Gram varieties ruled steady in open market here but demand was poor.

  

   TUAR

     

   * Tuar gavarani and tuar Karnataka reported higher in open market on good demand from

     local traders.

 

   * Wheat mill quality firmed up in open market here on increased buying support from

     local traders.      

                                                                  

   * In Akola, Tuar New – 3,900-4,100, Tuar dal (clean) – 6,300-6,500, Udid Mogar (clean)

    – 7,200-8,000, Moong Mogar (clean) 7,000-7,400, Gram – 3,700-3,900, Gram Super best

    – 5,400-5,800

 

   * Other varieties of wheat, rice and other foodgrain items moved in a narrow range in

     scattered deals and settled at last levels in weak trading activity.

      

 Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg

   

     FOODGRAINS                 Available prices     Previous close  

     Gram Auction                  3,300-3,800         3,200-3,650

     Gram Pink Auction            n.a.           2,100-2,600

     Tuar Auction                3,400-4,075         3,350-4,075

     Moong Auction                n.a.                3,900-4,200

     Udid Auction                n.a.           4,300-4,500

     Masoor Auction                n.a.              2,600-2,800

     Wheat Mill quality Auction        1,680-1,752        1,680-1,760

     Gram Super Best Bold            5,500-6,000        5,500-6,000

     Gram Super Best            n.a.            n.a.

     Gram Medium Best            5,200-5,400        5,200-5,400

     Gram Dal Medium            n.a.            n.a

     Gram Mill Quality            3,900-4,000        3,900-4,050

     Desi gram Raw                3,850-3,950         3,800-3,900

     Gram Kabuli                12,500-13,100        12,500-13,100

     Tuar Fataka Best-New             6,600-6,800        6,600-6,800

     Tuar Fataka Medium-New        6,200-6,400        6,200-6,400

     Tuar Dal Best Phod-New        6,000-6,200        6,000-6,200

     Tuar Dal Medium phod-New        5,600-5,900        5,600-5,900

     Tuar Gavarani New             4,400-4,500        4,350-4,450

     Tuar Karnataka             4,600-4,800        4,550-4,750

     Masoor dal best            4,800-5,000        4,800-5,000

     Masoor dal medium            4,500-4,700        4,500-4,700

     Masoor                    n.a.            n.a.

     Moong Mogar bold (New)        7,500-8,000         7,500-8,000

     Moong Mogar Medium            6,500-7,000        6,500-7,000

     Moong dal Chilka            5,700-6,700        5,700-6,700

     Moong Mill quality            n.a.            n.a.

     Moong Chamki best            7,500-8,000        7,500-8,000

     Udid Mogar best (100 INR/KG) (New) 7,800-8,500       7,800-8,500

     Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG)    5,900-6,500        5,900-6,500   

     Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG)        5,900-6,100        5,900-6,100    

     Batri dal (100 INR/KG)        4,800-5,300        4,800-5,300

     Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg)          2,650-2,750         2,600-2,700

     Watana Dal (100 INR/KG)            3,400-3,500        3,400-3,500

     Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG)    4,200-4,300        4,200-4,300  

     Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG)        2,000-2,100        2,000-2,100

     Wheat Mill quality (100 INR/KG)    1,900-2,000        1,850-1,950  

     Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG)         2,150-2,350           2,150-2,350        

     Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG)    2,350-2,450        2,350-2,450   

     Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG)   2,100-2,200        2,100-2,200

     Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG)    n.a.            n.a.

     MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG)    3,200-4,000        3,200-4,000   

     MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG)    2,400-2,800        2,400-2,800          

     Rice BPT best (100 INR/KG)        3,500-4,000        3,500-4,000    

     Rice BPT medium (100 INR/KG)        3,000-3,400        3,000-3,400

     Rice BPT new (100 INR/KG)        3,500-4,000        3,500-4,000  

     Rice Luchai (100 INR/KG)         2,500-2,700        2,500-2,700     

     Rice Swarna best (100 INR/KG)      2,600-2,800        2,600-2,800  

     Rice Swarna medium (100 INR/KG)      2,400-2,500        2,400-2,500

     Rice Swarna new (100 INR/KG)      2,400-2,500        2,400-2,500  

     Rice HMT best (100 INR/KG)        4,200-4,800        4,200-4,800    

     Rice HMT medium (100 INR/KG)        3,600-4,200        3,600-4,200

     Rice HMT new (100 INR/KG)        4,200-4,600        4,200-4,600   

     Rice Shriram best(100 INR/KG)      4,900-5,500        4,900-5,500

     Rice Shriram med (100 INR/KG)    4,600-4,800        4,600-4,800

     Rice Shriram new (100 INR/KG)    5,000-5,500        5,000-5,500  

     Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG)    9,500-14,000        9,500-13,500    

     Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG)    5,000-7,500        5,000-7,500   

     Rice Chinnor best 100 INR/KG)    6,100-6,500        6,100-6,500   

     Rice Chinnor medium (100 INR/KG)    5,500-5,900        5,500-5,900

     Rice Chinnor new (100 INR/KG)    6,000-6,200        6,000-6,200  

     Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG)        2,000-2,200        2,000-2,100   

     Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG)         1,800-2,000        1,700-2,000

 

WEATHER (NAGPUR) 

Maximum temp. 35.4 degree Celsius, minimum temp. 17.2 degree Celsius

Rainfall : Nil

FORECAST: Mainly clear sky. Maximum and minimum temperature would be around and 35 and 17 degree

Celsius respectively.

 

Note: n.a.--not available

(For oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but

included in market prices)

https://in.reuters.com/article/nagpur-foodgrain/nagpur-foodgrain-prices-open-march-07-2018-idINL4N1QP31R MARCH 8, 2018 / 5:05 PM / A DAY AGO

India rice rates up on steady demand; stronger baht props up Thai rates

Arpan Varghese

·          

·          

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Rice prices rose in top exporter India this week on healthy demand amid lower supplies, while gains in the local currency and prospects of a deal with the Philippines pushed up rates for the staple grain in Thailand.

A woman spreads paddy crop for drying at a rice mill on the occasion of International Women's Day, on the outskirts of Agartala, March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jayanta Dey/Files

India’s 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices rose by $3 per tonne to $422-$426, the second straight week of gains.

“Inquiries are rising from African countries. Asian buyers are also showing interest,” said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Supplies are falling, forcing exporters to quote higher prices, said another exporter also based in Kakinada.

India’s non basmati rice exports during April-December jumped 39.5 percent from a year ago as Bangladesh and Benin raised purchases.

Meanwhile, demand for the grain from Bangladesh, which has emerged as a major rice importer since 2017 after floods damaged its crops, would stay strong for the next few months, given the high domestic rates, an official with the food ministry in Bangladesh said on Thursday.

In Thailand, benchmark 5 percent broken rice rates climbed to $408-$410 per tonne, free on board (FOB) Bangkok, from $395-$400 last week, amid a stronger baht and hopes of a prospective deal with the Philippines.

Speculation is rife that the Philippines will hold an auction later this month to import 250,000 tonnes and many Thai exporters are interested in this deal, a trader said.

“The fluctuation in prices at the moment depends on the currency exchange rate only because there’s no actual demand,” a Bangkok-based rice trader said.

The baht was on track for its second straight week of gains. [EMRG/FRX] A stronger baht translates to higher export prices in U.S. dollars.

“Many exporters have (also) been buying rice now because of low prices recently,” the trader added.

Prices rose in Vietnam as well, with rates for its 5 percent broken variety gaining to $418-$425 a tonne from $410-$415 a week earlier as farmers pinned their hopes on new government-to-government deals, even though shipments out of the country were falling. 

    “We are having difficulty clinching new deals with buyers, as Vietnamese prices are relatively higher now,” said a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader, adding buyers were seeking $405-$408.

    Vietnam exported 339,706 tonnes of rice in February, down 31 percent from January, but exports in the first two months 2018 rose 13.2 percent from a year earlier to 831,504 tonnes, customs data showed.

The country could export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Sunday.

Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Khanh Vu in Hanoi; Editing by David Evans

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SPONSORED

TOP NEWS

MARCH 9, 2018 / 2:01 PM / UPDATED 24 

https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-rice/india-rice-rates-up-on-steady-demand-stronger-baht-props-up-thai-rates-idINKCN1GK1K2

 

 

 

Do Higher U.S. Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Mean Less Rice Exports?

 

 WASHINGTON DC – President Trump may follow through as early as today on last week’s announcement that he will impose import duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum (see USA Rice Daily, March 2, 2018).  Threats of retaliation have raised fears in U.S. agriculture because farm exports are an easy target for foreign governments seeking to push back on U.S. import restrictions.  The European Union quickly issued a retaliation list that targeted imports from the United States of steel, apparel, and agriculture goods, including U.S. rice.  “The President is acting under authority of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 which allows for import restrictions for national security reasons,” said USA Rice COO Bob Cummings.  Members of Congress, private sector groups, and foreign governments have weighed in urging restraint and, if imposing tariffs is warranted, to selectively apply the duties to specific countries. The EU has threatened to challenge the higher import duties in the World Trade Organization.  “This is a little-used provision of U.S. trade law and questions about the policy objectives of higher import duties, and how and on which countries they will be applied has raised tremendous uncertainty which is not helpful to U.S. rice producers and exporters,” said Cummings. The EU is a 55,000 metric ton market for U.S. exporters, valued at $42 million.  “We have worked for a decade to rebuild the EU market following the Liberty Link incident and have seen renewed interest and demand for U.S. rice in recent years.  U.S. rice exports to the EU are already constrained by a complex and discriminatory system of quotas and duties, and any increase in tariffs would set back our progress,” said Cummings. Prospective market access could also be at risk.  The United States and China signed a phytosanitary agreement last year that brought a new market for U.S. milled rice closer than at any point after more than a decade of effort.  Negotiations continue on implementation in a difficult overall trade relationship.   “We are well aware of the challenges created by China’s domestic and international trade policies,” said Michael Rue, California producer and chairman of the USA Rice Asia Trade Policy Subcommittee.  “Our response should be tailored while we continue a focus on expanding U.S. exports in this market.”   Analysis by the University of Arkansas shows a decline in U.S. rice production and exports of 1.3 percent and 3 percent, respectively, if countries retaliate on imports of U.S. rice.  “While the estimates do not appear large, any drop in production and exports goes right to the bottom line of producers, millers, and exporters,” concluded Cummings.  

 

Author Name: https://www.usarice.com/

 

 

6 & 7 April,2018  April,2018

Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-News

Unedited Version

www.ricepusmagazine.blogspot.com

mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com

 

 

Popularity of Peruvian Fare Could Boost Demand for Rice 

By Cameron Jacobs

ARLINGTON, VA -- The National Restaurant Association listed Peruvian cuisine as one of the top 20 food trends for 2018 (
see USA Rice Daily, January 5, 2018).  Peruvian food is not new to the U.S. market, but what is new is the way chefs and restaurateurs are pushing the boundaries of this innovative cuisine. 

Traditional Peruvian fare reflects many cultural influences, like cau cau, a Creole tripe stew served with white rice, and chifa, a fusion of Peruvian and Cantonese cuisine.  Almost every chifa dish is served with fried rice (chaufa). 

Most Peruvian dishes include a fundamental starch, such as plantains, potatoes, or rice, and many dishes are similar to, or influenced by, Asian fare.  Chefs in the U.S. are combining elements of Asian and Peruvian cuisine to create exciting new flavors for diners, and rice plays an important role in their menus. 

At his new Los Angeles restaurant Rosaliné, Ricardo Zarate is combining traditional Peruvian flavors with Asian flavors - the family-style chaufa paella features Peruvian fried rice, pancetta, La Chang (Chinese) sausage, prawns and bagoong, a fermented fish-based condiment from the Philippines.  

In November 2017, Peruvian-born chef Carlos Zheng opened Sakura 736 in Miami. The menu features Nikkei fare - a blend of Peruvian and Japanese cuisine that includes black rice, jasmine rice, and sushi rice in several dishes.  

In Lafayette, California, Peruvian chef Carlos Alamirano opened his seventh restaurant, Barranco Cocina Peruana, which features locally sourced seafood in dishes like pescado a lo macho - seasonal fish fillet roasted over seafood stew, in a mild rocoto-paprika sauce, with coconut rice.  Alamirano also owns a Peruvian food truck, Sanguchon, which serves bowl-style meals over white rice and sandwiches, for about $10 each.  

"From high-end gastropubs to inexpensive food truck fare, rice is an integral part of all Peruvian-based menus," said Paul Galvani, chairman of the USA Rice Domestic Promotion Committee.  "For the U.S. rice industry, the growth in popularity and reimagining of Peruvian cuisine is good for business." 

 

USA Rice

 

Indonesia increases rice imports

05.04.2018

 

UkrAgroConsult

Indonesia’s rice imports in 2017-18 are expected to rise to 1.3 million tonnes as the country attempts to stabilize prices and rebuild stocks, according to an April 3 Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.The Indonesian Bureau of Logistics (BULOG) has set its domestic procurement target for 2017-18 at 2.7 million tonnes of milled rice equivalent but only 650,000 tonnes had been procured through March.



Faced with rising prices prior to the main harvest and BULOG’s insufficient stocks, on Jan. 11 the Minister of Trade instructed BULOG to import 500,000 tonnes of rice.As of the end of March, only 261,000 tonnes had arrived, and the government extended the period BULOG can import rice through June 2018, the report said.The USDA noted that per capita rice consumption in Indonesia is declining about 1.6% per year. The decline in rice consumption is partly offset by increasing consumption of wheat flour-based foods.

“Relatively stable macro-economic conditions have allowed middle and upper-middle income consumers to diversify their diets to include more Western-style foods like bread and pasta,” the report said. “Rather than eating rice three daily meals, many Indonesians have switched to eating bread or noodles for breakfast. Consumers usually have a pack of instant noodles during one meal, which is equal to about 110 grams of rice.”

http://www.blackseagrain.net/novosti/indonesia-increases-rice-imports

VFA risks losing rice monopoly

Update: April, 05/2018 - 08:00

HÀ NỘI — Following recent criticism of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has reduced the association’s power, with further plans to promote fairness in the rice export field.

MARD’s Deputy Minister Hà Công Tuấn affirmed that the VFA should no longer be able to allocate rice quotas among domestic firms and the 2010 Decree 109 regulating the country’s rice exports must be amended to facilitate the change.

So far, the Decree dictates that the VFA can only allocate rice export quotas under centralised contracts on the basis of agreements between Việt Nam and importing countries.

But since 2017, the association has chosen to focus more on auctioning off these quotas as a separate enterprise seeking its own profits instead of as a representative of rice producers.

As a matter of fact, Việt Nam is now only under one specialised contract to export rice to Cuba, but only one enterprise was assigned by the Government to implement this.

"Therefore, in essence, the VFA has no role in allocating quotas at the moment," said Tuấn.

Regarding the proposal to halt the VFA’s alleged abuse of power in allocating rice export quotas, Trần Văn Công, deputy director of the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority, said that although there are some inadequacies, it is not possible to completely diminish the role of the VFA in keeping rice production stable.

‘In recent years, the VFA has done a good job of regulating import and export of foodstuffs, including rice,’ he added.

Công said that the MARD will work closely with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to review Decree 109, in order to promote and encourage more private businesses to participate in rice exports, which he hoped would lessen the VFA’s influence in this field.

Prior to that, the Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR) claimed in a March 2018 report that the VFA only represents the interests of State-owned enterprises (SoEs) in the agricultural field and does not hold itself responsible for the private sector’s or individual farmer’s benefits.

The VEPR said that the association was hampering the development of its members via the use of monopolistic government-to-government contracts.

Nguyễn Đức Thành, VEPR’s director, argued that VFA’s allocation decisions are based on a top-down, non-consensual and involuntary approach that doesn’t include consultation with member firms, while its price floor policy has caused losses for private exporting enterprises and indirectly pushed down the price level at which rice is purchased straight from small-time farmers.

Therefore, VEPR’s representatives suggested that the Government actively replace the outdated VFA policies with radical reform in the rice export sector, setting up a new institutional policy-based system that is disciplined, fair and transparent.

In particular, the revised Decree 109 that the Ministry of Industry and Trade is drafting should reduce the VFA’s role to that of a trade association, instead of a quota cartel.

Experts from the VEPR said that in order for the rice industry to develop sustainably in the long run, there should be production contracts between rice farmers and enterprises.

In early March, the VFA said that in addition to its current functions and rights, in the near future, the association will focus on increasing the number of members to fight against price pressure and anti-dumping, as well as restrain unfair competition affecting production, efficiency and prestige of the Vietnamese rice industry.

Trần Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development requested VFA to organise production and cooperative development, especially in areas of specialised rice cultivation, and initiative export quantity to specific markets, while maintaining quality assurance and food safety. — VNS


Read more at http://vietnamnews.vn/economy/425756/vfa-risks-losing-rice-monopoly.html#JR1G0CjuLjDJS7GP.99

 

Rice output likely to touch 9m tonnes

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OUR STAFF REPORT

April 05, 2018

 

LAHORE - Pakistan's annual paddy production is likely to touch nine million tonne in next two to three years with predicted increase of 25 per cent sowing area of hybrid rice.

Shehzad Ali Malik, the former president of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said this during an interaction with Agriculture Journalists Association at his office on Wednesday.

The AJA delegation led by president Sudhir Ch met him to discuss the future of hybrid rice cultivation in Pakistan and cooperation with China in this field.

"The current paddy production is 6.9 million tonne per year which will touch nine million tonne in next three years as farmers' interest is increasing in sowing of hybrid rice," Shehzad said.

While the modern hybrid rice varieties are already being sown over 1.5 million acres of land in Sindh, the seed is all set to be commercially launched in different districts of southern Punjab in upcoming season. Since the hybrid rice average yield is more than 100 maund per acre, the cultivation if adopted in Punjab could make a considerable increase in annual rice production of the country.

Shehzad was of the view that Iran can become a major market of Pakistani rice consumption in coming years. As the country's current per year export to Iran is around 150,000 tonne, he said the export can be increase at one million tonne.

To avoid the complications, he suggested the bilateral trade of rice and other products with Tehran could be dealt in Chinese currency instead of US dollar.

He also floated the idea to provide on lease land to Chinese and Pakistani companies for different crops seed research. He said the government must include the agriculture sector projects in next phase of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

https://nation.com.pk/05-Apr-2018/rice-output-likely-to-touch-9m-tonnes

 

Rice Prices

as on : 05-04-2018 12:37:57 PM

Arrivals in tonnes;prices in Rs/quintal in domestic market.

Arrivals

Price

Current

%
change

Season 
cumulative

Modal

Prev.
Modal

Prev.Yr
%change

Rice

Bangalore(Kar)

2450.00

25.64

30174.00

4400

4400

2.33

Bindki(UP)

700.00

40

21108.00

2310

2300

-

Kanpur(Grain)(UP)

260.00

-42.22

7665.00

2125

2200

0.24

Bahraich(UP)

224.50

22.81

3141.40

2200

2200

-1.35

Bharthna(UP)

180.00

20

5664.00

2380

2350

-

Gorakhpur(UP)

170.00

750

1772.50

2145

2140

2.14

Siliguri(WB)

165.00

0.61

3723.00

2700

2700

NC

Gondal(UP)

145.00

2.11

5299.50

2150

2150

2.38

Beldanga(WB)

70.00

-6.67

565.00

2800

2800

16.67

Kasimbazar(WB)

70.00

-1.41

1296.50

2800

2770

12.90

Puwaha(UP)

60.00

140

534.50

2250

2100

-

Basti(UP)

59.00

22.92

1656.50

2140

2150

1.90

Chintamani(Kar)

55.00

-

182.00

2100

-

NC

Samsi(WB)

55.00

10

920.50

3300

3300

10.00

Pandua(WB)

48.00

NC

419.00

3450

3450

9.52

Gajol(WB)

37.00

-17.96

893.10

3550

3550

22.41

Akbarpur(UP)

35.00

-22.22

2421.50

2180

2190

-0.91

Sitapur(UP)

31.00

NC

251.00

2240

2240

-

Jaunpur(UP)

30.00

25

759.30

2180

2160

7.92

Sirsaganj(UP)

25.00

150

399.00

2640

2560

17.33

Muzzafarnagar(UP)

24.00

118.18

768.00

2690

2680

-

Lakhimpur(UP)

24.00

-31.43

896.00

2200

2170

1.85

Jasra(UP)

22.00

10

638.50

2300

2300

-

Chorichora(UP)

20.00

-16.67

360.00

2145

2135

-

Giridih(Jha)

18.65

17.44

136.43

3500

3500

NC

Tamkuhi Road(UP)

18.00

-25

501.00

2160

2130

-

Madhoganj(UP)

16.50

37.5

2042.00

2160

2180

0.47

Risia(UP)

16.40

446.67

4107.20

1900

1950

-

Karsiyang(Matigara)(WB)

16.40

-0.61

282.50

3000

3000

11.11

Pukhrayan(UP)

15.00

-50

308.00

2150

2100

-

Atarra(UP)

14.00

-12.5

155.00

2100

2100

5.00

Saharanpur(UP)

13.00

-7.14

596.50

2670

2690

12.66

Chandoli(UP)

12.00

66.67

113.60

2180

2220

-

Mahoba(UP)

12.00

-9.09

217.60

2040

2020

-

Kalyani(WB)

10.50

-4.55

50.90

3400

3400

NC

Robertsganj(UP)

9.00

221.43

215.80

2235

2245

13.16

Chitwadagaon(UP)

8.00

14.29

119.70

2100

2000

-1.41

Sehjanwa(UP)

6.00

-83.33

387.00

2000

2000

-

Mirzapur(UP)

5.50

22.22

306.50

2160

2155

-

Paliakala(UP)

5.00

25

808.60

2180

2170

-

Farukhabad(UP)

4.50

-25

119.80

2350

2350

6.33

Bonai(Bonai)(Ori)

2.50

-98.75

274.40

3000

3000

20.00

Tundla(UP)

2.50

56.25

74.80

2610

2610

-

Garbeta(Medinipur)(WB)

2.30

-90.42

92.30

2880

2850

10.77

Jahangirabad(UP)

2.00

-20

65.00

2575

2580

11.23

Balrampur(UP)

2.00

-80

90.00

2000

2150

-4.08

Khairagarh(UP)

1.10

37.5

53.00

2500

2500

-0.79

Alibagh(Mah)

1.00

NC

24.00

5000

5000

25.00

Murud(Mah)

1.00

NC

21.00

4000

4000

33.33

Mohanpur(Tri)

1.00

-50

3.00

3200

3000

6.67

Jagnair(UP)

0.60

-25

46.30

2500

2500

-1.57

Billsadda(UP)

0.60

-60

113.90

2220

2200

-

Published on April 05, 2018

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/rice-prices/article23441856.ece

 

 

We were in the dark about Jordan’s new residue norms, claims rice exporters body

TV JAYANT+ T-

270-tonne consignment rejected for high pesticide residue

NEW DELHI, APRIL 5

The All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) on Thursday said it has taken up the issue of Jordan rejecting rice containers of an Indian exporter early this week with Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) and Jordan Chamber of Commerce.

