16th october,2017 daily global regional local rice e newsletter

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October 16,2017 Vol X ,Issuu 9

Tapping potential for agri trade Climate change bring opportunity to restructure Mekong Delta economy Yuan Longping's hybrid rice sets new record in production(1/3) Climate-smart farming needs machines First spring paddy cultivation yields 77MT Vietnam’s rice prices up on low supply Methane good news Rice imports in 2018 to hit 1.7 MMT–USDA Sri Lanka returns to MRPs, confirms international orders to steer rice supply Vietnam’s rice prices up on low supply Rice to become more expensive due to ‘disastrous’ EU import rules Rice imports in 2018 to hit 1.7 MMT–USDA PAU’s nitrogen use practice gets thumbs up at Delhi meet History News of The Week – Ancient Amazonians, Rapa Nui and Medieval Jewellery Meeting with Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi; journey to the Himalayas; next visit: Iran Rice County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisors attend training Rice to become more expensive due to 'disastrous' EU import rules Sri Lanka returns to MRPs, confirms international orders to steer rice supply Top stories: A deadly plague epidemic, the evolution of skin color, and thrice-domesticated rice Zanzibar Ministry of Agriculture to reduce rice LT Foods sets up USD 5 mn plant in US for ready-to-heat rice Manipulations in rice and veg market

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News Detail...

Tapping potential for agri trade From InpaperMagazine

Updated October 16, 2017

THE low volume of trade between Pakistan and China is not reflective of the economic size of two neighbouring countries. This indicates there is a huge untapped trade potential in both countries, which can be utilised mainly to enhance welfare of the masses.

Due to shortage of arable land and freshwater resources in China, the country needs to import land-extensive crops (such as wheat and rice) to feed its population.

Further, with rising living standards, the Chinese demand for agricultural imports is gradually moving up, which is likely to create agro-based trade opportunities in countries having substantial potential in agriculture produce.

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Pakistan can maximise its agricultural exports to China by improving production efficiency and quality China‘s demand for cotton yarn and rice imports is met by the emerging economies of Asia, such as Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand and India. However, the relative share of China‘s import of these products has witnessed some changes recently.

Keeping in view the fact that agriculture sector accounts for around 20 per cent of Pakistan‘s GDP and employs over 40pc of the country‘s labour force, both Pakistan and China have agreed to enhance cooperation on agriculture under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Various agricultural projects have been initiated to get maximum benefit of the CPEC initiative, which include:

Fruit processing industry in Gilgit-Baltistan: The climate and fertile soil of GilgitBaltistan offer ideal environment for producing fruits like apples, peach, cherries, almonds, apricot, etc. According to an article published by the Asian Development Bank, farmers in Gilgit-Baltistan produce over 100,000 tonnes of fresh apricots a year. Setting up the fruit processing industry in the region would help boost the country‘s fruit exports.

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Sino-Pakistan Hybrid Rice Research Centre at Karachi University: Both countries have recently initiated research to produce high-yielding and high-quality rice. Setting up a rice research centre is a right step towards achieving the objective.

Meat production and processing facilities in KP: Setting up of meat production and processing facilities in KP would help increase Pakistan‘s meat exports to China, as well as, to Afghanistan and Central Asian market.

Data source: International Trade Centre KP-China Sustainable Donkey Development Programme: To increase the donkey population in Pakistan so as to ensure interrupted backward supply for export of live animals and raising income of donkey breeders and traders.

— SBP staff notes: ‘Dynamics of Pakistan’s trade balance with China’ Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, October 16th, 2017 https://www.dawn.com/news/1363981/tapping-potential-for-agri-trade

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Climate change brings opportunity to restructure Mekong Delta economy VietNamNet Bridge - The principle that Vietnam needs to pursue now is not to confront nature, but to respond appropriately and flexibly to new circumstances, such as climate change, by restructuring the economy, according to Hoang Quoc Tuan, a renowned agriculture expert.