Jordan’s Agriculture Ministry has denied permission for offloading 12 containers carrying 270 tonnes of basmati rice from a North Indian exporter at its Aqaba port as Jordanian government laboratories found the pesticide residue in rice samples examined were higher than the maximum residue level (MRL).

“The samples were found to have residue level (of fungicide tricyclazole) higher than it is now permitted. However, what is strange was that Jordan did not notify its decision to revise MRL and as a result, this information was not publicly available,” said AIREA Executive Director Rajen Sundaresan.

EU norms

“All of a sudden, Jordan has decided to adopt the European Union (EU) norms for tricyclazole residue, which stands at 0.01 parts per million (ppm). We had little knowledge about this,” he said, adding that the association has already written to Apeda and Jordan Chamber of Commerce.

From January 1 this year, the EU decided to not allow the import of basmati rice whose tricyclazole levels exceed more than 0.01 ppm to its member countries, affecting most basmati exporters from India.

Prior to the implementation of new norms, the MRL in Indian basmati was 1 ppm. The tolerance levels for tricyclazole in the US and Japan, interestingly, are much higher, at 3 ppm and 10 ppm respectively.

Indian rice exporters have been lobbying with the Central government for getting the new norms relaxed by the EU for two years.

Options left

Sundaresan, who refused to name the exporter whose consignment has been blocked, said the options available to them include bringing the consignment back to India, or destroying it or re-routing the shipment to the countries where such MRL is permitted.

“The tricyclazole levels permitted in India is 3 ppm. When the consignment left India it was within the permissible limits. But Jordan has suddenly decided to follow the EU regime. We have written to them to find out since when it has come into effect,” the AIREA official said.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/we-were-in-the-dark-about-jordans-new-residue-norms-claims-rice-exporters-body/article23446739.ece

 

Duterte tackles rice shortage

President expected to appeal to grains tradersto avoid hoarding, unjust price hike in Palace meeting today

8

SHARES

Updated April 5, 2018, 4:41 PM

By Genalyn Kabiling

President Duterte is set to meet with the country’s rice traders in Malacañang today (April 5) amid concerns on the reported artificial rice shortage in the country.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte looks at the document shown by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. prior to the start of the 10th Cabinet meeting at the State Dining Room in Malacañan Palace on January 9, 2017.
(ACE MORANDANTE/Presidential Photo / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)

The President is expected to appeal to the traders to avoid hoarding rice and imposing unjust price increases, according to Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr.

“The President will be meeting with the rice traders tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon because the President will have to take on that,”Evasco, chair of the National Food Authority (NFA) Council, said during a Palace news conference.

“It was proposed by the Department of Agriculture secretary that rice traders should be called and that the President talk to them so that we can preempt whatever plans of these traders (are)and we can ask the traders to help us rather than take advantage of a situation to make money at the expense of the consuming public,” he added.

The President’s proposed meeting with rice traders came as Evasco blamed the NFA management for creating confusion and panic when it announced a supposed shortage of rice in the country.

Evasco claimed that the NFA management has created the “artificial rice shortage,” saying its “irresponsible” statement could make the traders “withdraw the rice and to speculate on higher price of rice.”

“In fact, if there is a sector in the country that can manipulate the presence of rice in the market, it’s the traders,” he said.

“An irresponsible statement that there is no more rice in the market would immediately create a reaction on people who do have rice on their hands, withdraw this and speculate the date when to release it at a higher price, at the detriment of the consuming public,” he added.

Asked if NFA administrator Jason Aquino should be fired for the agency’s supply problems, Evasco said it was up to the President to make the decision since he is the appointing authority.

Evasco, meantime, assured anew that the country has adequate rice supply, citing more rice imports are expected to be delivered before June in time for the lean months.

“Based on the information from the Department of Agriculture, there is so much rice,” he said.
Malacañang recently assured that the country’s overall rice supply remained more than sufficient, despite a low inventory of the government subsidized rice. It has assured that 250,000 metric tons of rice imports are expected before June to boost the NFA rice stockpile.

Less than a day’s supply

Meanwhile, the NFA has only less than a day’s worth of affordable rice reserve but the government continued to assure the country’s overall rice supply remained adequate.

Evasco has admitted that the NFA’s rice buffer stock was down to 0.35 day or around 200,000 bags of rice.

“Wala pa naman, wala pa. It’s .35 (day),” Evascosaid during a Palace news conference when asked if the NFA buffer stock has reached zero.

“That is if there is no rice produced tomorrow,” he added, when asked if there was already a shortage of NFA rice stocks.

The latest figure was below NFA’s mandatory 15-day buffer stock of government subsidized rice.

When asked how the government will supply rice in case of a calamity hits the country, Evasco said he intends to meet with the NFA council members to discuss the latest rice supply situation.

“We have to proactively think about it. In fact, I have to meet the Council members about this because this is a new development. And we’ll be asking the police to check whether it’s true or not,” he said.

DA assure sufficient rice

Despite the low inventory of the NFA rice, Evasco said the Department of Agriculture (DA) has assured that the country has sufficient supply of rice.

He added that additional rice imports are expected to be delivered to the country before June to boost the NFA supply.

“Based on the report of the Department of Agriculture, there is so much rice. And in fact, this is the reason the standby volume of rice of 250,000 metric tons was set to be purchased and to be delivered before June in time for the lean months,” he said.

Evasco also confirmed talks about the proposed abolition of the NFA, but clarified it could only be dismantled if there is adequate domestic rice production.

“Kinokonsiderana ‘yan [That is being considered],” he said. “NFA could only be abolished first, if we have enough rice produced in our country to feed our people,” he said.

Evasco acknowledged that the NFA might also be abolished if the Department of Finance’s proposal to lift the quantitative restrictions on rice imports is approved.

The Finance department had earlier suggested removing the rice import quota and instead assess a 35-percent tariff rate. At present, NFA is empowered to import rice and regulate rice imports.

“If we follow the proposal of the Department of Finance to do away the quantitative restrictions, definitely mawalaiyong NFA because we will now allow private traders to buy and sell this rice here in our country,” Evasco said.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/04/04/duterte-tackles-rice-shortage/

CROPS>RICE

LSU AgCenter releases new rice hybrid

A new hybrid rice with high quality and competitive yield potential is being released by the LSU AgCenter.

Bruce Schultz 1 | Apr 05, 2018

A new hybrid rice with high quality and competitive yield potential is being released by the LSU AgCenter.

The long-grain hybrid, LAH169, was developed at the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station during the past seven years.

The rights to commercial development will be available for bidding. The date for submitting bids will be announced after details are finalized, according to Alana Fernandez of the LSU AgCenter Office of Intellectual Property.

LSU AgCenter hybrid rice breeder Jim Oard said LAH169 has good grain quality with low chalk. “It has 50 percent less chalk than the commercial hybrids currently available,” he said.

He said LAH169 can have a respectable yield.

“The main crop yield performance of LAH169 in 25 trials in five locations across three years in Louisiana was 94 percent of RiceTec CLXL745, the most popular hybrid in Louisiana,” Oard said. “In limited trials across two years, the combined main and ratoon yields of LAH169 were nearly identical to CLXL745.”

The new hybrid is moderately resistant to blast, sheath blight and panicle blight, he said.

Seed crop

A seed crop of LAH169 has been grown at the LSU AgCenter winter nursery in Puerto Rico, Oard said. That rice will be harvested in April and will be stored at the Rice Research Station until a partner to increase seed has been identified.

Oard said hybrid development will continue. “We have a Clearfield hybrid in the pipeline,” he said.

Also available for the first time is a new Clearfield Jasmine-type rice named CLJ01.

It is superior to its aromatic predecessors, Jazzman-1 and Jazzman-2, in terms of yield and quality, said AgCenter rice breeder Adam Famoso.

The biggest difference is yield. “Over three years of tests off-station, on average it’s been 30 percent or better than Jazzman-2,” Famoso said.

Its aroma is on par with Thai Jasmine, he said.

Its quality is exceptional, with the lowest chalk of any rice grown at the Rice Research Station, Famoso said.

 

 

CROPS>RICE

LSU AgCenter releases new rice hybrid

A new hybrid rice with high quality and competitive yield potential is being released by the LSU AgCenter.

Bruce Schultz 1 | Apr 05, 2018

A new hybrid rice with high quality and competitive yield potential is being released by the LSU AgCenter.

The long-grain hybrid, LAH169, was developed at the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station during the past seven years.

The rights to commercial development will be available for bidding. The date for submitting bids will be announced after details are finalized, according to Alana Fernandez of the LSU AgCenter Office of Intellectual Property.

LSU AgCenter hybrid rice breeder Jim Oard said LAH169 has good grain quality with low chalk. “It has 50 percent less chalk than the commercial hybrids currently available,” he said.

He said LAH169 can have a respectable yield.

“The main crop yield performance of LAH169 in 25 trials in five locations across three years in Louisiana was 94 percent of RiceTec CLXL745, the most popular hybrid in Louisiana,” Oard said. “In limited trials across two years, the combined main and ratoon yields of LAH169 were nearly identical to CLXL745.”

The new hybrid is moderately resistant to blast, sheath blight and panicle blight, he said.

Seed crop

A seed crop of LAH169 has been grown at the LSU AgCenter winter nursery in Puerto Rico, Oard said. That rice will be harvested in April and will be stored at the Rice Research Station until a partner to increase seed has been identified.

Oard said hybrid development will continue. “We have a Clearfield hybrid in the pipeline,” he said.

Also available for the first time is a new Clearfield Jasmine-type rice named CLJ01.

It is superior to its aromatic predecessors, Jazzman-1 and Jazzman-2, in terms of yield and quality, said AgCenter rice breeder Adam Famoso.

The biggest difference is yield. “Over three years of tests off-station, on average it’s been 30 percent or better than Jazzman-2,” Famoso said.

Its aroma is on par with Thai Jasmine, he said.

Its quality is exceptional, with the lowest chalk of any rice grown at the Rice Research Station, Famoso said.

 

1.    INDYEATS

HOW RICE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ON THE TABLE, AND NOT JUST IN ASIA

Thailand is the world's sixth largest producer of rice. Here Thai Muslim and Buddhist farmers working together to harvest rice in Mai Kaen, Pattani province / AFP/Getty

Grown on every continent in the world except for Antarctica, rice is more than a staple. It's life to millions and is the basis for practically every meal in many countries. But why doens't the UK have the same affinity to it, asks Julia Platt Leonard 

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·         5 days ago

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In Thailand, you don’t ask friends if they’ve had dinner yet. You ask, “Kin khao ayung?” Translated? Have you had rice yet? Food writer Kay Plunkett-Hogge, who was born and raised in Thailand, says it shows how critical rice is in Thai and South East Asian food and cooking. “It is the most important thing on the table,” she says. “Every dish goes with it, not the other way around.”

Thailand isn’t alone in its love of rice. According to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), rice is a staple food for over half the world’s population.

About 90 per cent of worldwide rice production comes from Asia – an area IRRI defines as reaching from Pakistan in the west to Japan in the east. While most rice is grown and eaten locally – never entering the export market – the volume of international trade has almost quadrupled since the 1960s, with Thailand, Vietnam and India leading exporters.

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Food writer Yasmin Khan, author of The Saffron Tales, says her grandfather was a rice farmer and that rice plays a crucial role in Iranian cuisine. “In Iran, cooking rice is elevated to an art form and a cook is judged on the quality of his or her rice.”

She says Iranians are fastidious about how rice is cooked – each grain should be elongated and separate. “Even to this day, the bit of my meal I get most nervous about when hosting a dinner is the rice!”

For her, a favourite rice dish is loobia polo – a layered rice dish with minced lamb, tomatoes, potatoes and green beans, spiced with cinnamon, turmeric and cumin. “It’s my ultimate comfort food,” she says.

TA TA Eatery's 72 hours braised Galacianbrisket and fermented pumpkin Ricewich(tata_eatery/Instagram)

In fact, rice is grown on every continent except Antarctica. Notably, it’s not grown in Britain which may be one reason it doesn’t feature in our cooking as it does in rice growing countries. “So much of Thai culture is built around rice farming and eating,” says Plunkett-Hogge.

“Arguably, it’s through rice agriculture that the peoples who became Thai settled the central plains in the first place. That gives them an inbuilt reverence for it. Rice doesn’t grow in Britain, so we don’t have the same connection to it. It becomes just another ingredient.”

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But is that changing? Zijun Meng and Ana Goncalves hope so. They originally launched TA TA Eatery in London’s Druid Street market, selling three different rice bowls and then created a “ricewich” – a rice sandwich with nori on the outside and grilled short ribs inside. “Rice plays a big part in Portuguese and Chinese cuisine (Goncalves is originally from Portugal while Meng is from China).”

“We didn’t know the type of food we were going to do when we started TA TA Eatery. Each of us wrote down the foods we love and rice appeared on both of our lists.” They acknowledge that rice is typically seen in England as a carb to soak up liquid but they’re keen to show its versatility with dishes like a puffed rice dessert, toasted rice-infused dashi and a toasted rice-flavoured oil.

For their next two-day pop up they’ll include a sake-glazed Iberian pork rice bowl and toasted rice ice cream.

The rice harvest in Catarroja, Valencia is much denser than in Asia (Rex )

For chef Marcia Barrington, rice too is a key ingredient in Valencia, Spain where she spends much of her year. Rice was brought to Spain in the 10thcentury where it was – and still is – grown in Valencia. “Rice is life! Rice forms part of the Valencian identity,” says Barrington.

“Everyone talks about paella, cooks paella and eats rice dishes of which there are many.” While Barrington has been travelling to Spain since she was a child, she’s still learning about different types of rice grown in Valencia.

“On my last trip I had a chat with a seller friend in the central market and she recommended I try the Valencian Albufera rice. It’s a blend of the Senia and Bomba varieties. It cooks really quickly within 20 minutes, holds stock well and has great flavour.”

How to cook perfect rice by Kay Plunkett-Hogge

This is my perfect Thai jasmine rice recipe – although I have used it for basmati and American and it has worked just as well.

Rinse 1 cup/mug/whatever of rice well in a sieve under cold water. Now pop it into a pot with a good lid. Add 1 1/3 volume of cold water. Bring to the boil, uncovered. When it gets there, cover and turn the heat right down. Cook gently for 10-12 minutes to absorb all the water. Check it’s done. Older rice will need a dash more water and a couple more minutes. You should be able to smell the perfume. Allow the rice to rest, covered, off the heat for about 5-10 minutes, so the grains puff up in the residual steam. Job done.

For Plunkett-Hogge in Thailand, the variety that’s caught her eye is one called Sangyod. It only grows in a few places in Thailand and thrives on brackish, salty water.

And it’s water of course that’s key to rice. With rice consumption growing, there is increased demand on farmers to produce more, but climate change means some areas get too much rain while others are facing drought conditions.

And while rice loves water it dies if completely submerged for too long, a problem for low lying areas subject to flooding due to rising sea levels.

IRRI points to a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) forecasting that rice prices could increase by between 32-37 per cent by 2050 due to climate change with a drop in production of almost 15 per cent in both South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Work is being done to manage water usage, to create seed varieties better suited to handle climate change, and to control flooding – but will it be enough?

It’s a major cause for concern, Khan feels. “As with all farming, climate change and international trade rules are the biggest factors facing the future of rice farming and supply.

In Iran for example, it is cheaper to buy imported rice from China or India than locally produced rice. Promoting food sovereignty for farmers is central for the health of our planet and local economies all over the world.”

And it’s small farmers who grow much of the world’s rice. Their livelihoods – their very lives – depend on finding ways to protect their crops while meeting our insatiable hunger for rice.

 

Arroz negro con calamares black rice with squid

Serves 2

Spanish ‘black rice’ is a typical dish in Valencia as well as other parts of Spain. It is super easy to make and tastes sensational. My recipe serves 2 yet is very easy to increase for 4 or 6 guests. I allow 100g of rice and 1 whole, cleaned squid per person with tentacles. For the rice, I have used a newly found albufera variety from Valencia that I discovered in the Mercat Central. Yet the more familiar bomba or calasparra rice will work well and are easy to find outside of Spain. In terms of the rice to liquid ratio, I always have 3 times stock volume to rice simmering on the hob. I find that a 2:1 ratio of fish stock to rice is never quite enough for the fat little round rice grains used for this type of dish. Be generous.

1 x paella pan (28-30cm) or equivalent
Olive oil approx. 90ml/6 tablespoons
1 small onion, fine diced
3 small cloves of garlic, crushed
200g redondo, (round) short Spanish rice (bomba, calasparra)
1 glass of dry white wine
4 sachets of squid ink (available from fishmongers)
600ml fresh fish stock (available from fishmongers)
2 whole, cleaned squid with tentacles in tact (Ask your fishmonger to clean) Squid tubes cut into 2-3inch pieces and scored diagonally, taking care not to score all the way through
1 whole Spanish or un-waxed lemon cut into quarters

Heat approx. 60ml/4tablespoons of olive oil in a paella pan if you have one, or similar. Add the finely diced onion and cook gently until soft. Add the crushed garlic and cook until you smell its aroma, roughly about 3 minutes or so.

Add the rice and gently combine. With the heat on medium, add the white wine, stir into the rice allowing it to reduce and burn off the alcohol.

Meanwhile pour your stock into a saucepan and gently heat ready to start adding to the rice. You will note that I am using a 3:1 ratio of fish stock to rice. I prefer to have extra to hand as I find the rice always takes more than double its volume of liquid. So for 200g of bomba, calasparra, or round short Spanish rice, I have 600ml of fresh fish stock on the go.

I like the rice to be quite black and therefore add 2 sachets of squid ink per person. So, next, gently squeeze 4 sachets of squid ink into the rice along with a ladle of warm stock.

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Gently combine everything together to colour the rice. I then add the stock in maybe 3 or so additions shaking the paellera gently and stirring just a little until cooked through. Always taste for doneness. You want the rice to be soft all the way through the grain.

You can at this point add a little salt if required. Yet I find that the rice has lots of flavour and very little seasoning is needed, especially if you have used a good quality fish stock. Turn the rice off when cooked and allow it to rest for 5 minutes while you finish the squid. Heat a small frying pan to hot then add the remaining 30ml olive. Add the squid and cook until the flesh becomes opaque and begins to curl up. This should be super quick! Remove and set aside.

To serve, place the squid on top of the rice. If you like, sprinkle the squid with a dusting of Spanish sweet smoked pimentón. There are two varieties of pimentón, and I can say, hand on heart, that the picante is very picante indeed. Have some good quality lemon wedges to hand also, very much needed for squeezing over the rice. Finally, please, please resist the English temptation to hurl parsley over this dish. It is really not very pleasant to eat and unnecessary. Instead, enjoy the rice with a fresh aioli perhaps a little open textured bread; accompanied by a chilled glass of Alboriño, Verdejo or good Spanish dry white.

Marcia Barrington © Valencia, March 2018. Instagram @marciabarrington

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/rice-asia-thailand-food-produce-cooking-kay-plunkett-hogge-a8279091.html

 

 

Career Award Supports Sustainable Rice Farming Work

University of Arkansas researcher collaborates with Arkansas rice farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Article ID: 692345

Released: 6-Apr-2018 8:05 AM EDT

Source Newsroom: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

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Credit: University of Arkansas

Benjamin Runkle, University of Arkansas

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Newswise — FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Benjamin Runkle, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, has received a $500,199 Faculty Early Career Development award from the National Science Foundation to expand his research on sustainable rice production.

Runkle works with several farmers in the Delta region of Arkansas to develop and test alternative irrigation strategies for rice production. Together they are trying to reduce the quantity of water used, which in turn decreases the amount of methane produced in flooded rice fields. They are attemping to do this without decreasing rice production, and in some cases they expect to actually increase crop yields.  

Rice is a staple food for more than 3 billion people worldwide, and Arkansas is the top American rice producer. However, current rice farming methods, which involve keeping rice fields flooded with water, have a high environmental impact. Rice production consumes significant water resources and accounts for roughly 10 percent of humans’ overall methane emissions into the atmosphere. Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

“We hope that this project will expand sustainable rice production by validating recent conservation incentive programs that have supported alternative irrigation practices in more than 40,000 acres of rice fields in Arkansas,” Runkle said. “By fine-tuning these practices we hope to make them more accessible across the mid-South.”

The NSF award will enable Runkle to quantify the climate impact of these water-saving irrigation strategies. Rather than the traditional paddy style of rice farming, which involves flooding the field, one new strategy focuses on irrigating and drying the furrows between rows of rice plants. Another strategy uses plastic piping with multiple inlets to more efficiently irrigate fields. In addition to saving water, these practices deliver oxygen into the soil, which both prevents microbes from producing methane and inhibits their growth, thus significantly reducing methane emissions from the field. Additionally, with this practice, less carbon dioxide is produced, because by saving water, less energy is used by the pumps that pull groundwater from the aquifers for irrigation.

One of the problems of current rice farming methods is uncertainty about the exact amount of greenhouse gases emitted through the various stages of production. Runkle’s team will measure these critical emissions to establish baselines for comparison to emissions from more sustainable methods.

This project will inform policy and investment decisions in Arkansas and the mid-South. The findings will help farmers transition from conservation programs based solely on water savings to programs that integrate water conservation with greenhouse gas emission credits. These credits are facilitated by a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Terra Global Capital.  

For his rice-farming research, Runkle has received funding from Arkansas Water Resources Center and the U.S. Geological Survey’s 104B grant program, which provides “seed” grants to gather pilot data that can be used for larger grant proposals. His work is also supported by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

About CAREER Awards: The Faculty Early Career Development Program, better known as CAREER, is the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, education and integration of both within the context of their institution’s mission. Research activities supported by CAREER awards build the foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/career-award-supports-sustainable-rice-farming-work

 

We were in the dark about Jordan’s new residue norms, claims rice exporters body

TV JAYANT+ T-

270-tonne consignment rejected for high pesticide residue

NEW DELHI, APRIL 5

The All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) on Thursday said it has taken up the issue of Jordan rejecting rice containers of an Indian exporter early this week with Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) and Jordan Chamber of Commerce.

Jordan’s Agriculture Ministry has denied permission for offloading 12 containers carrying 270 tonnes of basmati rice from a North Indian exporter at its Aqaba port as Jordanian government laboratories found the pesticide residue in rice samples examined were higher than the maximum residue level (MRL).

“The samples were found to have residue level (of fungicide tricyclazole) higher than it is now permitted. However, what is strange was that Jordan did not notify its decision to revise MRL and as a result, this information was not publicly available,” said AIREA Executive Director Rajen Sundaresan.

EU norms

“All of a sudden, Jordan has decided to adopt the European Union (EU) norms for tricyclazole residue, which stands at 0.01 parts per million (ppm). We had little knowledge about this,” he said, adding that the association has already written to Apeda and Jordan Chamber of Commerce.

From January 1 this year, the EU decided to not allow the import of basmati rice whose tricyclazole levels exceed more than 0.01 ppm to its member countries, affecting most basmati exporters from India.

Prior to the implementation of new norms, the MRL in Indian basmati was 1 ppm. The tolerance levels for tricyclazole in the US and Japan, interestingly, are much higher, at 3 ppm and 10 ppm respectively.

Indian rice exporters have been lobbying with the Central government for getting the new norms relaxed by the EU for two years.

Options left

Sundaresan, who refused to name the exporter whose consignment has been blocked, said the options available to them include bringing the consignment back to India, or destroying it or re-routing the shipment to the countries where such MRL is permitted.

“The tricyclazole levels permitted in India is 3 ppm. When the consignment left India it was within the permissible limits. But Jordan has suddenly decided to follow the EU regime. We have written to them to find out since when it has come into effect,” the AIREA official said

We were in the dark about Jordan’s new residue norms, claims rice exporters body

TV JAYANT+ T-

270-tonne consignment rejected for high pesticide residue

NEW DELHI, APRIL 5

The All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) on Thursday said it has taken up the issue of Jordan rejecting rice containers of an Indian exporter early this week with Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) and Jordan Chamber of Commerce.

Jordan’s Agriculture Ministry has denied permission for offloading 12 containers carrying 270 tonnes of basmati rice from a North Indian exporter at its Aqaba port as Jordanian government laboratories found the pesticide residue in rice samples examined were higher than the maximum residue level (MRL).

“The samples were found to have residue level (of fungicide tricyclazole) higher than it is now permitted. However, what is strange was that Jordan did not notify its decision to revise MRL and as a result, this information was not publicly available,” said AIREA Executive Director Rajen Sundaresan.

EU norms

“All of a sudden, Jordan has decided to adopt the European Union (EU) norms for tricyclazole residue, which stands at 0.01 parts per million (ppm). We had little knowledge about this,” he said, adding that the association has already written to Apeda and Jordan Chamber of Commerce.

From January 1 this year, the EU decided to not allow the import of basmati rice whose tricyclazole levels exceed more than 0.01 ppm to its member countries, affecting most basmati exporters from India.

Prior to the implementation of new norms, the MRL in Indian basmati was 1 ppm. The tolerance levels for tricyclazole in the US and Japan, interestingly, are much higher, at 3 ppm and 10 ppm respectively.

Indian rice exporters have been lobbying with the Central government for getting the new norms relaxed by the EU for two years.

Options left

Sundaresan, who refused to name the exporter whose consignment has been blocked, said the options available to them include bringing the consignment back to India, or destroying it or re-routing the shipment to the countries where such MRL is permitted.

“The tricyclazole levels permitted in India is 3 ppm. When the consignment left India it was within the permissible limits. But Jordan has suddenly decided to follow the EU regime. We have written to them to find out since when it has come into effect,” the AIREA official said

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/we-were-in-the-dark-about-jordans-new-residue-norms-claims-rice-exporters-body/article23446739.ece

 

Sir Michael Marmot, Ambassador Andrew Young to address Beyond Flexner Conference

 

Roz Edward

 

44READS

The City of Atlanta will be the gathering spot for some of the world’s foremost leaders in health equity from April 9 through the 11, as it hosts the 2018 Beyond Flexner Conference. Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is honored to serve as the main sponsor for this year’s event. Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and the Beyond Flexner Alliance are serving as co-sponsors.

The Beyond Flexner Conference for is for health professionals who are committed to creating health equity. During the conference, participants will examine broad themes of social mission including, social determinants of health, community engagement, disparity reduction, diversity promotion and value-based health care. The conference is a time for thought leaders to come together to learn more about the social mission and how to integrate it into their teaching, learning, and practice.

The Honorable Andrew Young, a civil rights icon, former U.S. ambassador, and one-time mayor of Atlanta and Sir Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London and Chair of World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health will deliver keynote addresses at the conference. Other high-profile names participating include Valerie Montgomery Rice, M.D., President and Dean of Morehouse School of Medicine, Dayna Bowen Matthew, J.D., a leader in health equity and professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, and the Honorable Louis J. Sullivan, M.D., former Health and Human Services secretary and President Emeritus of MSM.

Monday, April 9, through Wednesday, April 11, 2018.

The Atlanta Marriott Marquis will serve as the host location for this year’s conference. It is located at 265 Peachtree Center NE, Atlanta, GA, 30303.

For more information about the Beyond Flexner conference, please contact Leigh Anne Butler at (202) 994-7936 or lbutler@gwu.edu.

https://atlantadailyworld.com/2018/04/06/sir-michael-marmot-ambassador-andrew-young-to-address-beyond-flexner-conference/

 

BASMATI RICE MARKET SET TO TAKE GIANT POSITIVE LEAP

POSTED ON APRIL 5, 2018

Comprehensive Analysis of Basmati Rice Market

HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Basmati Rice market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges.

The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Direct Edible & Deep Processing], products type [Indian Basmati Rice, Pakistani Basmati Rice, Kenya Basmati Rice & Other] and various important geographies like China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Southeast Asia & Australia]. 

Get Access to sample pages @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1052004-asia-pacific-basmati-rice-market 

The research covers the current market size of the Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers. The in-depth information by segments of Basmati Rice market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice Market. 

The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice Market, some of them listed here are KRBL Limited, Amira Nature Foods, LT Foods, Best Foods, Kohinoor Rice, Aeroplane Rice, Tilda Basmati Rice, Matco Foods, Amar Singh Chawal Wala, Hanuman Rice Mills, Adani Wilmar, HAS Rice Pakistan, Galaxy Rice Mill, Dunar Foods & Sungold. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology. 

Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Indian Basmati Rice, Pakistani Basmati Rice, Kenya Basmati Rice & Other. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Direct Edible & Deep Processing with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate. 
Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Basmati Rice in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Southeast Asia & Australia and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022. 
Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1052004-asia-pacific-basmati-rice-market  

Following would be the Chapters to display the Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice market. 

Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Basmati Rice, Applications of Basmati Rice, Market Segment by Regions; 
Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure; 
Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Basmati Rice, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis; 
Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment); 
Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Southeast Asia & Australia, Basmati Rice Segment Market Analysis (by Type); 
Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Basmati Rice Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Basmati Rice; 
Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Indian Basmati Rice, Pakistani Basmati Rice, Kenya Basmati Rice & Other], Market Trend by Application [Direct Edible & Deep Processing]; 
Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis; 
Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice; 
Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe Basmati Rice sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source. 

Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1052004-asia-pacific-basmati-rice-market 

What this Research Study Offers: 

Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments 
Market share analysis of the top industry players 
Strategic recommendations for the new entrants 
Market forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets 
Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations) 
Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations 
Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends 
Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments 
Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements 

Buy this research report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1052004 

Reasons for Buying this Report 
This report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics 
It provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growth 
It provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to grow 
It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future 
It provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitors 
It helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segments 

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia. 

About Author: 
HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the “Accurate Forecast” in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their “Goals & Objectives”. 

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http://www.abnewswire.com/pressreleases/basmati-rice-market-set-to-take-giant-positive-leap_203514.html

 

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·         National Agriculture Research Center introduces three new wheat seed, four banana verities:DG

National Agriculture Research Center Introduces Three New Wheat Seed, Four Banana Verities:DG

Umer Jamshaid  

National Agriculture Research Center has introduced three high yielding wheat and four banana varieties in order to produce exportable surplus, besides ensuring food safety and security of the country

ISLAMABAD, Apr 6 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Apr, 2018 ):National Agriculture Research Center has introduced three high yielding wheat and four banana varieties in order to produce exportable surplus, besides ensuring food safety and security of the country.

Additionally the research institute has also developed three new varieties of potatoes and developed a gene bank comprising upon over 36,000 germplasm of different crops to produce seed varieties to enhance per-acre crop output in the country, said Director General National Agriculture Research Center Dr Ghulam Muhammad Ali.

Briefing the media about the progress and development made so far in research and development fields, he said that due to scientific research country was surplus in all cereal food crops including wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane and all other seasonal fruits and vegetables.

He said besides providing technical assistance to thousands of farmers, about 32,000 tons of canola hybrid seed were distributed among the farmers to increase oil seed production in the country and saving the foreign exchange reserves spent on the import of the commodity.

He informed that the research center in collaboration with international development partners and agencies had prepared disease resistant, drought resilient seed varieties of wheat and hybrid rice and cotton to enhance the their yield and increase the farm income.

Several steps have been taken in order to introduce climate smart agriculture technologies to minimize the cost of inputs and maximize output in the country and make many interventions in different fields by engaging the farming community to adopt these interventions, he added.

He said that besides dissemination of research results to end users, about 35 researchers have completed their Phd programme, 154 M Phil and about 500 students were on internship. He said that NARC in collaboration with the private sector has also introduced high efficiency solar irrigation technologies for small and large land holdings across the country.

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/agriculture/national-agriculture-research-center-introdu-306699.html

 

Scientists bring fields in Hainan back to life

Comment(s) Print  E-mailChina Daily, April 6, 2018

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Professor Jiang Xingyu (R) surveys rice harvest in an experimental field in a township in the city of Wenchang in Hainan province in June 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

The 62-year-old farmer, Lin Minghuan, says he felt he was in an abyss after seeing typhoon Rammasun ruin all his crops in minutes in Wenchang on the eastern coastal Hainan island on July 18, 2014.

Rammasun, which means the god of thunder in Thai, has been removed from the typhoon name list due to its destructive strength that left more than 7 million people in distress in Vietnam, the Philippines, China's Guangdong province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, with Hainan island the epicenter of the disaster.

The typhoon was the most serious in 70 years and killed 25 people, with six missing in Hainan, according to local reports.

"We were heartbroken when we saw nothing would grow on the once fertile land after the fields were filled with snow-white salt crystals," says Lin from Fuqian township where Rammasun made landfall.

He adds that at that time many people abandoned farming and went to search for jobs in the cities, and that the devastating scenes caused by typhoon Rammasun and Seagulls in July and September 2014 left painful memories for people in Hainan.

It was then that Jiang Xingyu came to the town with his team from Hainan University, to revive the sea-water filled fields.

The two typhoonsRammasun and Seagullsthat hit the island province within two months, destroyed 2,700 hectares of farm land.

Speaking about his experiences, Jiang, the head of the Hainan Key Laboratory of Biotechnology for salt-tolerant crops, says: "At first, we were not welcome. We were sneered at by the villagers as scholars from the city."

But Jiang, who has spent more than 20 years in Shandong, Henan and Zhejiang; and abroad in the United States, Spain and Israel, doing research on salt- and alkaline-tolerant seeds was not fazed by the hostility.

Explaining the issue faced in the province, he says: "Utilization of some seashore shallows in Hainan, with its coastline zigzagging for 1,823 kilometers, is pretty low due to high salinity."

And, in total, China has as much as 33 million hectares of saline and alkaline land which have not been developed even as the country strives to keep its usable farmland above 120 million hectares.

"So, if parts of the saline and alkaline areas can be turned into arable land, the country's agriculture will have much more space, and farmers will be benefited."

Speaking about Jiang's work, Lin says: "I was shocked to see that after a few months of work by Jiang's team, our fields were covered in salt-tolerant ice plants that we sell at around 15 yuan ($2.3) for half a kilogram to hotels and restaurants (better than the price earned for local vegetables)."

"We have experienced the power of science and will be happy if Jiang guides us further," he says.

Giving details about the process, Jiang says: "The sorting of salt-tolerant seeds takes time, is tedious and often we did not get ideal results.

"For instance, we worked with more than 400 varieties of paddy seedlings, and have finally harvested only three kinds of rice seeds.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2018-04/06/content_50827414.htm

Living Abroad Develops Clearer Sense of Self

 Natalie Colarossi  2 Days Ago

Living abroad increases “self-concept clarity,” or the idea that individuals have a more clear and confidently defined idea of themselves, according to a recent study conducted by social scientists at Rice University, Columbia University and the University of North Carolina.

The researchers found that this trait not only increased in people who lived abroad, but also stayed more consistent and stable over time.

The study is published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.  

The Study

The researchers conducted six studies involving 1,874 participants, including both people who have lived abroad and those who have not.

The participants were recruited from online panels and U.S. and international MBA Programs, and were asked to fill out surveys.

“In most studies, we measured self-concept clarity by using either the full version or a shortened version of Campbell et al.’s (1996) Self-Concept Clarity Scale,” said Hajo Adam, assistant professor of management in the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University and corresponding author of the study.

In the Self-Concept Clarity Scale, psychologist Jennifer D. Campbell and a team of scientists at the University of British Columbia defined the term “self-concept clarity” and created a series of questions that could be used for assessment in studies.

Adam and his team used some of these questions in their research, such as: “In general, I have a clear sense of who I am and what I am”; “Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I could tell someone what I’m really like”; and “I seldom experience conflict between the different aspects of my personality.”

The participants were asked to scale the questions from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).  

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The researchers found that those who lived abroad experienced thoughtful reflections in which they contemplated the cultural values and norms of both their home country and the foreign country they lived in.

These reflections helped people evaluate their personal values and upbringings, which in turn affected their sense of self-clarity more strongly than those who had not lived abroad.

“In a world where living-abroad experiences are increasingly common and technological advances make cross-cultural travel and communication ever easier, it is critical that research keeps pace with these developments and seeks to understand how they affect people,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

They ultimately concluded that living abroad affects the idea of self-concept by enhancing its clarity.

Additionally, the researchers found that the longer people live abroad, the more reflective they become about themselves, leading to a stronger sense of self-clarity.

“We found consistent support that it is the depth (the length of time lived abroad) rather than the breadth (the number of foreign countries lived in) of living abroad experiences that enhances self-concept clarity,” said Adam.

This study is the first to focus on the length of time lived abroad and the number of countries visited.

Study’s Implications

According to the researchers, this study has direct beneficial and practical value. The benefits that can result from having a clearer sense of self include increased life satisfaction, decreased stress, job performance improvement, and clarity about what types of careers best match personal strengths and values.

Knowing the benefits of living abroad can also directly affect organizations and businesses as they increasingly operate across national borders and hire foreign employees.

The research team also included Otilia Obodaru of Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, Jackson Lu and Adam Galinsky of Columbia Business School, and William Maddux of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

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Natalie Colarossi

Natalie Colarossi is a journalism major and global studies minor working toward her bachelor’s degree at Ohio University. She is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has covered a number of topics including art, culture, politics, music, and travel. Her greatest passion and priority is to travel, and she hopes to experience as many places and cultures as possible

https://www.tun.com/blog/living-abroad-sense-of-self/

 

| 06 APRIL, 2018

Iraq in talks to buy at least 30,000 tonnes U.S. rice- trade

Iraq’s trade ministry said on Tuesday it planned to start negotiations in coming days about buying U.S. rice

Image used for illustrative purposes. rice with green peas.

Getty Images/ Burcu Atalay Tankut

By Michael Hogan, Reuters News

HAMBURG - Iraq's state grains buyer is in talks about buying at least 30,000 tonnes of U.S.-origin rice in deals without international purchase tenders being issued, European traders said on Friday.

Iraq’s trade ministry said on Tuesday it planned to start negotiations in coming days about buying U.S. rice but gave no more details. 

The talks involved U.S. long grain white rice, traders said.

Iraq’s state grains board has said it plans a combination of formal international tenders and non-tender negotiations to meet its import needs.

The last round of non-tender talks in March about buying U.S.-origin rice and wheat ended without purchases. 

(Reporting by Michael Hogan) ((michael.j.hogan@thomsonreuters.com; +49 40 419 03 4275; ReutersMessaging: michael.hogan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/story/Iraq_in_talks_to_buy_at_least_30000_tonnes_US_rice_trade-TR20180406nL5N1RJ14QX2/

Chinese Scientist Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Rice-Smuggling Plot

The researcher stole genetically modified seeds and planned to give them to a crop research institute in China, the US Justice Department says.

By Ashley Yeager | April 5, 2018

51

FLICKR, BLOGTREPRENEURChinese scientist Weiqiang Zhang was sentenced yesterday (April 4) to 121 months in federal prison for conspiring to steal genetically modified rice seeds from Ventria Bioscience while working at its Kansas-based facility. Zhang planned to give the seeds to a research institute in China, according to a statementfrom the US Justice Department.

“Weiqiang Zhang betrayed his employer by unlawfully providing its proprietary rice seeds to representatives of a Chinese crop institute,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan says in the statement. The “sentence demonstrates the significant consequences awaiting those who would steal trade secrets from American companies.”

Zhang, who has a master’s degree in agriculture from Shengyang Agricultural University in China and a doctorate from Louisiana State University, worked as a rice breeder at Ventria Bioscience. The company develops rice seeds that are genetically reprogrammed to produce human serum albumin, a protein found in blood, or lactoferrin, an iron-binding protein found in human milk. The proteins are then extracted for use as therapeutics.  

According to trial evidence, Zhang stole hundreds of the company’s rice seeds and stored them at his home in Manhattan, Kansas. In the summer of 2013, visitors from a crop research institute in China came to Zhang’s home, and Zhang also took them to tour research facilities in Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio. When the visitors returned home in August 2013, US Customs and Border Protection officers found seeds, including ones belonging to Ventria, in their luggage. Last February, Zhang was convicted of one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property.

“Ventria invested years of research and tens of millions of dollars to create a new and beneficial product,” says US Attorney McAllister in statement. “It is vital that we protect such intellectual property from theft and exploitation by foreign interests.”

https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/52231/title/Chinese-Scientist-Sentenced-to-10-Years-in-Prison-for-Rice-Smuggling-Plot/

 

Rhem: PhilRice youngest director

POSTED ON APR - 5 - 2018

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Rhemilyn Z. Relado, a woman of strength and conviction, takes her new post as the new PhilRice branch director in Los Baños and accepts the challenge to create a positive impact on the station and across Regions IV-A and IV-B.

Rhem, who started her career at PhilRice in 2003, is the youngest PhilRice director to be appointed at 36. Currently, she is working on strengthening and enhancing partnerships with Los Baños-based international, national, and local agencies.

 

Making of a leader

After completing her masters’ degree from a university in the United States, Rhem was appointed as the head of the Institute’s Socioeconomics Division (SED) – a position she held for 8 years before becoming the acting branch director of PhilRice LB. At SED, aside from her management tasks, she researched on the technological and socioeconomic status of rice-based farm households in the 42 major rice-producing provinces across the country. She also led the “Statistical Series on the Rice Economy” project, which gathers, processes, and updates rice statistics and makes the information available to rice stakeholders. She is also one of the authors of the book, “Competitiveness of Philippine Rice in Asia”; profiling the Asian rice farmer and comparing productivity and management practices in pesticide applications.

As a passionate researcher and development worker, she is leading the project Lakbay Binhi, a mobile seed center that “responds to the challenge of having the right amount of high-quality seeds delivered to farmers” in the most remote areas. The project was awarded as the Most Relevant Re-entry project by the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) in 2016.

The project was cited for “promoting the institutionalization of an internal [PhilRice] system to increase availability and accessibility to high-quality rice seeds by improving the complementary processes of rice breeding, seed production, promotion and commercialization, and evaluation. Her re-entry project is a significant move towards achievement of the PhilRice’s mission to help increase productivity, profitability, and thereby attain rice sufficiency in the country.”

Photo credit: Ruby Moselle O. Tumanguil

 

Preparing a leader

Rhem, who hailed from Misamis Oriental, finished AB Sociology, cum laude, at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. She intended to take up law after graduation but the opportunity to work at PhilRice has gradually changed her views in agriculture and development.

“The interdisciplinary encounters manifested in agriculture make its work very broad,” she shared. The processes involve “from seed to seed” and marketing largely cover social and economic aspects that can help deepen the understanding of the rice industry.

Rhem continued her studies with MS in Agricultural and Extension Education at the Pennsylvania State University. Her stay at the top research university widened her perspectives on the importance of strong extension work. It has a holistic approach at extension education that tackles cooperative extension with a specific program for youth and families.

“It made me realize that a holistic view on extension and advancement in rice science and technology can lead to the significant progress in farm households,” she said.

Rhem also finished her Master in Development Management at DAP and was awarded with Highest Honors in 2016. She is a member of the UPLB Sociology Society, UPLB Mindanawans, AMiCUS – UPLB Chapter, Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (UP Chapter), and Gamma Sigma Delta Honor Society of Pennsylvania State College of Agricultural Sciences.

 

Getting to know the leader

To her friends and colleagues, Rhem is known as someone who loves to share hearty laughs and witty banters. Amidst this amiable personality is the ability to command authority with her eloquence and strong personality. She spends her vacant time playing Plants vs. Zombies and word games. She also devotes most of her Sunday afternoons going to malls, even jokingly shares that she could stay in a mall until its closing time.

Rhem is also regarded as a considerate, compassionate, and rational leader who is thoughtful of her staff’s welfare. She does not rest on her commendable achievements but remains focused and committed to the work at hand.

 

Taking the lead

During the turnover ceremony last January 5, 2018 at the Field Service Building of the station, Rhem expressed her gratitude as she takes responsibility of being in the forefront in steering PhilRice LB.

Magtulungan tayo,” she said; emphasizing the importance of working together in attaining the station’s plans and goals.

Rhem’s topmost priority for the station is on strengthening and enhancing partnerships with international, national, and local agencies that are housed in Los Baños.

“We need to capitalize on partnerships to deliver a better impact among regions IV-A and IV-B,” she said. The established partnerships and the upcoming partner-organizations can consolidate the resources that the farmers need to increase their harvest and income and make them competitive.

On her list also includes enhancing the station’s internal capabilities and capacities. She will also look into the station’s thrust to address the future needs of R & D and intends to expand on the work of past leaderships through innovations.

With her management skills and achievements, Dr. Rex L. Navarro, member of the External Program and Management Review committee, said that Rhem is the kind of leader needed at PhilRice LB matches.

“She was honed and prepared to be at where she is serving right now. PhilRice Los Baños is in good hands,” he said.