About inaccurate perceptions, Tuan said one of these is that the Mekong Delta needs to serve as the ‗rice granary‘ and ‗rice pot‘ of Vietnam and the world. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) affirmed that with natural conditions, growing rice is the best way for the Mekong Delta, but not the way Vietnam is following.

The principle that Vietnam needs to pursue now is not to confront

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com Tuan also pointed out that Vietnam has the wrong view about nature, but to respond ‗national food security‘. FAO defines ‗food security‘ as the appropriately and flexibly capability to have food, which could be rice, maize, oats, fish, to new circumstances shrimp, vegetables and fruits. There is a wide range of foodstuff for people to use, not only raise.

Meanwhile, Vietnam understands ‗food‘ as ‗rice‘ and strives to ensure more than 10 kilos per head per month. ―The household which doesn‘t grow rice but produces one kilogram of shrimp a day would have better ‗food security‘ than the household which produces 10 kilograms of rice.

This is simply because a kilo of shrimp can be sold for VND200,000, and a kilo of rice for VND6,000,‖ Tuan said.

Some foreign experts commented that the Mekong Delta is blessed by nature, but it has a critical weak point which is identity, i.e. products of localities in the region are nearly the same.

In fact, the problem lies in mismanagement which can be seen throughout the country, not only in the Mekong Delta. ―There are industrial zones (IZs) in almost every district in Mekong Delta, including in the remote and mountainous districts. There are not many investors occupying all the IZs,‖ he said.

Since growing rice cannot bring income high enough to cover basic needs, the farmers in Dong Thap Muoi area in Dong Thap province have sprayed salt into fields to create fields for shrimp hatchery. But the method cannot bring the desired results.

According to Tuan, there are three things that need to be done to restructure Mekong Delta amid climate change. First, checking existing policies to find problems. Second, consulting with the community. Third, collecting people‘s opinions about the policies to be applied. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/environment/188198/climate-change-brings-opportunity-torestructure-mekong-delta-economy.html

Yuan Longping's hybrid rice sets new record in production(1/3) 2017-10-16 17:00Ecns.cnEditor:Yao Lan

Yuan Longping (C), a renowned Chinese developer of hybrid rice, is seen in a rice field in Handan City, North China‘s Hebei Province.

The province‘s department of science and technology has verified that a hybrid rice project headed by Yuan, known as Xiangliangyou 900, achieved an average yield of 1,149.01 kilograms of rice per mu

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com (about 0.07 hectares) of farmland, setting a new world record, according to the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center. (Photo/VCG) http://www.ecns.cn/visual/hd/2017/10-16/144299.shtml

Climate-smart farming needs machines Manipadma Jena , 16.10.17

The revival of Pokkali, a traditional salt- and flood-resistant rice and fish farming system in Kerala, requires mechanisation to expand sustainably

Part of the climate-resilient Pokkali rice-prawn farming tracts are facing land-use change to informal jetties and other infrastructure (Photo by Manipadma Jena)

As farmers in many regions of India revert tentatively to traditional farm systems to ensure food security in an era of climate change, mechanisation must be given high priority in adaptation projects, say agricultural scientists. Otherwise, these may fail because not only are the soil, sea and rain conditions less dependable now, but socio-economic status and earlier plentiful availability of farm labour also have undergone drastic change.

Pokkali, the centuries-old family farming system producing salt and flood resistant rice and shrimp alternated on the same farms in Kerala‘s tidal-water tracts is an example, say scientists.

Although the state government has been trying to revive Pokkali (pronounced Pokkaalli) since 2013 as a climate adaptation strategy, it has not been able to take off as expected.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com ―Pokkali is a unique form of cultivation. The effort to revive it was received with enthusiasm but interest dwindled because of shortage of mechanization,‖ Leena Kumari S, senior plant scientist and Registrar of the Thrissur-headquartered Kerala Agricultural University, told indiaclimatedialogue.net.

Some 30 years ago, this traditional rice with shrimp was grown over 25,000 hectares in the waterlogged acidic coastal regions of Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Thrissur districts. In 2015, the area had reduced by 90%. Currently, 2,200 hectares is regularly farmed and 5,000 hectares only occasionally, according to Kerala‘s fisheries department. ―Labour is a problem, because much of the Pokkali tract is now located in the Cochin metro area.