WRITTEN BY RUBY MOSELLE O. TUMANGUIL

http://www.philrice.gov.ph/featured-staff-rhemilyn-z-relado/

 

$25 million grant to help Penn State Health advance cancer research and care

April 5, 2018

HERSHEY, Pa. — With a commitment to offering exceptional care close to home for those in central Pennsylvania, Highmark Health today announced a $25 million grant to support specialized cancer care and innovative research at Penn State Cancer Institute.

The grant will provide support for development of new cancer treatment drugs, clinical trials to test promising new therapies and recruitment of leading cancer researchers in key disciplines.

Highmark grants $25 million to Penn State Cancer Institute - 4/5/18

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Rosemary Manbachi, a Penn State Cancer Institute patient, rings a bell symbolizing the end of an individual's cancer treatment. Looking on are David L. Holmberg, president and CEO of Highmark Health (left), and Dr. Ray Hohl, director of Penn State Cancer Institute (center). Highmark gave Penn State Cancer Institute a $25 milllon grant to improve care and experimental treatments on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State

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Dr. A. Craig Hillemeier, CEO of Penn State Health, dean of Penn State College of Medicine and senior vice president for health affairs at Penn State, talks about the $25 million grant Penn State Cancer Institute received from Highmark on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

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David L. Holmberg, president and CEO of Highmark Health, talks about the $25 million grant Highmark gave to Penn State Cancer Institute on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State

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Penn State President Eric Barron talks about the $25 million grant Penn State Cancer Institute received from Highmark on Thursday, April 5, 2018. 

Image: Penn State

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Deborah Rice-Johnson, president of Highmark Health Plan and Diversified Businesses, talks about the $25 million grant Highmark gave to Penn State Cancer Institute on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State

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Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania's secretary of health, talks about the $25 million grant Penn State Cancer Institute received from Highmark on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State

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Dr. Ray Hohl, director of Penn State Cancer Institute, talks about the $25 million grant Penn State Cancer Institute received from Highmark on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State

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Deborah Rice-Johnson, president of Highmark Health Plan and Diversified Businesses (left), looks at slides with Dr. Monika Joshi (right) and David DeGraff (center). Highmark gave Penn State Cancer Institute a $25 milllon grant to improve care and experimental treatments on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State

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Deborah Rice-Johnson, president of Highmark Health Plan and Diversified Businesses (left), looks at slides with researcher David DeGraff. Highmark gave Penn State Cancer Institute a $25 milllon grant to improve care and experimental treatments on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State

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Deborah Rice-Johnson, president of Highmark Health Plan and Diversified Businesses (left), Rep. Sue Helm (center), and David L. Holmberg, president and CEO of Highmark Health, listen to Dr. Monika Joshi talk about her cancer research. Highmark gave Penn State Cancer Institute a $25 million grant to improve care and experimental treatments on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State

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Highmark gave Penn State Cancer Institute a $25 million grant to improve care and experimental treatments on Thursday, April 5, 2018. Following a bell ringing ceremony to commemorate the gift, Highmark representatives, local dignitaries and others toured a Cancer Institute lab.

Image: Penn State

·        

Rosemary Manbachi, a Penn State Cancer Institute patient, rings a bell symbolizing the end of an individual's cancer treatment. Looking on are David L. Holmberg, president and CEO of Highmark Health (left), and Dr. Ray Hohl, director of Penn State Cancer Institute (center). Highmark gave Penn State Cancer Institute a $25 milllon grant to improve care and experimental treatments on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State

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Dr. A. Craig Hillemeier, CEO of Penn State Health, dean of Penn State College of Medicine and senior vice president for health affairs at Penn State, talks about the $25 million grant Penn State Cancer Institute received from Highmark on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Image: Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

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In December 2017, Highmark Health and Penn State Health announced a long-term partnership that includes a $1 billion joint investment to develop a high-value, community-based health care network designed to expand local access to primary and specialty care and enhance collaboration with community physicians.

“As we said last year, we believe very strongly in the team at Penn State and the clinical expertise at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center,” said David Holmberg, president and CEO, Highmark Health. “Today, through this $25 million investment in Penn State Cancer Institute, we are affirming our commitment to a collaboration between the two strongest health care brands in Pennsylvania who share a passion for providing our members and patients with unsurpassed service and quality.”

Highmark’s latest $25 million grant will allow the Cancer Institute to make immediate investments in research operations and transformative science. An area of emphasis will be developing research laboratory services through new shared scientific resources, which will be available to all Cancer Institute members. Examples include an Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion laboratory—where the effects of potential new drugs can be studied—and a developmental therapeutics laboratory to develop and manage Phase 1 clinical trials.

“Penn State College of Medicine has a rich history in cancer research, from our work decades ago that contributed to the development of the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine to the many vital studies underway today that are helping us to understand how different cancers form, spread and can be effectively prevented and treated,” said Dr. A. Craig Hillemeier, dean, Penn State College of Medicine; chief executive officer, Penn State Health; and senior vice president for health affairs, Penn State. “This grant is a demonstration of Highmark’s confidence in our ability to continue to advance discoveries that improve the lives of people with cancer.” 

Based on the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center campus, Penn State Cancer Institute is the region’s leading cancer care provider. Clinical services are offered in Hershey and at two other locations in central Pennsylvania—State College, Pa., through a partnership with Mount Nittany Health, and Reading, Pa., at Penn State Health St. Joseph. With a research presence in Hershey and at the University Park campus, the Cancer Institute is the centerpiece of Penn State’s commitment to discoveries that will lead to the prevention, treatment and cures for cancer.

“Penn State is among the leading research universities in the world, and we are committed to using that work to improve the lives of people across the region who are suffering from chronic and life-threatening conditions,” said Penn State President Eric Barron. “We are very grateful that Highmark is partnering with us in the fight to conquer cancer and to invest in the future of health care.”

One of Penn State Cancer Institute’s greatest needs is recruiting highly trained personnel to assist in project management and protocol development for translational research and clinical trials. The grant funds also will support clinical researchers developing investigator-initiated trials, enabling “Highmark Scholars” to bring their research ideas into the clinic. This will allow people with cancer in central Pennsylvania, including Highmark members, the opportunity to take part in original clinical trials without traveling far from home.

“This grant will help us continue to pursue the best scientists in the world to be part of the Penn State Cancer Institute team,” said Dr. Raymond J. Hohl, director, Penn State Cancer Institute. “This means we improve our knowledge about the disease, and that ultimately benefits our patients.”

The grant announcement follows other recent developments that demonstrate Penn State Health’s leadership in providing comprehensive cancer care in central Pennsylvania. Yesterday (April 4), Penn State Health St. Joseph announced the expansion of its Medical Office Building in Bern Township to incorporate a new linear accelerator to treat solid tumor cancers. On April 2, Penn State Health announced development of a new Department of Radiation Oncology at Penn State College of Medicine, a move also designed to enhance recruitment of the best minds in cancer treatment and research, and trainees that will become tomorrow’s cancer care providers.

“I am so pleased that Highmark is part of this innovative provider-payor collaboration, which is going to change and improve lives,” said Deborah Rice-Johnson, president, Highmark Inc. “This type of financial commitment also provides significant stability for Penn State Cancer Institute and helps ensure that our members and everyone in the community will continue to have access to high-quality, affordable care.”

Rice also said keeping cancer care for patients close to their home, families and support system can’t be emphasized enough. She added that it is one of the great benefits of these types of provider partnerships that have resulted from the Highmark and Penn State collaboration.

http://news.psu.edu/story/514496/2018/04/05/impact/25-million-grant-help-penn-state-health-advance-cancer-research-and http://news.psu.edu/story/514496/2018/04/05/impact/25-million-grant-help-penn-state-health-advance-cancer-research-and http://news.psu.edu/story/514496/2018/04/05/impact/25-million-grant-help-penn-state-health-advance-cancer-research-and

 

Zim eyes rice production to cut imports

05.04.2018

 

UkrAgroConsult

ZIMBABWE could cut annual rice importation expenditure of over $100 million and save the much-needed foreign currency, if the country starts commercial rice production.

The country imports over 95% of its rice despite having ample production capacity underpinned by growing domestic demand for the crop.

According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency latest report, the country splashed $13,1 million on rice imports in February 2018 alone.

Last year, more than $98,9 million was spent between January and November.

This is a cause for concern given the country’s precarious foreign currency situation, which has left many industries on the brink of collapse.

Statistics show that the Zimbabwe produces around just a tonne of rice annually, while it imports over 250 000 tonnes.

Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement deputy minister, Davis Marapira, said the government was conducting a research to find out which type of rice could be grown in the country.

“It’s actually our policy that we should not import things that we can grow locally and the rice is one of the crops, which we have to grow locally so that we save our foreign currency. So our research department is busy researching on the best rice which we can grow locally and which can produce better results,” Marapira said.

“Better results in terms of yields per hectare. Like in other countries rice is doing 10 to 15 tonnes per hectare. So we want to research on rice, which we can grow here in Zimbabwe and be able to achieve at least 10 tonnes per hectare,” he said.

Annual demand for rice in Zimbabwe increased by 300% from 50 000 tonnes in 2007 to 200 000 tonnes in 2016, according to the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union director, Jeremiah Tevera said the country had been growing rice albeit on a small scale.

“It hasn’t been practised extensively although there is a research that is going on for summer rice,” he said.

Tevera said countries that produce rice have got abundant moisture.

“We have such places in the country but are dotted. We cannot afford to do irrigated rice at the moment due to high electricity costs, water and inputs among others,” he said.

Tevera said Zimbabwe should also do research on the appropriate knowledge of harvesting.

Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services Matabeleland North provincial officer, Dumisani Nyoni, said the demand for rice was high in the country; and farmers should grow it.

“The diet has changed and people now prefer rice compared to isitshwala. What’s happening is that we are doing a research to come up with varieties of rice, that we can grow in our region. People have been growing rice but on a very small scale. Measures are there to grow the crop locally,” he said.

Recently, Lands, Agriculture, Rural Resettlement minister, Perrance Shiri (pictured) said the government, together with Seed Co, were carrying out final feasibility studies of rice growing and were touring various rice-growing countries to acquaint themselves with technology and viable methods of growing the cereal.

This could be good news for the country because it will help cut annual rice importation expenditure of over $80 million.

Shiri said a team of experts from his ministry have already gone to Egypt to familiarise themselves with rice production in one of Africa’s largest producer.

He said preliminary research has shown that the country can produce rice using hybrid varieties without any problem.

With hybrid varieties, Egyptian farmers have improved average rice production to almost 10 tonnes per hectare.

Agricultural experts say rice is now the leading provider of food calories in West Africa and Madagascar and it is now the second largest source of food energy in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.

Zim eyes rice production to cut imports

05.04.2018

 

UkrAgroConsult

ZIMBABWE could cut annual rice importation expenditure of over $100 million and save the much-needed foreign currency, if the country starts commercial rice production.

The country imports over 95% of its rice despite having ample production capacity underpinned by growing domestic demand for the crop.

According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency latest report, the country splashed $13,1 million on rice imports in February 2018 alone.

Last year, more than $98,9 million was spent between January and November.

This is a cause for concern given the country’s precarious foreign currency situation, which has left many industries on the brink of collapse.

Statistics show that the Zimbabwe produces around just a tonne of rice annually, while it imports over 250 000 tonnes.

Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement deputy minister, Davis Marapira, said the government was conducting a research to find out which type of rice could be grown in the country.

“It’s actually our policy that we should not import things that we can grow locally and the rice is one of the crops, which we have to grow locally so that we save our foreign currency. So our research department is busy researching on the best rice which we can grow locally and which can produce better results,” Marapira said.

“Better results in terms of yields per hectare. Like in other countries rice is doing 10 to 15 tonnes per hectare. So we want to research on rice, which we can grow here in Zimbabwe and be able to achieve at least 10 tonnes per hectare,” he said.

Annual demand for rice in Zimbabwe increased by 300% from 50 000 tonnes in 2007 to 200 000 tonnes in 2016, according to the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union director, Jeremiah Tevera said the country had been growing rice albeit on a small scale.

“It hasn’t been practised extensively although there is a research that is going on for summer rice,” he said.

Tevera said countries that produce rice have got abundant moisture.

“We have such places in the country but are dotted. We cannot afford to do irrigated rice at the moment due to high electricity costs, water and inputs among others,” he said.

Tevera said Zimbabwe should also do research on the appropriate knowledge of harvesting.

Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services Matabeleland North provincial officer, Dumisani Nyoni, said the demand for rice was high in the country; and farmers should grow it.

“The diet has changed and people now prefer rice compared to isitshwala. What’s happening is that we are doing a research to come up with varieties of rice, that we can grow in our region. People have been growing rice but on a very small scale. Measures are there to grow the crop locally,” he said.

Recently, Lands, Agriculture, Rural Resettlement minister, Perrance Shiri (pictured) said the government, together with Seed Co, were carrying out final feasibility studies of rice growing and were touring various rice-growing countries to acquaint themselves with technology and viable methods of growing the cereal.

This could be good news for the country because it will help cut annual rice importation expenditure of over $80 million.

Shiri said a team of experts from his ministry have already gone to Egypt to familiarise themselves with rice production in one of Africa’s largest producer.

He said preliminary research has shown that the country can produce rice using hybrid varieties without any problem.


With hybrid varieties, Egyptian farmers have improved average rice production to almost 10 tonnes per hectare.

Agricultural experts say rice is now the leading provider of food calories in West Africa and Madagascar and it is now the second largest source of food energy in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.

http://www.blackseagrain.net/novosti/zim-eyes-rice-production-to-cut-imports

 

 

JC rice thief sentenced to 10 years in prison

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·         Apr 5, 2018

 

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A former Manhattan rice scientist has been sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison for stealing from a research facility, according to the Kansas U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Weiqiang Zhang, 51, was convicted in February of 2017 on one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property. He was sentenced Wednesday to 121 months in prison.

Zhang worked as a rice breeder for Ventria Bioscience in Junction City, which develops genetically programmed rice for therapeutic and medical fields.

According to trial evidence, Zhang took seeds from the research center and stored them at his residence in Manhattan. In the summer of 2013, Chinese researchers visited Zhang in his home in Manhattan, and he drove them to Iowa, Missouri and Ohio for tour facilities.

On Aug. 7, 2013, U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection officers found seeds belonging to Ventria in the luggage of Zhang’s visitors as they prepared to return to China.

Zhang is a Chinese national and U.S. legal permanent resident, according to the press release. He has a master’s degree in agriculture from Shengyang Agricultural University in China and a doctorate from Louisiana State University.

Another man involved in the case pleaded guilty in October 2016 to one count of making false statements to the FBI.

Wengui Yan, 62, Arkansas, was a geneticist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Stuttgart, Arkansas at the time. He was charged with Zhang for conspiracy to steal trade secrets and theft of trade secrets. Yan is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Yan admitted in the plea that he traveled with the Chinese delegation to an Arkansas rice farm and knew they would have an opportunity to steal seeds, and that after the seeds were stolen, Yan denied knowing about the theft. According to his plea agreement, he faced 20 months in federal prison.

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Basmati Rice Market Set to take Giant Positive Leap

"Comprehensive Analysis of Basmati Rice Market"

HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Basmati Rice market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges.

The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Direct Edible & Deep Processing], products type [Indian Basmati Rice, Pakistani Basmati Rice, Kenya Basmati Rice & Other] and various important geographies like China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Southeast Asia & Australia]. 

Get Access to sample pages @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1052004-asia-pacific-basmati-rice-market 

The research covers the current market size of the Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers. The in-depth information by segments of Basmati Rice market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the 
Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice Market. 

The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice Market, some of them listed here are KRBL Limited, Amira Nature Foods, LT Foods, Best Foods, Kohinoor Rice, Aeroplane Rice, Tilda Basmati Rice, Matco Foods, Amar Singh Chawal Wala, Hanuman Rice Mills, Adani Wilmar, HAS Rice Pakistan, Galaxy Rice Mill, Dunar Foods & Sungold. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology. 

Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Indian Basmati Rice, Pakistani Basmati Rice, Kenya Basmati Rice & Other. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Direct Edible & Deep Processing with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate. 
Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Basmati Rice in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Southeast Asia & Australia and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022. 
Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1052004-asia-pacific-basmati-rice-market  

Following would be the Chapters to display the Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice market. 

Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Basmati Rice, Applications of Basmati Rice, Market Segment by Regions; 
Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure; 
Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Basmati Rice, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis; 
Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment); 
Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Southeast Asia & Australia, Basmati Rice Segment Market Analysis (by Type); 
Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Basmati Rice Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Basmati Rice; 
Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Indian Basmati Rice, Pakistani Basmati Rice, Kenya Basmati Rice & Other], Market Trend by Application [Direct Edible & Deep Processing]; 
Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis; 
Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice; 
Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe Basmati Rice sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source. 

Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1052004-asia-pacific-basmati-rice-market 

What this Research Study Offers: 

Asia-Pacific Basmati Rice Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments 
Market share analysis of the top industry players 
Strategic recommendations for the new entrants 
Market forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets 
Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations) 
Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations 
Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends 
Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments 
Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements 

Buy this research report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1052004 

Reasons for Buying this Report 
This report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics 
It provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growth 
It provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to grow 
It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future 
It provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitors 
It helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segments 

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia. 

About Author: 
HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the “Accurate Forecast” in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their “Goals & Objectives”. 

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A CHINESE SCIENTIST STOLE AMERICAN RICE AND WILL SPEND UP TO A DECADE IN PRISON

BY MAX KUTNER ON 4/5/18 AT 2:46 PM

00:00

Why Trump's Trade War Could Kill U.S. Jobs

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U.S.CHINADEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

A scientist from China has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in the United States for stealing seeds of genetically modified American rice, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday. 

The Chinese scientist, Weiqiang Zhang, 51, was a legal permanent resident living in Manhattan, Kansas. He was working as a rice breeder at Ventria Bioscience, a biopharmaceutical company that creates genetically modified rice. He stole hundreds of rice seeds from the company that had cost millions of dollars and taken years of research to develop, according to the Justice Department. He kept the seeds in his home.

Then in 2013, United States Customs and Border Protection agents found the seeds in luggage belonging to researchers who visited Zhang from China. They were on their way back to China with the seeds.

Related: U.S. colleges expelled up to 8,000 Chinese students in three years

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In February, he was convicted of three counts: Conspiring to steal trade secrets, conspiring to transport stolen property across states lines and transporting stolen property between states.

“Weiqiang Zhang betrayed his employer by unlawfully providing its proprietary rice seeds to representatives of a Chinese crop institute,” Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan said in a statement. “Today’s sentence demonstrates the significant consequences awaiting those who would steal trade secrets from American companies.” 

Weiqiang Zhang, in this handout photo released on December 12, 2013, by Kansas’s Wyandotte County Detention Center, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to steal rice seeds from a biopharmaceutical company in Kansas.WYANDOTTE COUNTY DETENTION CENTER/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS/REUTERS

The conclusion of the years-long case comes as President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to punish China for what the White House has said is the theft of intellectual property by that country. In a tweet on Wednesday, the president put the annual amount of intellectual property theft at $300 billion.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has also warned about China. Asked during a Senate intelligence committee hearing in February about the counterintelligence risk from Chinese students in the U.S., Wray said, “The use of nontraditional collectors, especially in the academic setting, whether it’s professors, scientists, students we see in almost every field office that the FBI has around the country…. They’re exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have.”

Two public defenders for Zhang did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

http://www.newsweek.com/chinese-scientist-rice-intellectual-property-weiqiang-zhang-874080

Health Canada is obligated to approve Golden Rice

The real issue with Golden Rice is that it’s a GMO, which Greenpeace and other opponents despise so much that they are willing to watch millions of people suffer and die rather than give an inch to science. | File photo

Health Canada’s decision to approve Golden Rice as safe for sale in Canada is the right move, despite complaints by some who are questioning why the government department is even looking at the genetically modified food.

The announcement came last month, after Heath Canada concluded that Golden Rice “did not pose a greater risk to human health than rice varieties currently available on the Canadian market.”

This is despite the fact that Golden Rice, a GM food that is enhanced with vitamin A, is not intended for sale in Canada. Its market is developing countries where white rice is a staple in the diet.

The World Health Organization says some 124 million people have a chronic vitamin A deficiency because of their diet. Up to two million people die each year of vitamin A deficiency and up to half a million children a year go blind.

This suffering could be alleviated quickly with the introduction of Golden Rice into farms in those areas.

Ideally, people would eat a more balanced diet with leafy vegetables and fruits, but that isn’t happening in many places, and it won’t happen for many years, even with the best efforts.

Golden Rice isn’t the entire solution, but consuming about one cup a day would help alleviate the vitamin A deficiency.

It is the logical thing to do, but opponents — most notably Greenpeace — are campaigning against its introduction into developing countries on flimsy arguments, chiefly that Golden Rice could be contaminated with other GMOs and that the initiative is a ploy for GMO producing companies to get a foothold in the developing world.

They also say that a food supplement program combined with more diversity in farming would be a better long-term solution.

Fine, but it’s not happening. This is subsistence farming. Supplement programs are expensive. And diversification in farming is not as easy — culturally and practically — as opponents say.

The real issue with Golden Rice is that it’s a GMO, which Greenpeace and other opponents despise so much that they are willing to watch millions of people suffer and die rather than give an inch to science.

In 2016, 107 Nobel laureates in the areas of medicine, chemistry, physics and economics published a letter beseeching Greenpeace to stop fighting the introduction of Golden Rice in the developing world, arguing the organization’s campaign is “a crime against humanity.”

The letter notes that Golden Rice “has the potential to reduce or eliminate much of the death and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency, which has the greatest impact on the poorest people in Africa and southeast Asia.”

Golden Rice was developed in the 1990s by two German scientists, who introduced a gene from corn into rice DNA, giving it a golden hue. It has been designated for humanitarian use, meaning that anyone who earns less than $10,000 a year need pay no royalties and can plant the seed again in following years.

The opposition to Golden Rice has fomented political unwillingness to accept it in developing countries, so it appears that supporters are now turning to developed countries, whose food security system is well established. Canada is one of those countries. Australia and New Zealand have also approved Golden Rice.

Health Canada’s decision is a responsible humanitarian gesture that should be applauded.

Greenpeace and others who deny those suffering from vitamin A deficiency a chance to live in health and dignity are engaged in a cruel idealistic folly.

Karen Briere, Bruce Dyck, Barb Glen, Brian MacLeod and Michael Raine collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.

https://www.producer.com/2018/04/health-canada-obligated-approve-golden-rice/

Scientists bring fields in Hainan back to life

Comment(s) Print  E-mailChina Daily, April 6, 2018

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Professor Jiang Xingyu (R) surveys rice harvest in an experimental field in a township in the city of Wenchang in Hainan province in June 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

The 62-year-old farmer, Lin Minghuan, says he felt he was in an abyss after seeing typhoon Rammasun ruin all his crops in minutes in Wenchang on the eastern coastal Hainan island on July 18, 2014.

Rammasun, which means the god of thunder in Thai, has been removed from the typhoon name list due to its destructive strength that left more than 7 million people in distress in Vietnam, the Philippines, China's Guangdong province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, with Hainan island the epicenter of the disaster.

The typhoon was the most serious in 70 years and killed 25 people, with six missing in Hainan, according to local reports.

"We were heartbroken when we saw nothing would grow on the once fertile land after the fields were filled with snow-white salt crystals," says Lin from Fuqian township where Rammasun made landfall.

He adds that at that time many people abandoned farming and went to search for jobs in the cities, and that the devastating scenes caused by typhoon Rammasun and Seagulls in July and September 2014 left painful memories for people in Hainan.

It was then that Jiang Xingyu came to the town with his team from Hainan University, to revive the sea-water filled fields.

The two typhoonsRammasun and Seagullsthat hit the island province within two months, destroyed 2,700 hectares of farm land.

Speaking about his experiences, Jiang, the head of the Hainan Key Laboratory of Biotechnology for salt-tolerant crops, says: "At first, we were not welcome. We were sneered at by the villagers as scholars from the city."

But Jiang, who has spent more than 20 years in Shandong, Henan and Zhejiang; and abroad in the United States, Spain and Israel, doing research on salt- and alkaline-tolerant seeds was not fazed by the hostility.

Explaining the issue faced in the province, he says: "Utilization of some seashore shallows in Hainan, with its coastline zigzagging for 1,823 kilometers, is pretty low due to high salinity."

And, in total, China has as much as 33 million hectares of saline and alkaline land which have not been developed even as the country strives to keep its usable farmland above 120 million hectares.

"So, if parts of the saline and alkaline areas can be turned into arable land, the country's agriculture will have much more space, and farmers will be benefited."

Speaking about Jiang's work, Lin says: "I was shocked to see that after a few months of work by Jiang's team, our fields were covered in salt-tolerant ice plants that we sell at around 15 yuan ($2.3) for half a kilogram to hotels and restaurants (better than the price earned for local vegetables)."

"We have experienced the power of science and will be happy if Jiang guides us further," he says.

Giving details about the process, Jiang says: "The sorting of salt-tolerant seeds takes time, is tedious and often we did not get ideal results.

"For instance, we worked with more than 400 varieties of paddy seedlings, and have finally harvested only three kinds of rice seeds.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2018-04/06/content_50827414.htm

 

Zim eyes rice production to cut imports

05.04.2018

 

UkrAgroConsult

ZIMBABWE could cut annual rice importation expenditure of over $100 million and save the much-needed foreign currency, if the country starts commercial rice production.

The country imports over 95% of its rice despite having ample production capacity underpinned by growing domestic demand for the crop.

According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency latest report, the country splashed $13,1 million on rice imports in February 2018 alone.

Last year, more than $98,9 million was spent between January and November.

This is a cause for concern given the country’s precarious foreign currency situation, which has left many industries on the brink of collapse.

Statistics show that the Zimbabwe produces around just a tonne of rice annually, while it imports over 250 000 tonnes.

Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement deputy minister, Davis Marapira, said the government was conducting a research to find out which type of rice could be grown in the country.

“It’s actually our policy that we should not import things that we can grow locally and the rice is one of the crops, which we have to grow locally so that we save our foreign currency. So our research department is busy researching on the best rice which we can grow locally and which can produce better results,” Marapira said.

“Better results in terms of yields per hectare. Like in other countries rice is doing 10 to 15 tonnes per hectare. So we want to research on rice, which we can grow here in Zimbabwe and be able to achieve at least 10 tonnes per hectare,” he said.

Annual demand for rice in Zimbabwe increased by 300% from 50 000 tonnes in 2007 to 200 000 tonnes in 2016, according to the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union director, Jeremiah Tevera said the country had been growing rice albeit on a small scale.

“It hasn’t been practised extensively although there is a research that is going on for summer rice,” he said.

Tevera said countries that produce rice have got abundant moisture.

“We have such places in the country but are dotted. We cannot afford to do irrigated rice at the moment due to high electricity costs, water and inputs among others,” he said.

Tevera said Zimbabwe should also do research on the appropriate knowledge of harvesting.

Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services Matabeleland North provincial officer, Dumisani Nyoni, said the demand for rice was high in the country; and farmers should grow it.

“The diet has changed and people now prefer rice compared to isitshwala. What’s happening is that we are doing a research to come up with varieties of rice, that we can grow in our region. People have been growing rice but on a very small scale. Measures are there to grow the crop locally,” he said.

Recently, Lands, Agriculture, Rural Resettlement minister, Perrance Shiri (pictured) said the government, together with Seed Co, were carrying out final feasibility studies of rice growing and were touring various rice-growing countries to acquaint themselves with technology and viable methods of growing the cereal.

This could be good news for the country because it will help cut annual rice importation expenditure of over $80 million.

Shiri said a team of experts from his ministry have already gone to Egypt to familiarise themselves with rice production in one of Africa’s largest producer.

He said preliminary research has shown that the country can produce rice using hybrid varieties without any problem.

With hybrid varieties, Egyptian farmers have improved average rice production to almost 10 tonnes per hectare.


Agricultural experts say rice is now the leading provider of food calories in West Africa and Madagascar and it is now the second largest source of food energy in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.

http://www.blackseagrain.net/novosti/zim-eyes-rice-production-to-cut-imports

 

Don’t panic: Only the poor have no rice

1KSHARES93020

image: https://www.philstar.com/images/authors/1805283.jpg

GOTCHA - Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star) - April 6, 2018 - 12:00am

There’s no denying it, cheap government rice is gone. In public markets no rice is being sold anymore at the subsidized P27 per kilo. Accredited stalls of the National Food Authority are closed. Their stocks thinned out as early as January. No replenishments came. In February the NFA admitted it had only five days’ supply left in its warehouses. Five weeks have since passed.

Malacañang officials who say “Don’t panic, there’s enough commercial rice” are obfuscating. Sure, fancy varieties are aplenty; not only the grain harvest but also smuggling was bountiful last October-December. But those sell for P40-P60 a kilo, for the can-afford.

Cruelly the officials even bandy that “NFA rice make up only five percent of the country’s supply anyway, so no problem.” Fact is the poorest eight percent of Filipinos subsist on cheap NFA stocks. That’s precisely the point of the P27-price subsidy. To belittle that supply is like saying, don’t panic, only the poor have no rice.

The issue is why the NFA ran out of rice.

The agency’s duty is to always have cheap stocks on sale for the poor. On top of that it should always have a 15-day national emergency buffer. That buffer should even be for 30 days every lean season, July-September.

There are two ways of doing that. One, during harvests the NFA must buy palay (un-milled rice) from farmers. At a floor price of P17.50 a kilo, it protects farmers against bulk traders who procure for much less. Palay milling is on exchange-deal: the miller is paid in kind with by-products of darak (bran) and ipa (husk), in demand as hog feed and fuel. Still the NFA loses a fifth of the weight in the milling. And more as it passes on the milled stock at a discount, for accredited vendors profitably to retail strictly at P27 a kilo to verified penurious folk.

The second way is to import milled rice, usually in bulks of 250,000 tons per year from Vietnam and Thailand. Importing is cumbersome for the NFA, though lucrative for crooked officials who take multimillion-dollar kickbacks from suppliers. Imported stocks can cost up to P32 per kilo, including bagging, shipping, and cargo handling. Retailing at the subsidized rate of P27, NFA has lost about P250 billion over the years.

On record, the NFA’s 2017 imports arrived last October-December. On record too, the NFA did not buy palay at P17.50 a kilo during the wet season harvest, also last October-December, because traders supposedly were buying higher anyway. On record lastly, the NFA sold “aging” inventories last July-September, to give way in warehouses to the arriving imports.

Questions arose in last month’s Senate inquiry on the NFA rice depletion:

• Why did not the NFA buy palay last harvest time? Agriculture officials said farm-gate stocks were selling at only P13.50 a kilo in Bicol, Mindoro, and Palawan. Had the NFA intervened, not only would farmers have earned more, but it also would have shored up its buffers.

The NFA claimed there was no such cheap palay, as certified by farmers’ cooperatives. Whatever cheap palay it indeed had rejected supposedly were from flooded fields, quick to rot because containing more than 40 percent moisture.

• Why did not the newly arrived 2017 imports in October-December last till January-March 2018? Fewer calamities struck in 2017 to require distribution of NFA rice to victims. Only two strong typhoons in Eastern Visayas and Southern Mindanao, Mayon Volcano’s subdued eruptions in Bicol, and the Marawi terrorist siege, mostly before the arrival of the 2017 imports. Meaning, 2016 leftover inventories were used to tide over the victims in those regions. The fresh 250,000 tons in late 2017 should have been sufficient till the first four months of 2018. So said the NFA’s inter-agency governing Council, based on past years’ experience.

NFA management countered that it’s all the Council’s fault. The latter allegedly kept disallowing it from importing another 250,000 tons for 2018. That didn’t answer the question of sudden depletion of the 2017 imports. But it revealed that the NFA management and Council are still at odds over facts and policies.

• What “aging” stocks did NFA sell during the lean season, July-September, and beyond? Quoting insiders, senators said the central office ordered regional staff to sell their 2016 inventories to three traders in Bulacan. Even the first arrivals of 2017 imports were included. Purportedly the stocks first were mislabeled as expired, even if still edible. The favored traders bought them dirt cheap for resale at commercial rates. Certain central officials earned tens of millions of pesos in kickback of P100 per sack. Market vendors swore that the “commercial” stocks distributed to them by the traders came in NFA sacks. Thus did the whole 2017 imports quickly run out.

The NFA management claimed that what it sold were 700,000 sacks of very old 2014-2015 stocks. Supposedly they just implemented the usual policy of bidding out inventories more than six months old.

Past NFA administrators cried foul. Allegedly they already had disposed of the 2014-2015 old stocks before they stepped down in June 2016.

To determine who’s telling the truth, the NFA Council has ordered an independent audit. Documents and figures will show if domestic palay indeed was way beyond the NFA’s buying price last harvest, how long the 250,000-ton yearly imports should last, and what “aging” stocks were sold last lean season.

*      *      *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ, (882-AM).


Read more at https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2018/04/06/1803205/dont-panic-only-poor-have-no-rice#qK8lVa4XKMDr3U8x.99
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2018/04/06/1803205/dont-panic-only-poor-have-no-rice

Consumer price rise highest in over 5 yrs

 0

BY MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT ON APRIL 6, 2018BUSINESS

Twitter

INFLATION accelerated further in March, rising to 4.3 percent from 3.8 percent a month earlier on the back of continued increases in food, beverage, tobacco and utility prices.

The result, which exceeded the government’s 2.0-4.0 percent target band for the year, was slightly higher than the 4.3 percent average in a Manila Timespoll of economists.

The March figure — the highest in more than five years based on a revised data series using 2012 prices — fell within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) 3.8-4.6 percent estimate for the month but topped the Finance department’s 4.1-percent projection.

Year to date, the rise in consumer prices averaged 3.8 percent, just below the central bank’s full-year forecast of 3.9 percent.


The Bangko Sentral, which has so far resisted calls to tighten policy in response to higher inflation, said it would remain watchful.

“There’s a pick-up in inflation that we recognize,” central bank Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said. “Markets are already factoring this [in].”

The coming task of the Monetary Board, he added, is to carefully evaluate the appropriateness of a measured policy response to firmly anchor inflation expectations in line with estimates that the 2.0-4.0 percent target will not be breached this year and the next.

“This can allow as well for orderly adjustment in market rates and in the peso. We are closely monitoring the situation,” Espenilla said.

Proactive measures needed

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said inflation was being driven by continued prices increases since the start of the year for key commodity items: alcoholic beverages and tobacco (18.6 percent); food and non-alcoholic beverages (5.9 percent); and housing, water, electricity, gas; and other fuels (2.9 percent).

NEDA officer-in-charge Rosemarie Edillon said proactive measures were needed to mitigate the impact of higher prices on the poor.

“The government remains vigilant to price pressures, especially on food consumed by the poor such as rice,” she said in a statement.

The NEDA noted that market prices of rice had risen by 3.6 percent in March from 2.8 percent in February, driven in part by higher palay prices that have been on an upward trend since the second week of January.

Edillon said amendments to the Agricultural Tariffication Act were urgently needed. These would remove quantitative restrictions on rice imports, eventually opening shipments to private traders and allowing the National Food Authority to focus on ensuring buffer stocks.

“Without this measure, containing food inflation pressures will be a challenge given diminishing rice stocks,” she said.

The country’s total rice inventory, inclusive of stocks in households, commercial warehouses and National Food Authority depositories, registered a marked drop to 1,795.78 thousand metric tons (MT) as of February 1, 2018, the NEDA said.

Although 250,000 MT of imported rice scheduled to arrive next month will momentarily boost the NFA’s stockpile, this will not be able to meet rice demand in the succeeding months, Edillon said.

Inflationary pressures from other agricultural food items must be managed and global oil price developments anticipated, she added.

“Given the risks, we really need to be anticipative and proactive in implementing measures to ensure price stability and cushion the impact of higher consumer prices on the poor,” Edillon said.

Data-dependent decision

In a separate statement, the Bangko Sentral said its expectations would be continually assessed to guard against potential second-round effects and inflation becoming broader based.

Monetary policy decisions, it stressed, would remain data-dependent.

“Nevertheless, non-monetary measures such as institutional arrangements in setting transportation fares and minimum wages, unconditional cash transfers, as well as transport subsidies are expected to help mitigate these inflationary impulses,” the central bank said.

Proposed rice industry reforms could also help temper price pressures, the BSP added.

In a comment, Australia’s ANZ Research pointed out that the main drivers of March inflation were higher prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco followed by food.

“The former continue to reflect the effects of higher taxes while the food component was driven by higher prices of corn, rice, fruits, and vegetables,” it said.

With the first-quarter inflation at 3.8 percent, ANZ said it expected consumer price growth to average 4.1 percent in 2018.

While this would breach the 2.0-4.0 percent target, ANZ said “we believe that the BSP will stay on hold through 2018” with regard to raising key interest rates.

http://www.manilatimes.net/consumer-price-rise-highest-in-over-5-yrs/390715/

Angola launches 2,000 hectares agricultural rice production complex

NewsSteven Addamah

Angola will launch Manquete’s agro-industrial complex for rice production, later this year, according to the director of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, Pedro Tiberio.

The agro-industrial complex has an area of 2,000 hectares, of which 1,500 hectares have been set aside for rice and maize cultivation and 500 hectares for construction of infrastructure and natural reserves.

Budgeted at $85 million, the project sponsored by China Development Bank (CDB), and China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC), has two units for processing and husking, cleaning, bleaching of packaging and equipment. It also has three silos for storage, two of them for 3,000 tons of rice and one for 2,000 tons of corn.

Angola imports 400,000 tons of rice a year to add to its locally grown 25,000 tons to meet market needs. The government, last year, has to put in place about 300,000 hectares of land to grow better rice varieties adapted to the country’s climate conditions.

The government said it is ready to allocate fertile lands to interested investors to boost production, as rice is a staple in the country, second to maize, cassava and beans.

Posted by Steven Addamah on April 5, 2018. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

http://medafricatimes.com/15540-angola-launches-2000-hectares-agricultural-rice-production-complex.html

 

 

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The Propaganda and Politics of Rice By Buhari’s Government, By Kelechi Jeff Eme

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ABUJA (Sundiata Post) The Propaganda and Politics of Rice is the most infantile the Buhari administration has engaged itself.
Reason: imported foreign rice brands are more expensive than locally farmed rice. This fact cannot be denied. 
If the propagated rice revolution is real, importers and smugglers of foreign rice would have closed shop by now. The forces of supply, demand and price are potent factors. 
Why not flood the market with the cheap Nigeria rice instead of crying daily over Benin Republic. 


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Related Story:  TY Danjuma: Beyond All The Commentaries, By Ibraheem A. Waziri

 

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https://sundiatapost.com/2018/04/06/the-propaganda-and-politics-of-rice-by-buharis-government-by-kelechi-jeff-eme/

Chinese national tried to steal a valuable U.S. trade secret: Kansas rice seeds | The Kansas City Star

 

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Weiqiang Zhang, a Chinese national, was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for conspiracy to steal bioengineered rice from a Kansas lab. 2013 photo

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Chinese national tried to steal a valuable U.S. trade secret: Kansas rice seeds

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April 05, 2018 12:28 PM

As trade tensions ratchet up between the United States and China, a Chinese national was sentenced Wednesday to more than 10 years in federal prison for stealing American rice in Kansas.

Very valuable, life-saving rice.

In a case of intellectual property theft, Weiqiang Zhang passed the rice seed — a trade secret — to visiting researchers so they could take them back to China. The plot was thwarted when the delegation was caught at the airport.

Zhang, 51, was a "rice breeder" for Ventria Bioscience in Junction City, Kan., a lab that genetically programs rice for uses in human medicine, from gastrointestinal disease to osteoporosis.

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"Ventria invested years of research and tens of millions of dollars to create a new and beneficial product," said U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister, in announcing the sentence. "It is vital that we protect such intellectual property from theft and exploitation by foreign interests."

Zhang, a lawful permanent resident in the U.S., was a rice researcher at Kansas State University and received a doctorate in rice genetics from Louisiana State University. He began working for Ventria in 2008 and was in charge of plant breeding and nursery operations.

In 2012, Zhang and a co-defendant traveled to visit a crop research institute in China where Zhang once worked. The following year, the two made arrangements for a delegation from the Chinese institute to visit Kansas.

The delegation was invited on official U.S. Department of Agriculture letterhead by co-defendant Wengui Yan, a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked at the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Arkansas.

Meanwhile, Zhang purloined hundreds of rice seeds from Ventria and kept them at the home he and his wife shared in Manhattan, Kan.

When the delegation from China arrived, Zhang uncharacteristically requested leave from work on short notice and without explanation. When later asked about it by a supervisor, Zhang turned red. 

Sometime during the delegation's visit, Zhang passed to them the valuable seeds, which use recombinant DNA to create proteins that can be used to treat gastrointestinal disease, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, hepatic disease, osteoporosis and inflammatory bowel disease.

Ventria invested about $75 million to develop this proprietary technology and is the only company in the U.S. that has it. The lab maintains seed banks in a climate-controlled environment. Only six employees had access to the storage area. Zhang was one of them.

As the delegation was returning to China, customs agents checked their bags and found at least 79 grams of seeds. They were examined by a rice expert from the Department of Agriculture, who determined some of them could only have come from Ventria. Lab tests confirmed it.

The FBI was on the case. With a search warrant, agents found seeds in Zhang's master bedroom closet and in his kitchen freezer.

Zhang denied giving seeds to the Chinese delegation and said he did not know how they obtained them.

But a jury convicted Zhang of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and interstate transportation of stolen property. He was sentenced Wednesday to 121 months in federal prison without parole.

Separately, Yan pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators and is awaiting sentencing.

In a news release, Acting Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department's Criminal Division applauded the sentence.

"The criminal division and its law enforcement partners," he said "will continue to work closely with companies like Ventria to protect American intellectual property — which is essential to our economy and way of life — against all threats both foreign and domestic."

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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/kansas/article208009774.html#storylink=cpy

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Stanford’s rice-sized implant treats diseases by zapping individual nerves

By Luke Dormehl  Posted on April 5, 2018 - 1:31PM Jayant Charthad, Stanford University

“The biggest application for this work is for what are being recently called ‘electroceuticals’ and ‘bioelectronic medicine,’” Jayant Charthad, a researcher on the project, told Digital Trends. “The idea is that many diseases that are currently treated using drugs or pills can be more effectively treated — and with fewer side-effects — by using stimulation of nerves. Examples of diseases that can be treated by nerve stimulation include chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, bladder incontinence, even diabetes, and many more. In addition to therapeutic applications, medical researchers could also use our device for conducting scientific experiments for further understanding the nervous system and discovering new treatments for diseases.”

The tiny implantable stimulator is around the size of a medium grain of rice. This means that it could be easily implanted using minimally invasive surgery, or even injected using a needle. It’s also capable of functioning deep inside the body, through up to 10.5 centimeters of tissue, using ultrasound to communicate with the outside world. When instructed, the device can generate a very precise therapeutic impulse to a nerve. Because it contains both electrodes and an LED, it is able to carry out either (or both) electrical and optogenetic stimulation at a variety of amplitudes, durations, and frequencies.

“So far we have thoroughly characterized different parts of our system, and have performed in vitro demonstrations of the fully packaged implantable stimulator, as discussed in our recent paper,” Charthad continued. “We have also shown the capability of stimulating the sciatic nerve of a frog. The next step is to test the fully packaged devices in larger animals, which is what we are currently working on.”

Whether this exact model winds up being used on patients remains to be seen. However, it’s certainly an intriguing project which offers a glimpse at the future of medicine.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/stanford-nerve-zapping-implant/

 

Paddy rice shortage hits exports

Sok Chan / Khmer Times  Share:    

Different types of rice being displayed at a traditional market. KT/Chor Sokunthea

 

Cambodia’s milled rice exports fell about 3.4 percent in the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year, according to a report.

Exports dropped to about 161,115 tonnes, compared with 166,678 tonnes in the same period in 2017.

Last month alone 50,683 tonnes of milled rice were exported, about 12.7 percent less than the 57,127 tonnes in 2017.

A report from the Secretariat of the One Window Service for Rice Export Formality says Cambodia exported rice to 63 destinations.

China was on the top of the list of the importers, following by France, Malaysia, Gabon, Poland, the Netherlands and Britain.

China imported about 41,412 tonnes of Cambodia’s milled rice, France 21,581 tonnes, Malaysia 13,074 tonnes, Gabon 10,010, Poland 8,886 tonnes, and Netherland and the United Kingdom 7,131 and 5,806 tonnes respectively.

Hun Lak, vice-president of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), said the slight drop in rice exports in the first three months was because of a lack of paddy rice in warehouses for processing by millers.

“Some local large rice millers have also face the lack of paddy to be processing for export because neighboring countries have purchased a lot of rice from Cambodia since late last year,” Mr Lak said.

“The global rice price is increasing now, and the demand is also on the rise while our neighbours have big orders for their stocks of rice.”

He said that the issue now was that Cambodia lacked milled rice to meet demand. He added that demand was greater than supply.