Here a variety of wage labour is available and traditionally skilled Pokkali farm hands have found regular work at the metro rail line construction,‖ Leena Kumari said. ―The rice production cost is escalating because (during harvest) there is no option but to procure these scarce labourers at high wages.‖ ―Manual harvesting is very tedious and fewer people are now willing to stand in mud and chesthigh water to cut the grain. If not that, then rowing in country boats in the water channels crisscrossing the paddy to get the job done,‖ she added. ―As October-end harvest time approaches, getting harvesters has become a major headache,‖ B.K. Kamalahasan, a farmer, told indiaclimatedialogue.netin his Kidangara village farm in Alappuzha district. ―Usually women with traditional expertise are the only people who can do this job. Many of them are now old and unable and the younger generation is not interested.

They have many earning options including migrating out.‖ It has been five years since the 53-year-old decided to give up the family‘s four-hectare Pokkali farm in Pattanakkad village to his younger brother. He now traps schools of freshwater fingerlings as they flow into his two-hectare hybrid-rice farm through a narrow inlet from Achenkovil river, growing them alongside the paddies in monsoon for a bit of extra income. Of the 190-hectare Pokkali tract in Pattanakad, only 57 hectares are now in use, Kamalahasan said, quoting government figures.

Climate-smart system Pokkali fields lie on the edge of Kerala‘s backwaters on low-lying lands, watered by both high tides and meandering river channels, water-logged for most part of the year except early summer.

The traditional Pokkali rice plant, experts say, can tolerate salinity equivalent to 6 to 8 grams of salt in 1,000 grams of water. For comparison, seawater has 35 grams salt per 1,000 grams of water. One of the highest salinity tolerant paddy varieties in the world, its gene Saltol quantitative trait locus (QTL) is widely used in international rice labs.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com Adapted to a challenging terrain over centuries, it is also tolerant to soil acidity and submergence, which make it very suitable for climate adaptive agriculture. It grows as high as 4.5 to 6 feet. On high tide or river flooding, it holds its grain-bearing head upright above water for up to 10 days, while the plant itself bends over and collapses. Sowing is done on 1.5-foot high soil mounds constructed manually, starting as the heavy southwest monsoon in June flushes out the salt from the land.

Struggling against several odds including critical shortage of manual labour, only a few hundred traditional Pokkali farmers in Kerala have kept the heritage farming system alive (Photo by Manipadma Jena)

In the mid-November harvest, only the grain-bearing portion or top 30 centimetres is cut, and the rest of the stalk is left to decay in the fields. It gives back what it had drawn from the soil and also becomes feed for the young prawns that the high tides later carry in.

By December-end, the Pokkali tracts are ready for prawn filtration — the embankments strengthened against the tides and sluice gates fixed through which the seawater will flush in and out. Once the prawn larvae and fish are trapped in the fields, they are grown for 3-4 months.

Over this period their excrement in an inherently fertile soil provides nutrients for the next rice crop cycle for which no chemicals are needed nor used, as these would harm the prawn. ―The indigenous wisdom of Pokkali cultivation has a great role in maintaining the ecosystem of the farm tracts. It is fully organic, no fertiliser or insecticide is applied, nor is weeding necessary.

Success depends on judicious water-flow regulation through the sluice gates,‖ Thommy Thomas, an 81-year-old veteran farmer of Allapuzha, told indiaclimatedialogue.net.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com While the traditional Pokkali rice yield is a low 1-1.5 tonnes per hectare, the income was made up by the prawn and fish yields of 200 to 500 kg from one hectare. Above all, farmers earn through the year with what in earlier years was low investment. Rice research centres in Kerala have since come up with higher-yielding seeds for the saline tracts.

Along with the prawn, brackish water Pokkali farms grow the much-in-demand Pearls Spot and an assortment of other marketable fish (Photo by Manipadma Jena)

Lure of prawn export The farmers however had another reason, beyond income, to keep up the brackish-water farming.