“In the next three months, rice exports will not increase as it is difficult to buy paddy for processing to meet the demand,” he said.

Song Saran, CEO of Amru Rice, one of the leading rice exporters in Cambodia, said formal exports of Cambodian rice fell slightly in the first three months but the price of Cambodian rice was good this year.

He said that the price was about $840 per tonnes for Cambodian fragrant rice and $940 per tonnes for premium rice while the price of Vietnamese rice was about $500 to $600 per tonne.

Mr Saran added that Cambodia could lose some share of the Asean market, particularly in Malaysia which would be purchasing rice from Vietnam.

“The trend of Cambodian fragrant rice is better because we have the Chinese market. Therefore, the Asean market, particularly Malaysia, would be loss as they buy from Vietnam due to the low price,” Mr Saran said.

“We could lose the Malaysian market as we focus mostly on China. This year, the Chinese market is favourable, so rice exports are mostly flocking to China.

Mr Saran said informal exports of Cambodian ride had increased. Most of it went to Vietnam.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50300095/paddy-rice-shortage-hits-exports/


Government’s neglect of neighboring countries worsens rice smuggling in Nigeria

By Joke Falaju, Abuja

06 April 2018   |   4:14 am

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Smuggled rice

Attempts by the Federal Government to tame importation of rice into Nigeria through the land borders may remain elusive, as indications have emerged from industry watchers that the situation was getting worse.

The situation is such that unless drastic measures are taken against neighboring countries, local rice millers may not strive despite government’s drive to attain self-sufficiency.

Although Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Bukar Hassan, recently noted that no rice was imported into the country through the seaport in 2017, Nigerians continue to buy foreign rice.

It is, however, important to note that among other countries, Thailand constitutes a major threat to the country’s self- sufficiency drive, but there is the need to take out the landing point from where the produce are smuggled into the country.

Managing Director Agro Nigeria, Richard-Mark Mbaram, at a press briefing in Abuja on the upcoming Conference on Rice scheduled for April 12 and 13, said there was the need to take definite, radical measures against the neighboring countries.

He pointed out that the countries that share border with Nigeria were stockpiling rice more than they could consume to the extent that if they had to feed their people with it they would be eating rice in their sleep.

He said: “There is no point playing the big brother, there is no point putting necessities to the fore. It is about our life as a nation and the businesses of our people. These are corporate entities, if their businesses are challenged, government must let them know that if Benin Republic and Cameroun does not desist from the act, clear economic measures would be taken against them.

Mbaram stressed the need to raise the issue at the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) and African Union (AU) level, adding that it should not be held under the table as people’s businesses were being threatened and government must deploy clear measures to show their concern.

He further stressed the need for government to look into the advantages that attract smugglers so as to get a better way of shifting their attention from smuggling and that bilateral agreement could be reached with countries so that they could change their stance.

He pointed out that the conference was put together to chronicle the country’s march towards self-sufficiency in rice production, noting that although the country was making steady progress in rice production, there was the need to motivate the private sector and mainstream them into action.

He disclosed that Kebbi and Ogun states would participate in the conference while the big players in the industry would be given opportunity to address some of the challenges affecting the sub-sector.

The Representative of Syngenta, Ephraim Manga pointed out that some of the challenges facing rice farmers include poor quality input and low technology adoption by Nigerian farmers.

https://guardian.ng/news/governments-neglect-of-neighboring-countries-worsens-rice-smuggling-in-nigeria/

 

Babu Jagjivan Ram remembered

THE HANS INDIA |    Apr 06,2018 , 05:13 AM IST

      


Minister Siddha Raghavarao and others paying tributes to Babu Jagjivan Ram on his birth anniversary

 

Ongole: The former deputy Prime Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram was one of the great leaders who worked for the welfare of SC/STs in the country, said the Minister Siddha Raghavarao. He asked the public to join him (Siddha) in the realisation of aims and dreams of the Babuji.

 

As part of the birth anniversary of Jagjivan Ram, the minister, Collector Vadarevu Vinaychand, MLAs Damcharla Janardhana Rao, Palaprti David Raju, Adimulapu Suresh offered rich tributes to the leader at Nellore Bus Stand Center, Ambedkar Bhavan Road and also offered garlands to statues of Dr BR Ambedkar at Prakasam Bhavan. 

 

In the celebration of the birth anniversary at Rice Millers Association Hall, Siddha Raghavarao said that Jagjivan Ram born into a poor family of Sobharam, Basantidevi on April 5, 1908 but was actively participated in social welfare activities since childhood. As the disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, the minister said, Jagjivan Ram participated in the Quit India and other movements for the freedom of India. 

 

He remembered the leader as the man behind the revolutionary changes in railways, food and agriculture departments by introducing many railway routes and providing food to the poor through Food Corporation of India. He said that Jagjivan Ram was the role model to any political leader to implement the Acts in the Constitution written by Dr Ambedkar in true spirit to help the SC/STs and other downtrodden people.

 

The Collector said that the government had spent Rs 230 crore for the welfare of SCs in the district last year. He promised to complete the construction of all pending SC/ST buildings immediately. He assured the use of Sub-plan funds for the welfare of SC/STs only and announced that he ordered the bankers to distribute loans to the SC/ST beneficiaries without delay.

http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Andhra-Pradesh/2018-04-06/Babu-Jagjivan-Ram-remembered/372138

 

Rice price manipulation cannot be done—traders

posted April 05, 2018 at 11:50 pm by Manila Standard

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THE Philippine Confederation of Grains Associations on Thursday relieved speculations rice millers were manipulating the price of rice in the country, saying it was impossible to do that considering the lengthy process involved in rice distribution.

PCGA president Joji Co made the clarification in a television interview after National Food Authority Council chairman Leoncio Evasco claimed rice traders would increase the price of rice now that NFA rice in Metro Manila had been consumed.

Co explained it would take seven to eight channels before consumers would be able to purchase rice.

In a press statement, NFA administrator Jason Aquino, reacting to the call of the NFA Council for an independent audit by the Commission on Audit of the agency’s operations, said “Our documents are ready for scrutiny.”

Aquino said the food agency’s operations were transparent, deploring accusations that there were any irregularities in its rice distribution activities as insinuated by some groups.

The NFA Council is questioning NFA management why it released a lot of its rice stocks during the harvest season from October to December while distribution was low during the lean months of July to September.

It is not correct to say that NFA’s rice distribution was high during the harvest season and low during the lean months, NFA said.

It added: “Over the last 10 years, records show that NFA rice distribution was in fact lowest in 2017 at 14 million bags. NFA rice distribution was highest during the rice crisis in 2008 at 40.5-million bags. 

“In 2009, total rice releases was recorded at 37.4-million bags; 35.1-million bags in 2010; 22.2-million bags in 2011; 15.3-million bags in 2011; 15.1-million bags in 2012;  26.4-million bags in 2014; 18.8-million bags in 2015; and 22.9-million bags in 2016. The low distribution rate in 2017 was due to the agency’s depleting stocks.”

Part of NFA rice releases in October, November and December went to the relief agencies such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Office of Civil Defense and local government units for their relief operations totaling 292,848 bags, it said. 

Total rice issued for relief operations in 2017 was 784,429 bags.

Aquino explained the government contracted 250,000 metric tons imported rice in 2017 started arriving in the country only on the last week of August.  

Thus distribution during the lean months was calibrated due to low inventory, it said.

With the arrival of fresh buffer stocks, NFA said it had to release older stocks to its network of accredited retailers nationwide to avoid deterioration. 

This is in line with the agency’s total quality management program, it added.

“There are more than 10-million marginalized Filipinos who are dependent on government subsidized rice. As part of our stabilization mandate, we have to continue distributing rice at any given time to be able to respond to the high demand for cheap rice as the price of commercial rice started to increase along with other commodities,” Aquino said.

“We also have to serve the rice requirements of island provinces and municipalities and critical areas like Batanes, Romblon, Masbate, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan that are 60-80 percent dependent on NFA for their rice supply,” Aquino explained.

He said “As early as January 2018, NFA has been prudently allocating the remaining rice stocks in its warehouses to where it is most needed. The order of priority are: relief agencies, LGUs, government institutions, non-government organizations and accredited retailers.”

http://thestandard.com.ph/news/national/262488/rice-price-manipulation-cannot-be-done-traders.html

 

BREAKING NEWS

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·         Command agriculture face collapse-Land Minister hint

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·         Agritech Expo Zambia partners with well-known online agri community: Small Scale Farmers Facebook Group

·         Autonomous food robots move with the times

·         Business and Agriculture commentary

·         SANY compact equipment for agriculture on show at NAMPO 2018

·         A Few Remaks on the Recently Signed African Continental Free Trade Agreement

·         African Markets Might Look to South Africa for Additional Maize Supplies

·         Big Narrative Running on Global Soybean Markets

·         Farm Support Services Hosts Educational Poultry Seminars for 700 Farmers in South West Nigeria

·         Case IH’s new, entry-level Patriot 250 Extreme sprayer is now available in Africa and the Middle East

·         Tobacco selling season kicks off

·         Latest livestock services, farming innovations and skills training at Agritech Expo Zambia in Chisamba in April!

·         Bosch Projects – new short retention time (SRT) refined sugar conditioning silo reduces cost of sugar processing

·         Zimbabwe government leaves un-insured farmers in the cold

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Home » Agribusiness » Zimbabwe : Commercial rice production on the cards

AgribusinessCropsLatest News

Zimbabwe : Commercial rice production on the cards

April 6, 2018

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Nqobile Bhebhe,Zimbabwe:

ZIMBABWE is reviving long standing plans of embarking on full scale commercial rice production with research on the feasibility currently underway with high-yield hybrid rice varieties being preferred.

Experts say Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa thanks to its warm climate and fertile land has potential to grow rice on a big scale if right strategies are adopted.

In 2017, a Government delegation was dispatched on a familiarisation mission to Egypt to acquaint itself with technology and viable methods of growing the cereal.

The Southern African country imports over 95 percent of its rice despite having ample production capacity underpinned by growing domestic demand for the crop.

The country produces around a tonne of rice annually, while it imports over 250 000 tonnes.

According to Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement deputy minister, Davis Marapira, research is ongoing on varieties that might give yields of “ 10 tonnes per hectare,”.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union director, Jeremiah Tevera told local media that currently, production was on a small scale “although there is a research that is going on for summer rice,”.

He said operational costs such as “high electricity costs, water and inputs” mitigate against irrigating rice.

The government, in collaboration with the Seed Co. has initiated feasibility studies on rice production technologies and methods in a way to enhance capacity.

Despite having ample rice production capacity coupled with ability to produce rice using hybrid varieties, Zimbabwe imports over 95% of its rice.

The Seed Co. has successfully tested their seed rice in Pakistan and they expect the hybrid varieties to grow well even in the local conditions.

To ensure that commercial rice production is a success, the Seed Co. company will offer farmers with expertise and provide seeds needed for the programme.

Seed Co has started growing rice at its research station and soon could avail seeds to many farmers, reports show.

Demand for rice drastically increased to over 250 000 tonnes last year from 50 000 tonnes in 2010.

Changing tastes and consumer options have seen increased preference for rice as a substitute for maize.

http://www.farmersreviewafrica.com/zimbabwe-commercial-rice-production-cards/

Rice Breeders Report Huge Productivity Gains

April 06, 2018 5:53 PM

·         Steve Baragona


A farmer works in a rice field in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 2, 2018.

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The science behind the grain that feeds half the world may have taken a big leap forward.

Scientists are reporting the biggest improvements in rice productivity in decades.

If the results hold up in further tests, it could greatly increase supplies of a critical food staple at a time when the global population is growing rapidlyResearchers found a version of a gene that increased the number of branches in the flowering part of the plant.

The team used conventional breeding to introduce this gene version into five rice varieties. The new strains produced from 28 to 85 percent more rice than their parents.

That’s a huge increase, says University of Arkansas rice breeder Xueyan Sha.

“If we can achieve, say, 6 percent, we can probably consider it a great achievement,” Sha said.

Sha was not part of the new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports.

A farmer plows a paddy field to plant rice seedlings in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 2, 2018. Myanmar celebrates Peasants' Day annually on March 2 to show the country's appreciation to its laborers.

He cautions that it’s a small-scale, controlled experiment, and it’s not clear how the results will hold up in farmers’ fields.

Rice yields have not improved much since the big gains of the “Green Revolution” of the 1960s, aimed at boosting grain production.

Experts say big increases in food production will be necessary to feed the additional 2 billion or so people expected on the planet by 2050.

Not all rice varieties tested by the scientists produced the same hefty gains. That’s another reason for caution, notes rice geneticist Shannon Pinson with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“There’s something exciting here,” Pinson said. “I don’t think it’s as exciting as Green Revolution caliber.”

New varieties will be available to farmers in two to four years.

This story was written by VOA’s Steve Baragona.

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Steve Baragona

Steve Baragona is an award-winning multimedia journalist covering science, environment and health.

He spent eight years in molecular biology and infectious disease research before deciding that writing about science was more fun than doing it. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a master’s degree in journalism in 2002.

Rice Grain Market Research Key Players, Industry Overview, Supply Chain and Analysis to 2017 – 2022

April 6, 2018 - by amit.p

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Scientist gets 10 years for theft of gene-modified rice

U.S. customs agents found seeds in luggage headed to China

by Marc S. Reisch
APRIL 6, 2018

·         Impact factor creator and chemical information pioneer Eugene Garfield honored

·         Scientists at India’s government labs struggle to adjust to changing priorities

·         Canada recommits to basic science

·         Scientist gets 10 years for theft of gene-modified rice

·         Impact factor creator and chemical information pioneer Eugene Garfield honored

Credit: iStock

Scientist Weiqiang Zhang is going to jail for stealing genetically modified rice.

Chinese scientist Weiqiang Zhang was sentenced on April 4 to more than 10 years in a federal prison for conspiring to steal samples of genetically altered rice seeds from his employer, the Kansas biotech firm Ventria Biosciences.

A Kansas jury had convicted Zhang in February 2017 on theft charges, including conspiring to steal trade secrets and giving them to a visiting delegation of scientists from a Chinese crop research institute.

Zhang, 51, a rice breeder, helped develop gene-altered rice designed to express recombinant proteins.

Zhang’s case is similar to a number of others in which scientists have stolen intellectual property from their employer and given it to researchers in other countries.

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For instance, Dow AgroSciences researcher Kexue Huang pled guilty in 2011 to stealing trade secrets from Dow Chemical and Cargill and passing them on to Chinese researchers. In 2010, DuPont engineer Michael Mitchell was sentenced to 18 months in prison for passing on DuPont’s aramid fiber trade secrets to South Korea’s Kolon Industries.

According to court documents and evidence the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) presented at the trial, Zhang’s role in the conspiracy surfaced in August 2013 when U.S. customs agents discovered multiple packets of Ventria rice seed in the luggage and carry-on bags of a delegation from a Chinese crop research institute. The group was headed back to China after a tour of U.S. agricultural facilities that included a visit to Zhang’s home.

Some of the seed was packaged in makeshift containers, including a newspaper page folded into an envelope and a plastic bag from a Best Western Hotel.

Zhang, who has a masters degree from Shengyang Agricultural University and a Ph.D. in agricultural genetics from Louisiana State University, stole hundreds of rice seeds from Ventria and stored them in his home prior to the delegation’s visit, DOJ said. The seeds included varieties developed to produce human serum albumin, contained in blood, and lactoferrin, an iron-binding protein found in human milk.

Separately, another scientist admitted he was part of the conspiracy and knew about plans to steal the rice on behalf of the visiting Chinese delegation, according to the DOJ. In 2016, Wengui Yan, a geneticist who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Dale Bumpers National Research Center in Stuttgart, Ark., admitted he lied to the FBI about the plans.

Zhang and Yan had both made arrangements for the delegation’s visit and hosted the group on their U.S. tour. Also, both had visited the delegates in China prior to the tour, a fact they concealed from their employers, according to the DOJ.

Yan, who has a Ph.D. in plant genetics from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, is still awaiting sentencing.

https://cen.acs.org/policy/intellectual-property/Scientist-10-years-theft-gene/96/web/2018/04

 

 

Opposing ‘Golden Rice’ Is Anti-Human

By WESLEY J. SMITH

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April 6, 2018 3:34 PM

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A scientist shows “Golden Rice” (R) and ordinary rice at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Laguna. (Erik De Castro/Reuters)

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if half a million destitute children could be saved each year from blindness and/or death from Vitamin A deficiency? Well, they can be by adding a simple GMO food to their diets known as “golden rice.”

Golden rice is not toxic. It does not genetically engineer, say, pesticide into the plant’s genes. It simply modifies rice to contain beta-carotene, a necessary nutrient often missing from the diets of the destitute in countries such as Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Not only that, but no Monsanto. The food is being developed by the non-profit International Rice Research Institute, so that international corporations don’t make big bucks off the empty stomachs of the poor. From the Alliance for Science story:

Many of the Golden Rice opponents subscribe to a conspiracy theory that it is part of a plot by corporations and banks to seize control of a nation’s seeds and farming.

In reality, although Syngenta was an early research partner in the mid-2000s, Golden Rice currently is being developed in the public sector by the International Rice Research Institute and a network of partner government and academic institutions. It will be provided patent- and royalty-free to poorer farmers on a non-profit basis. Funding is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other international and philanthropic donors.

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Golden rice has now been found by several governments to be safe for human consumption:

Golden Rice is now on the brink of deployment in Bangladesh, and was recently approved for consumption by Food Standards Australia New Zealand. The Canadian government also last month that ruled the rice is safe for human consumption. Although it is not intended for consumers in developed countries, approval was sought to prevent trade disruption should Golden Rice be inadvertently present in internationally traded milled rice.

It should be noted that the New Zealand approval states that there is “no risk to public health and safety” from golden rice

And yet, anti-GMO activists, calling rice a “political crop,” continue their efforts to stifle the development and distribution of this life-saving invention, citing dubious safety concerns and worries that indigenous farmers will somehow lose their livings.  Here’s how the “Stop Golden Rice Network” describes its mission:

Stop Golden Rice! Network (SGRN) is a regional campaign collaboration of more than 30 organizations in South Asia and South East Asia. It works against the commercialization of Golden Rice and other forms of genetically modified crops, towards a society with equity, food sovereignty, sustainable and ecology-based agriculture.

To put it more honestly, it works toward ensuring that affected societies continue to be mired in poverty, hunger, and malnutrition.

Golden rice has been many years in development and testing. Every reasonable objection has been investigated and safety concerns studied. The objections that remain will never be assuaged because they are entirely ideological.

It’s time to ignore the food Luddites and help millions of malnourished children thrive. To do otherwise, would be anti-human.

Fears About Chinese ‘Trade War’ Are Late And Dumb

China has been waging economic war against the U.S. for decades.

2018-04-09T00:02:00-04:00

Michael Cutler

1714

  

President Trump’s political adversaries and globalists, including the media pundits, are frantically yelping about how the President’s proposed tariffs against Chinese imports would spark a “Trade war.”

In point of fact, concerns about a trade war with China are late -- very late -- and have nothing to do with Trump’s proposed tariffs.

In reality China has, for decades, engaged in a one-sided “trade war” with the United States that doesn’t involve tariffs but wide-spread and wide-scale theft of intellectual property.

One-sided relationships are not relationships!

Foolishly, a succession of previous administrations have facilitated this outrageous situation.

My previous FrontPage Magazine article, Educating America's Adversaries focused on the lunacy of the United States hundreds of thousands of  Chinese students to study STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines and also providing them with optional practical training at U.S. corporations unwittingly providing them with the opportunity to engage in industrial espionage.

My article today is predicated on an April 4, 2018 Justice Department press releaseChinese Scientist Sentenced to Prison in Theft of Engineered Rice, that reported on the sentencing of a Chinese scientist, Weiqiang Zhang, for his crimes that, although not related to military concerns, are related to intellectual property theft (trade secrets), specifically genetically engineered rice seeds with potentially profound implications.

That press release begins with the following sentence:

A Chinese scientist was sentenced to 121 months in a federal prison for conspiring to steal samples of a variety of rice seeds from a Kansas biopharmaceutical research facility.

This excerpt from the press release provides the salient background information:

Weiqiang Zhang, 51, a Chinese national, and U.S. legal permanent resident residing in Manhattan, Kansas, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Carlos Murguia in the District of Kansas. Zhang was convicted on Feb. 15, 2017 of one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property.

Evidence at trial established that Zhang worked as a rice breeder for Ventria Bioscience in Junction City, Kansas.  Ventria develops genetically programmed rice to express recombinant human proteins, which are then extracted for use in the therapeutic and medical fields.  Zhang has a master’s degree in agriculture from Shengyang Agricultural University in China and a doctorate from Louisiana State University.

According to trial evidence, Zhang acquired without authorization hundreds of rice seeds produced by Ventria and stored them at his residence in Manhattan.  The rice seeds have a wide variety of health research applications and were developed to produce either human serum albumin, contained in blood, or lactoferrin, an iron-binding protein found, for example, in human milk.  Ventria spent millions of dollars and years of research developing its seeds and cost-effective methods to extract the proteins, which are used to develop lifesaving products for global markets. Ventria used locked doors with magnetic card readers to restrict access to the temperature-controlled environment where the seeds were stored and processed.

Zhang conspired with other citizens of China as noted in this paragraph:

Trial evidence demonstrated that in the summer of 2013, personnel from a crop research institute in China visited Zhang at his home in Manhattan.  Zhang drove the visitors to tour facilities in Iowa, Missouri and Ohio.  On Aug. 7, 2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found seeds belonging to Ventria in the luggage of Zhang’s visitors as they prepared to leave the United States for China.

This case is infuriating on a number of levels.

First of all, Zhang was provided lawful immigrant status, placing him, should he have so desired, on the pathway to United States citizenship.

He also obtained a first-rate education in the United States, having received his Phd from Louisiana State University.

America had opened its heart and doors to Zhang and an opportunity to live the “American Dream.”

Rather than express gratitude for America’s generosity, he betrayed America and the American company for which he worked.

Zhang and his Chinese cohorts saw in America’s kindness and generosity, weaknesses that could be easily exploited.

This specific case calls to mind the statements of Mitt Romney who, during his campaign for the presidency, repeatedly said that when the United States provides foreign students with an education, we should “staple Green Cards on their diplomas so that they don’t go half-way across the world when they graduate.”

Of course Mitt is hardly the only politician to urge the admission of huge numbers of foreign students and call for them to be granted lawful immigrant status upon their graduation from American universities.

The best way of addressing concerns that foreign students will leave the United States upon graduation is to make certain that American students should fill those classrooms, lecture halls and laboratories.  When American students graduate they are likely to go no further than half-way across town, or perhaps, half-way across the United States, but not half-way across the earth.

While it was not disclosed whether Zhang was granted lawful immigrant status before or after he secured his doctoral degree from Louisiana State University, we do know he conspired to send stolen intellectual property, that the genetically modified rice seeds represented, from his U.S. employer half-way around the world his native China, our Most Favored Nation trade “partner.”

Those rice seeds and the methodology used to create them, that Zhang stole, required years of hard work and an investment of millions of dollars.  They can be used for wide-ranging health science applications and will likely generate huge profits in the global marketplace.

This case is, unfortunately, not an isolated case. 

Understandably President Trump has decided that “enough is enough” and has proposed to impose tariffs on Chinese imports.  However, the globalists such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have expressed their displeasure at the President’s actions, concerned about a possible “trade war” blithely ignoring that for decades, China’s trade policies and currency manipulation and increasing belligerent conduct is harmful and dangerous to America and Americans.

These globalists and prior administrations also know that China has engaged in massive industrial espionage in the United States and their computer programmers hack corporate and government computers thousands of times.

The ever-increasing scope, magnitude and sophistication of Chinese computer hacking and cyber-espionage are worrying, to say the least.

On October 5, 2017 Newsweek published an article, Cyberwar:  How Chinese Hackers Became A Major Threat To The U.S. that paints a clear and extremely troubling picture about China’s increasing hacking activities that threaten U.S. national security.

Again, the question that must be asked is how many members of the Chinese “Hacking army” were educated in the United States?

Here is a brief excerpt from the Newsweek article:

In its 2015 Global Threat Report, the American cyberintelligence firm CrowdStrike identified dozens of Chinese adversaries targeting business sectors that are key to the Five-Year Plan. It found 28 groups going after defense and law enforcement systems alone. Other sectors victimized worldwide included energy, transportation, government, technology, health care, finance, telecommunications, media, manufacturing and agriculture.

China’s theft of military and trade secrets has been so rampant that editorial cartoonists Jeff Parker and Dave Granlund depicted it as “Chinese takeout.”

On November 27, 2017 the DOJ issued a press release, U.S. Charges Three Chinese Hackers Who Work at Internet Security Firm for Hacking Three Corporations for Commercial Advantage, that began with this statement:

An indictment was unsealed today against Wu Yingzhuo, Dong Hao and Xia Lei, all of whom are Chinese nationals and residents of China, for computer hacking, theft of trade secrets, conspiracy and identity theft directed at U.S. and foreign employees and computers of three corporate victims in the financial, engineering and technology industries between 2011 and May 2017.  The three Chinese hackers work for the purported China-based Internet security firm Guangzhou Bo Yu Information Technology Company Limited (a/k/a “Boyusec”).

While those alleged computer hackers allegedly committed their crimes from China and without entering the United States, questions that were not addressed in the press release include whether any of the indicted alleged hackers were educated in the United States or if any other Chinese citizens may have worked for any of the companies that were targeted for the cyber attack to enable them to more easily gain access to the computer networks that were attacked.

My dad taught me that there are no mistakes in life, only lessons- provided that we learn from those instances when things go wrong.

He also taught me that we teach those with whom we interact as to how they should treat us be demonstrating what we will and won’t accept.

For far too long the United States has refused to stand up to nations such as China, that certainly do not have America’s best interests at heart.

In point of fact, Chinese intransigence has been unaffected by a succession of administrations that provided China with carrots such as conferring upon China Most Favored Nation status but few, if any “sticks.”

Trump’s policies are consistent with my dad’s sage advice and are a welcome change from the spineless approach of past administrations.

President Trump needs to take a hard look at the issuance of student visas to citizens of China, particularly where STEM courses of study are concerned.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269824/fears-about-chinese-trade-war-are-late-and-dumb-michael-cutler.

NFA council abolished

·         April 6, 2018

·         Written by Efren Montano

·         Published in Top Stories

·         Read: 218

FEATURED

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the abolition of the inter-agency National Food Authority (NFA) council.

The NFA council, which decides on rice importation, is different from the NFA, the state grains agency. The NFA council includes representatives from the finance, trade and socioeconomic development departments and the Bangko Sentral.

“Binuwag na niya ang NFA council at ililipat niya ang NFA at iba pang ahensiya na may kaugnayan sa agrikultura na naalis sa Department of Agriculture (DA) ay babalik sa DA,” Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol bared.

The NFA Council under Duterte is headed by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. and administrated by former Jason Aquino, a former Scout Ranger who is also NFA administrator.

Duterte decided to abolish the council during a meeting with rice traders in Malacañang late Thursday. The meeting followed reports that the NFA was short on supply of government-subsidized rice, Piñol said.

Duterte asked businessmen not to take advantage of the lack of NFA rice on the market, Piñol said.

Starting next week, rice traders in Metro Manila committed to sell 100,000 bags a week to the NFA at P39 per kilo, until rice imports arrive, he said.

Piñol said the executive branch was looking to expand the mandate of the NFA as soon as its administration is turned over to the Department of Agriculture.

The Agriculture Department will study how the NFA can “be involved in the distribution and transport” of basic food commodities across the country, he said.

Meanwhile, Malacañang said President Duterte wants the National Food Authority (NFA) placed under the Office of the President.

“The President expressed his intent to place the National Food Authority under the Office of the President,” said Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque in a statement.

The NFA is currently under the supervision of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., through Duterte’s very first executive order.

Duterte also wants Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat to be in charge of rice importation.

“The President is considering the approval of rice importation to be centralized under the Office of the DA Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, subject to the review of the Office of the Executive Secretary,” said Roque.

Rice importation had been the purview of the NFA, supervised by the NFA Council. The council is headed by Evasco, while NFA management is led by Administrator Jason Aquino.

http://www.journal.com.ph/news/top-stories/nfa-council-abolished

 

Zimbabwe : Commercial rice production on the cards

April 6, 2018

19 Views

Nqobile Bhebhe,Zimbabwe:

ZIMBABWE is reviving long standing plans of embarking on full scale commercial rice production with research on the feasibility currently underway with high-yield hybrid rice varieties being preferred.

Experts say Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa thanks to its warm climate and fertile land has potential to grow rice on a big scale if right strategies are adopted.

In 2017, a Government delegation was dispatched on a familiarisation mission to Egypt to acquaint itself with technology and viable methods of growing the cereal.

The Southern African country imports over 95 percent of its rice despite having ample production capacity underpinned by growing domestic demand for the crop.

The country produces around a tonne of rice annually, while it imports over 250 000 tonnes.

According to Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement deputy minister, Davis Marapira, research is ongoing on varieties that might give yields of “ 10 tonnes per hectare,”.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union director, Jeremiah Tevera told local media that currently, production was on a small scale “although there is a research that is going on for summer rice,”.

He said operational costs such as “high electricity costs, water and inputs” mitigate against irrigating rice.

The government, in collaboration with the Seed Co. has initiated feasibility studies on rice production technologies and methods in a way to enhance capacity.

Despite having ample rice production capacity coupled with ability to produce rice using hybrid varieties, Zimbabwe imports over 95% of its rice.

The Seed Co. has successfully tested their seed rice in Pakistan and they expect the hybrid varieties to grow well even in the local conditions.

To ensure that commercial rice production is a success, the Seed Co. company will offer farmers with expertise and provide seeds needed for the programme.

Seed Co has started growing rice at its research station and soon could avail seeds to many farmers, reports show.

Demand for rice drastically increased to over 250 000 tonnes last year from 50 000 tonnes in 2010.

Changing tastes and consumer options have seen increased preference for rice as a substitute for maize.

Share this:

Zimbabwe : Commercial rice production on the cards

April 6, 2018

19 Views

Nqobile Bhebhe,Zimbabwe:

ZIMBABWE is reviving long standing plans of embarking on full scale commercial rice production with research on the feasibility currently underway with high-yield hybrid rice varieties being preferred.

Experts say Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa thanks to its warm climate and fertile land has potential to grow rice on a big scale if right strategies are adopted.

In 2017, a Government delegation was dispatched on a familiarisation mission to Egypt to acquaint itself with technology and viable methods of growing the cereal.

The Southern African country imports over 95 percent of its rice despite having ample production capacity underpinned by growing domestic demand for the crop.

The country produces around a tonne of rice annually, while it imports over 250 000 tonnes.

According to Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement deputy minister, Davis Marapira, research is ongoing on varieties that might give yields of “ 10 tonnes per hectare,”.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union director, Jeremiah Tevera told local media that currently, production was on a small scale “although there is a research that is going on for summer rice,”.

He said operational costs such as “high electricity costs, water and inputs” mitigate against irrigating rice.

The government, in collaboration with the Seed Co. has initiated feasibility studies on rice production technologies and methods in a way to enhance capacity.

Despite having ample rice production capacity coupled with ability to produce rice using hybrid varieties, Zimbabwe imports over 95% of its rice.

The Seed Co. has successfully tested their seed rice in Pakistan and they expect the hybrid varieties to grow well even in the local conditions.

To ensure that commercial rice production is a success, the Seed Co. company will offer farmers with expertise and provide seeds needed for the programme.

Seed Co has started growing rice at its research station and soon could avail seeds to many farmers, reports show.

Demand for rice drastically increased to over 250 000 tonnes last year from 50 000 tonnes in 2010.

Changing tastes and consumer options have seen increased preference for rice as a substitute for maize.

Share this:

http://www.farmersreviewafrica.com/zimbabwe-commercial-rice-production-cards/

Global Rice Milling Machinery Market boosting the growth Worldwide: Market dynamics and trends, efficiencies Forecast 2022

April 6, 2018 - by amit.p

The Global Rice Milling Machinery Market Research Report is an in-depth study and professional analysis on the current state of the Rice Milling Machinery market. Company Profile, Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Revenue, Supply, Import, Export and Consumption covered in Rice Milling Machinery industry report.

Global Rice Milling Machinery market is a growing market in Machinery and Equipment sector at present years. The Rice Milling Machinery has uncovered rapid development in the current and past years and is probably going to proceed with a continuing development in the upcoming years.

Top Key Players of Rice Milling Machinery Market: Company1, Company2, Company3, Company4, Company5.

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Major classifications are as follows: Type1, Type2.

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The regions which have been studied in depth are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East, and Africa. This helps gain better idea about the spread of this particular market in respective regions. A list of leading manufacturers has been given prime value to ensure their strategies are understood in this particular market.

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In conclusion, Rice Milling Machinery market 2018 report presents the descriptive analysis of the parent market based on elite players, present, past and futuristic data which will serve as a profitable guide for all the Rice Milling Machinery industry competitors.

Our expert research analysts team has been trained to provide in-depth market research report from every individual sector which will be helpful to understand the industry data in the most precise way.

https://businessservices24.com/394521/global-rice-milling-machinery-market-boosting-the-growth-worldwide-market-dynamics-and-trends-efficiencies-forecast-2022/

 

 

USDA Implements Up to $2.36 Billion to Help Agricultural Producers Recover After 2017 Hurricanes and Wildfires

USDA Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will make disaster payments of up to $2.36 billion, as provided by Congress, to help America's farmers and ranchers recover from hurricanes and wildfires.  The funds are available as part of the new 2017 Wildfires and Hurricanes Indemnity Program (2017 WHIP).  Sign-up for the new program, authorized by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, will begin no later than July 16.

USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) will make these disaster payments to agricultural producers to offset losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and devastating wildfires.  The 2017 calendar year was a historic year for natural disasters, and this investment is part of a broader suite of programs that USDA is delivering to rural America to aid recovery.  In total, the Act provided more than $3 billion in disaster relief by creating new programs, and expediting or enhancing payments for producers.

WHIP disaster payments are being issued in addition to payments through traditional USDA programs, some of which obtained increased funding or had amendments made by the Act to make the programs more responsive.

FSA will distribute more information on how producers can file claims for WHIP disaster payments at a later date.  For questions on how to establish farm records to be prepared when WHIP disaster signup begins, or to learn about other disaster assistance programs, producers are asked to contact their 
local USDA service center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Rice Common Thread in Traditional Southern Cuisine

By Lesley Dixon

ARLINGTON, VA -- Two new cookbooks are exploring the relationship between rice and the traditional cuisine of regions in the South.  Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover's Tour of the Global South by Virginia Willis takes readers on a vivid sensory journey through Louisiana rice country, while The Austin Cookbook by Paula Forbes is a love letter to the land of barbecue, breakfast tacos, and Tex-Mex. 

Both books are testaments to how a region's culture is largely defined by its food.  The recipes collected and created by Willis and Forbes are the product of hundreds of years of history, unique geography and climate, and population migration.  The Cajun dishes of Willis's childhood in Louisiana are a result of the historical Creole melting pot of the area, and the modern flavors of Central Texas are influenced by Northern Mexican and Tejano traditions, including the "Chili Queens" of San Antonio. 

Willis warns readers against lumping the South into one big category, and these two cookbooks couldn't be more different.  But one of the threads that connects them is U.S.-grown rice.  From Texas to Louisiana to South Carolina, rice holds all these Southern delicacies together.  

Chef Virginia Willis visits with rice producer Christian Richard on his farm in Kaplan LA

"Southerners are rice people," said Willis, explaining that while she grew up eating Cajun food in Louisiana, her grandmother in South Carolina also raised her on rice with very different flavor profiles. 

"Rice is essential to Texas cuisine!" added Forbes.  "People have been growing rice in Texas for almost 200 years.  It's not just a part of Tex-Mex but also Texas Gulf Coast dishes like jambalaya, barbecue sides, and more." 

Everyone's got their own favorites.  Willis reminisces fondly about gumbo, while Forbes says she's a big fan of Texmati when she's cooking curries, but she also loves the wonderful texture of Calrose. 

One thing everyone can agree on is that it's essential to use U.S. rice in all these recipes.  Willis thinks it's important to buy local and regional whenever possible.  "In terms of culinary heritage, it makes the most sense.  Of course you could make étouffée with Asian basmati, but why would you?" 

Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover's Tour of the Global South will be released May 1 through most major booksellers, and is currently available for pre-order through Amazon.  The Austin Cookbook was released last month and is also available anywhere books are sold. 

 

A rough rise to the top of the rice heap

 

GEOFFREY MOHAN

APR 06, 2018 | 7:00 AM

   

David Janow is chief executive of Axiom Foods, a Los Angeles start-up that entered the rice protein market when it was viewed only as an ingredient of animal feed. Now, he has cornered the $150-million market for the alternative protein as it shifts from the sports-supplement aisle toward a ubiquitous ingredient of products on nearly every grocery store shelf.


Career choices

Janow, 48, first studied psychology and biology as an undergraduate, switched to international business and finance, got an MBA, then a law degree, and landed at blue-blood law firms on Wall Street.

He knew soon enough it was the wrong address.

“Not until you become a lawyer, working for a law firm, do you really decide that you want to work for yourself,” he said. “When you’re working 90 hours a week, it’s not much fun. You make a lot of money, but you don’t have time to spend it. Then you go away for two weeks on extravagant vacations because you have so much money saved, but you dread coming back.”

From law to dog food

By 2002, Janow had ditched his legal career to work alongside his father, who ran a commodity brokering business, sourcing beverage ingredients such as ascorbic acid and caffeine. He also eyed his father-in-law’s line of work, pet food stores.

Somebody has to sell ingredients to pet food companies, he thought. So Janow cold-called two major pet food companies to ask what they needed most. Their answer may as well have been “vibranium” to him. They wanted rice protein. Lots of it.

“I had no idea what it was at the time,” Janow said. “It wasn’t even on Wikipedia.”

As it turns out, rice protein was considered little more than an industrial waste in Asia — a largely unmarketable byproduct of making monosodium glutamate.

Janow put out some feelers and soon found a supplier. “I got a hit for 35 million pounds of product — made in a shack, believe it or not, at that time. I bought at 15 cents a pound, and I sold at 55 cents,” he said.

A business idea was born, sort of.

From dogs to humans

Back then, rice protein from the MSG industry was weakly concentrated — about 55%. Janow knew just enough biology and chemistry to see an opportunity.

“I thought to myself, if it’s good for dogs and cats and animals, I assume it might be good for humans as well,” he said.

He paired up with a consultant and began experimenting with ways to make rice protein more concentrated and bring it up to human grade.

Janow and his partners came up with an all-natural process similar to making sake — fermenting the rice, then putting it through a series of separation and extraction stages to end up with “fractions,” such as starch syrup and protein. He got the protein concentration to 65%, which became an industry standard.

Except it was an industry waiting for a customer.

It turned out that it was a vegan play, it was a non-GMO play, it was a hypoallergenic play, it was a gluten-free play.

David Janow, CEO of Axiom Foods

Talking the talk

Janow hit the road as a one-man TED talk on the wonders of rice, showing PowerPoint after PowerPoint at conferences, trying to convince the food industry that rice was the new whey, a nonallergenic alternative to the dairy derivative that some consumers can’t digest well.

He touted his enzyme-driven process to extract protein without using hexane, a neurotoxin.

Legal troubles

Just as he gained traction in 2007, pets started dying mysteriously. U.S. food authorities traced the poisonings to Chinese rice protein in pet foods — unscrupulous suppliers had learned they could game the protein quality-control tests by spiking their wares with melamine, a high-nitrogen compound used in plastics manufacture.

The ensuing recalls, impounds and testing held up most of Axiom’s human-grade protein shipments, just as it had invested heavily in expansion.

“By 2009 I was almost bankrupt,” Janow said. “You don’t realize these hurdles until you hit them.”

Millennial shift

Food trends rapidly shifted in Axiom’s favor. Consumers began to turn away from meat, adopt vegan diets and demand that the makers of their food prove they had a sustainable and low-impact supply chain free of chemicals and processes that were rapidly falling out of favor. This has come to be known as the “clean label” trend.

Makers of juices, cereals, health bars and other goods clamored for a substitute for soy protein — made from genetically modified plants — and whey.

“It turned out that it was a vegan play, it was a non-GMO play, it was a hypoallergenic play, it was a gluten-free play. While I was developing it, the product actually hit and fell into all these different areas,” Janow said.

It took six years for the Food and Drug Administration to overcome its deep skepticism of rice protein — the agency in 2015 granted a “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, imprimatur to it. This year, Axiom won a patent for its production process, which now can reach levels of 90% protein.

Still solo

Axiom, which got where it is without outside venture capital, isn’t interested in going public, Janow said. “We’re undervalued right now,” he said. “I’d be a penny stock at the most.”

That said, Janow believes the market is shifting rapidly in his favor; under current practices, the world simply can’t keep feeding grain to animals to get their protein.

“I’ve been offered to be bought out a few times. I still think we’re at the tip of the iceberg. To be honest, I think this can be a billion-dollar industry within five to seven years,” Janow said. “I just need to build the capacity and infrastructure for it.”

What’s next

Running a 65-employee company that controls as much as 95% of the rice protein market is not Wall Street lawyering, but it’s no picnic.

Shortly after returning from a late March business trip to China, Janow took his teen son and fiancee skiing in Park City, Utah. After that, he planned to hit the road again, trying to keep up with the demands of major consumer packaged goods companies.

“The faster you grow, the less supply you have, because they just want more,” Janow said. “They don’t want a little bit of product; they want a lot.”

Axiom hopes to meet some of that demand by building its first U.S. factory this year, in Tennessee.

Food for thought

It’s no surprise that an ingredients entrepreneur would see his career as the product of simple building blocks: “Patience and persistence, the two Ps,” Janow said.

“Don’t give up. I still today believe in it. I’m still convinced rice protein can be the next protein that will help the world,” Janow said. “I just stuck to it. Even when I was going through bankruptcy.… You get a little luck and believe in what you’re doing and the next thing you know, you’re on your way.”

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Geoffrey Mohan

 

  


Geoffrey Mohan joinedtheLos AngelesTimesin2001from Newsday,wherehewasthe Latin America bureau chief in MexicoCity.Hestarted off here as astatewideroamer, detoured to cover the AfghanistanandIraqwars and waspartoftheteamthat won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the California wildfires in2003.He served as an editor on the metro and foreign desks before returning toreportingon science in 2013.Nowhe’scomingfullcircle,roamingthe stateinsearchofstoriesaboutfarming and food.

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L.A. NOW

APR 07, 2018

  

Weekend Roundup: 6 stories you can't miss

It's the website investigators are looking at as they try to piece together the motive of a woman — identified as Nasim Najafi Aghdam, 39 — who stormed onto YouTube's sprawling San Bruno, Calif., campus with a 9-millimeter handgun and opened fire in a courtyard during lunchtime, wounding three people before turning the gun on herself. President Trump ordered his administration to consider imposing tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese imports. President Trump's administration released new figures on Thursday showing a surge in March in people caught crossing the border unlawfully. Up to 87 million Facebook users had personal information improperly shared with political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. Policyholders have filed more than $421 million in insurance claims as a result of the Montecito mudslide. The magnitude 5.3 earthquake that rattled Southern California on Thursday was the strongest in the region in several years.

Weekend Roundup: 6 stories you can't miss

Apr 07, 2018

Trump vents frustration on illegal immigration

Apr 05, 2018

Trump urges tariffs on $100 billion more in Chinese goods

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Apr 05, 2018

Woman suspected of opening fire at YouTube had battled against platform

Apr 04, 2018

Police update about shooting at YouTube headquarters

Apr 04, 2018

Active shooting at YouTube headquarters

Apr 03, 2018

Police chief comments on shooting at YouTube headquarters

Apr 03, 2018

RAW: Police descend on YouTube headquarters amid active shooter reports

Apr 03, 2018

$421 million in insurance claims filed as a result of the Montecito mudslide

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Weekend Roundup: 7 stories you can't miss

Mar 31, 2018

EPA poised to scrap fuel economy targets

Mar 29, 2018

Child welfare authorities sought to question family days before fatal crash

Mar 29, 2018

Pedestrian struck and killed on 5 Freeway north to the 101 Freeway

Mar 29, 2018

L.A. Times sportswriters weigh in on Dodgers opening day and the 2018 season

Mar 29, 2018

Questions mount after Compton gun heist

Mar 28, 2018

O.C. showed its conservative side is still very much alive

Mar 28, 2018

Where's the best place to sit at Dodger Stadium to avoid the sun?

Mar 28, 2018

State officials say Trump census plan would hurt California

Mar 27, 2018

O.C. supervisors scrap emergency homeless plan after cities push back

Mar 27, 2018

Mojave Max emerges

Mar 28, 2018

Stormy Daniels sues Trump lawyer for defamation

Mar 26, 2018

U.S. to expel 60 suspected Russian spies as punishment for poison attack in Britain

Mar 26, 2018

March for Our Lives demonstrators in Los Angeles make their signs

Mar 23, 2018

Trump is left with little legal help as Russia probe reaches a crucial phase

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Plan to dramatically increase development would transform some L.A. neighborhoods

Mar 26, 2018

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Mar 24, 2018

President Trump signs spending bill

Mar 23, 2018

Trump's move to order some $50 billion in tariffs

Mar 22, 2018

Amazon patents delivery drones that can react to people screaming and flailing

Mar 23, 2018

Crews work to keep Montecito Creek debris basins clear

Mar 22, 2018

Trump is replacing his national security advisor

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Infrared video of Sacramento police shooting of unarmed man

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Los Alamitos wants no part of California's "sanctuary state" laws

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Mayor Eric Garcetti aims to reduce the city's homeless population to "functional zero" by 2028

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Tensions grow as another package bomb believed bound for Austin explodes at FedEx facility

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-himi-axiom-20180406-htmlstory.html

Apr 7, 2018, 1:18 AM; last updated: Apr 7, 2018, 1:18 AM (IST)

Impasse over transporting wheat ends

Govt allows commission agents, farmers to ferry produce from mandis to godowns

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Labourers dry grain at the market in Patiala on Friday. Tribune photo: Rajesh Sachar

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 6

The state government on Friday negotiated with the protesting truck operators to ensure that the procured crop is transported smoothly, thus ending the impasse over the transportation of wheat this season.

Maintaining that the tendering process will go on as scheduled, officials in the Food and Supplies Department said the operators would be allowed to participate in the bidding for the remaining clusters.

Happy Sandhu, President of the Truck Operators Union, said the persons who had submitted false papers would be weeded out on a day’s notice.

The government also initiated the process to allow the commission agents as well as farmers to ferry the produce from the mandis to the godowns of the procurement agencies.

A senior functionary in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said the government had directed the Punjab Mandi Board to initiate the process to issue a notification so as to facilitate commission agents to ferry the produce in their trucks.

The government is also in the process of issuing specifications for registration of tractor-trailers for transportation of wheat from mandis to godowns.

It is for the first time that the government has capped the transport and cartage rate at 120 per cent of the scheduled rate.

Besides bringing down the rates at which the wheat will be transported from mandis, the government has also roped in rice millers, labour and construction societies to lift and transport the procured wheat.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/impasse-over-transporting-wheat-ends/569941.html

 

Health Canada is obligated to approve Golden Rice

The real issue with Golden Rice is that it’s a GMO, which Greenpeace and other opponents despise so much that they are willing to watch millions of people suffer and die rather than give an inch to science. | File photo

Health Canada’s decision to approve Golden Rice as safe for sale in Canada is the right move, despite complaints by some who are questioning why the government department is even looking at the genetically modified food.

The announcement came last month, after Heath Canada concluded that Golden Rice “did not pose a greater risk to human health than rice varieties currently available on the Canadian market.”

This is despite the fact that Golden Rice, a GM food that is enhanced with vitamin A, is not intended for sale in Canada. Its market is developing countries where white rice is a staple in the diet.

The World Health Organization says some 124 million people have a chronic vitamin A deficiency because of their diet. Up to two million people die each year of vitamin A deficiency and up to half a million children a year go blind.

This suffering could be alleviated quickly with the introduction of Golden Rice into farms in those areas.

Ideally, people would eat a more balanced diet with leafy vegetables and fruits, but that isn’t happening in many places, and it won’t happen for many years, even with the best efforts.

Golden Rice isn’t the entire solution, but consuming about one cup a day would help alleviate the vitamin A deficiency.

It is the logical thing to do, but opponents — most notably Greenpeace — are campaigning against its introduction into developing countries on flimsy arguments, chiefly that Golden Rice could be contaminated with other GMOs and that the initiative is a ploy for GMO producing companies to get a foothold in the developing world.

They also say that a food supplement program combined with more diversity in farming would be a better long-term solution.

Fine, but it’s not happening. This is subsistence farming. Supplement programs are expensive. And diversification in farming is not as easy — culturally and practically — as opponents say.

The real issue with Golden Rice is that it’s a GMO, which Greenpeace and other opponents despise so much that they are willing to watch millions of people suffer and die rather than give an inch to science.

In 2016, 107 Nobel laureates in the areas of medicine, chemistry, physics and economics published a letter beseeching Greenpeace to stop fighting the introduction of Golden Rice in the developing world, arguing the organization’s campaign is “a crime against humanity.”

The letter notes that Golden Rice “has the potential to reduce or eliminate much of the death and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency, which has the greatest impact on the poorest people in Africa and southeast Asia.”

Golden Rice was developed in the 1990s by two German scientists, who introduced a gene from corn into rice DNA, giving it a golden hue. It has been designated for humanitarian use, meaning that anyone who earns less than $10,000 a year need pay no royalties and can plant the seed again in following years.

The opposition to Golden Rice has fomented political unwillingness to accept it in developing countries, so it appears that supporters are now turning to developed countries, whose food security system is well established. Canada is one of those countries. Australia and New Zealand have also approved Golden Rice.

Health Canada’s decision is a responsible humanitarian gesture that should be applauded.

Greenpeace and others who deny those suffering from vitamin A deficiency a chance to live in health and dignity are engaged in a cruel idealistic folly.

Karen Briere, Bruce Dyck, Barb Glen, Brian MacLeod and Michael Raine collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.

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https://www.producer.com/2018/04/health-canada-obligated-approve-golden-rice/

 

Three officials suspended over procurement scam in Jagatsinghpur of Odisha

By Express News Service  |   Published: 07th April 2018 01:46 AM  |  

Last Updated: 07th April 2018 07:19 AM  |   A+A A-   |  

JAGATSINGHPUR: The district administration on Friday suspended three officials of Tiruna Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) in Naugaon block for their involvement in large-scale irregularities during paddy procurement.As per reports, Secretary Madhabanada Nayak, Data Entry Operator (DEO) Jayant Kumar Lenka and peon Sovani Mallick of Tiruna PACS had managed to purchase quintals of paddy bags from fake farmers and sell it to rice millers. Lenka had prepared the online fake beneficiary list for paddy procurement with the help of Nayak.

Farmers’ coupons meant for selling of paddy were distributed among the unscrupulous traders while genuine farmers were ignored. Paddy procurement at Tiruna panchayat was severely affected due to nexus between PACS officials and traders. Acting on several allegations, the Collector had asked the district Civil Supply Office (CSO) to conduct a joint inquiry by the officials of CSO and Cooperation department. During investigation, it was found that Lenka had collected tonnes of paddy from fake farmers in the name of original farmers. Even Fair Average Quality (FAQ) norms of the paddy were compromised.  

Assistant Civil Supply Officer Brajendra Kumar Mohanty said, “Last week, we had submitted the joint inquiry report to the district administration for further action.” Assistant Register of Cooperative Society Ranjan Kumar Biswal said acting on the direction of the Collector, Nayak, Lenka and Mallick were suspended from their duties on Friday.”

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Anti-GMO network protests Golden Rice commercialization in Philippines

Mark Lynas | Cornell Alliance for Science | April 6, 2018

More than two dozen anti-GMO groups are meeting in the Philippines in a last-ditch attempt to stop the deployment of Golden Rice, long proposed as a way to combat potentially life-threatening vitamin A deficiency among young children in developing Asian nations, such as Bangladesh, the Philippines and Indonesia.

[Editor's note: Read the GLP's fact sheet on Golden Rice]

Gathering for a three-day conference at the luxury Madison 101 Hotel and Tower in Manila – advertised on the Internet as an “upscale hotel with a sleek contemporary vibe” and rooms offering flat-screen TVs and whirlpool tubs – about 100 members of the various NGOs comprising the Stop Golden Rice! Network held a protest [April 3]outside the Philippines Department of Agriculture. More activities were planned today.

Many of the groups involved receive funding from official European overseas aid sources to promote “peasant-based” and “ecological” agriculture. However, much of their activity seems to be opposing genetic engineering specifically and also trying to prevent a more general modernization of farming that could allow higher crop productivity, increased food security and decreased use of chemicals.

Read full, original post: Anti-GMO activists convene to target Golden Rice

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Click the link above to read the full, original article.

 

                                 https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/04/06/anti-gmo-network-protests-golden-rice-commercialization-in-philippines/ https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/04/06/anti-gmo-network-protests-golden-rice-commercialization-in-philippines/

 

Rice smuggling: Confront neighbouring nations, investors tell FG

 April 6, 2018

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Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed

Okechukwu Nnodim, Abuja

Indigenous rice producers have charged the Federal Government to confront the Republics of Benin, Niger and Cameroon over smuggling of rice from their countries into Nigeria.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Monday declared that smuggled rice from Thailand and India came into Nigeria through the country’s borders with Benin, Niger and Cameroon.

Speaking at a joint press briefing in Abuja on Thursday to announce the forthcoming 2018 Rice Conference that would hold in the Federal Capital Territory next week, local producers of the crop said it was high time that the Federal Government declared economic war against countries sabotaging Nigerian business.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Agro Nigeria, a body of indigenous agro-dealers, Richard-Mark Mbaram, said the progress being recorded in the production of rice within the country was being threatened by the smuggling of the commodity via countries sharing borders with Nigeria.

He said, “Yes, there has been progress thus far in rice production in Nigeria. However, we have serious systemic challenges facing this effort; and number one is smuggling. We know what the countries around us are up to. The figures they have for rice coming into their countries are more than the population which some of them even have.

“Countries that share borders with us are stockpiling rice which they try to smuggle into Nigeria. So, Nigeria needs to take definite and radical measures. There’s no point playing big brother on issues like this anymore. It is about our life as a nation. It is about the business of our citizens.

“These are corporate entities and if their businesses are challenged and threatened by this, then we have a problem as a nation. So, let’s get radical. If we have to take on these countries directly, I don’t see anything wrong in it. We have to confront Benin Republic and read the riot act to them that we feel they are undertaking inimical measures against our economy.”

Stakeholders in the rice value chain such as Stallion Group, Notore, Afex, Umza, Olam and the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria said the government must show enough concern about the issue to raise investors’ hope.

Mbaram, who spoke on behalf of the stakeholders, said, “This radical type of confrontation is what you need in order to put the conversation on the front burner. If at the level of ECOWAS this issue has to be raised, so be it. If at the level of the AU we need to start engaging each other on this concern, so be it. But it mustn’t be under the table. We are threatened here. It is war.

“Let’s begin to see clear measures on the part of government to show that it is concerned in a radical manner. Again, you want to look at those issues that make smuggling attractive. You also look at incentives to give from a fiscal and regulatory perspective that will discourage players in that space and make them turn to more noble acts.”

He further noted that in order to ensure sustainability, private investors must play a significant part in the country’s rice production drive.

Mbaram said, “It is obvious that there has been progress in rice production in Nigeria. But we feel that in order to ensure that this is sustainable progress, the private sector needs to be galvanised and mainstreamed into the play. Presently, what we have is a public sector intensive drive, and as much as we commend this, we know that without the private sector’s participation, sustainability is really not assured.”

Also speaking on the success recorded in rice production in Nigeria, the Senior Manager, Sales, Stallion Group of Companies, Bala Sule, said his firm’s rice mill in Kano, which used to get about 20,000 metric tonnes of rice paddy a few years ago, had moved to about 100,000MT of the commodity.

He said, “When we started the production of rice, which was actually when the ban on importation commenced, we hardly got rice paddy from farmers. For instance, my company’s rice mill in Kano, which is about the largest in the country, has capacity of 150,000 metric tonnes per annum. But hardly do we get 20,000MT then.

“We now devised a means by working with rice farmers. We identified farmers in some states such as Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Jigawa and Kano where rice is predominantly produced so that they can produce paddy for us. We gave them improved seeds, fertilisers and the required technical know-how.

“And we told them that we would buy the paddy from them at the prevailing market price. Right now as I’m speaking with you, we get at least 100,000MT of paddy rice for processing at our mill in Kano, which like I said earlier, has a capacity of 150,000MT. So, you can see the jump from about 20,000MT to about 100,000MT.”

https://punchng.com/rice-smuggling-confront-neighbouring-nations-investors-tell-fg/

Government’s neglect of neighboring countries worsens rice smuggling in Nigeria

By Joke Falaju, Abuja

06 April 2018   |   4:14 am

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Smuggled rice

Attempts by the Federal Government to tame importation of rice into Nigeria through the land borders may remain elusive, as indications have emerged from industry watchers that the situation was getting worse.

The situation is such that unless drastic measures are taken against neighboring countries, local rice millers may not strive despite government’s drive to attain self-sufficiency.

Although Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Bukar Hassan, recently noted that no rice was imported into the country through the seaport in 2017, Nigerians continue to buy foreign rice.

It is, however, important to note that among other countries, Thailand constitutes a major threat to the country’s self- sufficiency drive, but there is the need to take out the landing point from where the produce are smuggled into the country.

Managing Director Agro Nigeria, Richard-Mark Mbaram, at a press briefing in Abuja on the upcoming Conference on Rice scheduled for April 12 and 13, said there was the need to take definite, radical measures against the neighboring countries.

He pointed out that the countries that share border with Nigeria were stockpiling rice more than they could consume to the extent that if they had to feed their people with it they would be eating rice in their sleep.

He said: “There is no point playing the big brother, there is no point putting necessities to the fore. It is about our life as a nation and the businesses of our people. These are corporate entities, if their businesses are challenged, government must let them know that if Benin Republic and Cameroun does not desist from the act, clear economic measures would be taken against them.

Mbaram stressed the need to raise the issue at the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) and African Union (AU) level, adding that it should not be held under the table as people’s businesses were being threatened and government must deploy clear measures to show their concern.

He further stressed the need for government to look into the advantages that attract smugglers so as to get a better way of shifting their attention from smuggling and that bilateral agreement could be reached with countries so that they could change their stance.

He pointed out that the conference was put together to chronicle the country’s march towards self-sufficiency in rice production, noting that although the country was making steady progress in rice production, there was the need to motivate the private sector and mainstream them into action.

He disclosed that Kebbi and Ogun states would participate in the conference while the big players in the industry would be given opportunity to address some of the challenges affecting the sub-sector.

The Representative of Syngenta, Ephraim Manga pointed out that some of the challenges facing rice farmers include poor quality input and low technology adoption by Nigerian farmers.


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Drama as PDP senator rescinds defection to APC

There was mild drama at the Senate yesterday, when the Senator representing Ebonyi South in the National Assembly, Sonni Ogbuoji, rescinded his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

https://guardian.ng/news/governments-neglect-of-neighboring-countries-worsens-rice-smuggling-in-nigeria/

 

Mars Food Accepts Corporate Excellence Award from American Carbon Registry

The nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International recognizes Mars for sustainability leadership

 


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Apr 05, 2018, 09:00 ET

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SAN FRANCISCOApril 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Last night Mars Food accepted the Corporate Excellence Award from American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, on behalf of Mars, Incorporated. The food business was recognized at ACR's 100thannual gala for its leadership in addressing climate change through commitments to sustainable sourcing across its supply chain, most notably rice. These commitments are part of the Mars Sustainable in a Generation Plan, a pledge to make significant strides in reducing the global organization's footprint to create a world in which the next generation can thrive.

"We are proud to be honored with this award, but more importantly, we're proud of the work Mars Food is doing in partnership with Winrock. At Mars, we believe it's important that we grow in a way that's not only good for our business, but also for people and the planet. That's why we have prioritized creating shared benefits for rice growers and the environment, while also producing a high-quality rice crop for the billions of people who depend on it for nutrition and a livelihood," said Denis Winkler, vice president of supply chain for global Mars Food. 

Rice is a food staple for half of the world's peoples and accounts for 20 percent of the global population's caloric intake. Mars Food is the maker of UNCLE BEN'S®, the world's largest rice brand, so Mars' commitment to sustainable rice production is essential. As a key partner of the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP), co-convened in 2015 by the U.N. Environment Program and the International Rice Research Institute, Mars has pledged to source all its rice from farmers working toward the SRP by 2020.

To meet this ambitious goal and to increase the quality of rice for millions of families for decades to come, Mars has invested in research and farmer education and is partnering with growers, NGOs and universities to transform the production of rice farms around the world to enhance water use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve yields and increase incomes. Mars is working with almost 2,000 farmers in India and Pakistan – where the organization's efforts have resulted in a significant increase in farmer incomes and rice yields – and has similar programs in Cambodia and Thailand.

"Our pilots with Basmati rice farmers in Pakistan show a 32 percent increase in farmer income and a 30 percent reduction in water used. As we extend these programs across our supply chain, we have the potential to make a notable global impact," said Winkler.

In the U.S., Mars Food is collaborating with Winrock, also an SRP member, to adapt the SRP for the U.S. and grow its base of U.S. sustainably-sourced rice. U.S. growers working with Mars include those who earned the first carbon offsets in the world from sustainable rice production, issued by ACR in 2017. Several of Mars' supplier partners source from farmers applying such new techniques as Alternate Wetting and Drying, which has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent.

For more information about Mars sustainability initiatives around sourcing rice, please reach out to Caroline Sherman (caroline.sherman@effem.com), vice president of corporate affairs at Mars Food North America.

About Mars Food
Mars Food is a fast-growing food business, making tastier, healthier, easier meals for all consumers to enjoy. Headquartered in London, Mars Food is a leader in producing great tasting products.  Our portfolio includes the following brands: UNCLE BEN'S®, DOLMIO®, SEEDS OF CHANGE®, Tasty Bite®, MasterFoods®, SUZI WAN®, EBLY®, ROYCO®, KAN TONG® and RARIS®.  Our ambition is to become a model business in the areas of health and nutrition and sustainability, as expressed by our purpose: Better Food Today.  A Better World Tomorrow. Mars Food is a segment of Mars, Incorporated. For more information, please visit www.mars.com.

 

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Brazil cane industry blasts Pakistan, India sugar export policies

Bruno Federowski

3 MIN READ

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BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s sugarcane industry on Thursday took aim at policies undertaken by Pakistan and India to protect local producers and boost sugar exports, arguing they could further depress global prices.

Pakistan, whose stature as a sugar producer has been growing in recent years, in January quadrupled the volume of sugar eligible for export subsidies to 2 million tonnes in a bid to reduce excessive domestic supplies.

Eduardo Leão de Sousa, the director for cane industry group Unica, said the organization was assessing whether those practices comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

“We’ve made our concerns known to the Brazilian government,” he told Reuters. “We are speaking to our government and other countries over the possibility of action at the WTO.”

Export subsidies could drive Pakistani farmers to rotate from rice to sugar, permanently boosting global supply and pushing down prices, he said.

That was the case with Thailand, which rose to become the world’s second-largest sugar exporter thanks to price controls.

In January, the Thai government eliminated domestic control of sugar prices and administration of sales as part of a regulatory overhaul to settle a Brazilian WTO challenge.

Pakistan is expected to produce around 6.5 million tonnes of sugar in the 2017-18 season ending on Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In comparison, output at the world’s second-largest producer India is likely to reach a record 29.5 million tonnes, with local prices already falling by more than 17 percent over the last six months.

Facing a bloated domestic surplus, India scrapped a 20 percent sugar export tax and allowed millers exporting sugar this season to import raw sugar duty-free for the following two seasons through September 2021.

Even without that tax, however, high production costs mean India will likely struggle to export at competitive prices.

“If that record harvest materializes, we expect that surplus to go to market with subsidies,” Sousa said.

Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Additional reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Sandra Maler

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-sugar-trade/brazil-cane-industry-blasts-pakistan-india-sugar-export-policies-idUSKCN1HC2VB

Weiqiang Zhang, a Chinese national, was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for conspiracy to steal bioengineered rice from a Kansas lab. 2013 photo

KANSAS

Chinese national tried to steal a valuable U.S. trade secret: Kansas rice seeds

BY MATT CAMPBELL

mcampbell@kcstar.com

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April 05, 2018 12:28 PM

As trade tensions ratchet up between the United States and China, a Chinese national was sentenced Wednesday to more than 10 years in federal prison for stealing American rice in Kansas.

Very valuable, life-saving rice.

In a case of intellectual property theft, Weiqiang Zhang passed the rice seed — a trade secret — to visiting researchers so they could take them back to China. The plot was thwarted when the delegation was caught at the airport.

Zhang, 51, was a "rice breeder" for Ventria Bioscience in Junction City, Kan., a lab that genetically programs rice for uses in human medicine, from gastrointestinal disease to osteoporosis.

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"Ventria invested years of research and tens of millions of dollars to create a new and beneficial product," said U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister, in announcing the sentence. "It is vital that we protect such intellectual property from theft and exploitation by foreign interests."

Zhang, a lawful permanent resident in the U.S., was a rice researcher at Kansas State University and received a doctorate in rice genetics from Louisiana State University. He began working for Ventria in 2008 and was in charge of plant breeding and nursery operations.

In 2012, Zhang and a co-defendant traveled to visit a crop research institute in China where Zhang once worked. The following year, the two made arrangements for a delegation from the Chinese institute to visit Kansas.

The delegation was invited on official U.S. Department of Agriculture letterhead by co-defendant Wengui Yan, a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked at the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Arkansas.

Meanwhile, Zhang purloined hundreds of rice seeds from Ventria and kept them at the home he and his wife shared in Manhattan, Kan.

When the delegation from China arrived, Zhang uncharacteristically requested leave from work on short notice and without explanation. When later asked about it by a supervisor, Zhang turned red. 

Sometime during the delegation's visit, Zhang passed to them the valuable seeds, which use recombinant DNA to create proteins that can be used to treat gastrointestinal disease, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, hepatic disease, osteoporosis and inflammatory bowel disease.

Ventria invested about $75 million to develop this proprietary technology and is the only company in the U.S. that has it. The lab maintains seed banks in a climate-controlled environment. Only six employees had access to the storage area. Zhang was one of them.

As the delegation was returning to China, customs agents checked their bags and found at least 79 grams of seeds. They were examined by a rice expert from the Department of Agriculture, who determined some of them could only have come from Ventria. Lab tests confirmed it.

The FBI was on the case. With a search warrant, agents found seeds in Zhang's master bedroom closet and in his kitchen freezer.

Zhang denied giving seeds to the Chinese delegation and said he did not know how they obtained them.

But a jury convicted Zhang of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and interstate transportation of stolen property. He was sentenced Wednesday to 121 months in federal prison without parole.

Separately, Yan pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators and is awaiting sentencing.

In a news release, Acting Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department's Criminal Division applauded the sentence.

"The criminal division and its law enforcement partners," he said "will continue to work closely with companies like Ventria to protect American intellectual property — which is essential to our economy and way of life — against all threats both foreign and domestic."

http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/kansas/article208009774.html