It was ecological disaster to leave the Pokkali fields fallow because within a few years adjoining sweet-water land too became acidic and fell to ruin while drinking water sources too became brackish.

Eventually, however, this is exactly what happened, reducing regularly cultivated Pokkali fields to merely a tenth of the productive area of three decades ago. Bit by bit the tracts were left fallow, tidal embankment fell to disrepair and seawater came in deeper inland. Or, they were used for growing prawn year-round, converted into coconut farms, or land- use irretrievably changed to build jetties and other infrastructure. ―A few years back we had an attack of bacterial infection (White Spot Symptom) in these prawn farms and exports were hard hit. If year after year farmers go for prawn all the residues and excreta will result in bacteria spread. In the long run, this proves more disadvantageous,‖ Leena Kumari told indiaclimatedialogue.net. ―Profits are only sustainable where the rice-prawn cycle is maintained, because rice crops use up the prawn‘s waste, cleansing the soil every year. Farmers must be made aware of this.‖ 10

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com There is conflict of interest between paddy farmers and an aquaculture lobby, and people are more interested in growing only prawn because of higher returns, according to Francis Kalathungal of the Pokkali Samrakshana Samithi, an organisation set up to protect the ancient farming system.

Heritage grain‟s trade potential In 2008, in a bid to bring back this heritage variety, which was organic and was packed with protein and antioxidants, sustaining fishers out at sea for a full exerting day. With brown largesized looks and a flavour uniquely its own, it got a Geographical Indication (GI) status. GI recognition is essentially a trade copyright and helps the designated local producers for higher domestic trade and exports.

The government offers a minimum support price of INR 50 (USD 0.77) for a kilogram of the Pokkali rice, several times the price offered for commercial varieties. Exporters too are ready to pay INR 150 (USD 2.30) a kg, but the current production is not enough to meet either demands. ―Pokkali has got GI status but we could not commercially exploit this,‖ Leena Kumari rued.

Mechanising to revive During the 2013 rice harvest, the agricultural engineering division of the Kerala Agricultural University piloted a prototype amphibian harvesting machine in Alappuzha, meant specifically for use in inundated Pokkali fields. ―It worked, but it has to be sustainable, not good at a demonstration alone. A lightweight machine but spacious enough to hold the harvest is what is needed,‖ Leena Kumari said.

In 2015, the university called for tenders for a harvester, specifying a machine 15 ft in length, weighing 1500 kg with a 45 horsepower engine, equipped with hydraulic operated and detachable rake and trailer. Corrosion resistant, rotating rubber chain tracks and a salt water resistant aluminium alloy body able to move at an average six km per hour speed on both water and land were other requirements. Such a machine is yet to be ready. ―It should be able to float, to harvest and to transport the harvested stalks. It is not that easy to develop a machine to these specifications. A lot of effort is ongoing. It could take years,‖ Leena Kumari told indiaclimatedialogue.net.

Kerala‘s fisheries department, which secured INR 337.3 million (USD 5.2 million) funding from the National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC) to restore 600 hectares low lying wetlands for climate-resilient Pokkali and another similar farming system, ignores mechanisation altogether, admitted by most experts to be a major hurdle to Pokkali revival.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com On the contrary, the project running through 2016 to 2019 focuses on strengthening stone and earthen embankments on coastal backwater margins to reduce saltwater ingress into farms and, after revival, ensuring more people like olden days are employed in them.

Surviving climate vagaries The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates in 2046–2065 (relative to 1986–2005), global average sea-level rise could be 0.17 to 0.32 metres and as much as 33% of coastal land and wetland habitats are likely to be lost in the next 100 years.

The immediate risk for Kerala with a 570 km coastline on the Arabian Sea, and other densely populated coasts, however, are storm surges. In Kerala, high tides can reach over 12 ft in height, according to its disaster management plan.

Coastal intertidal wetlands are one of the most productive ecosystems on earth supporting high biodiversity. In India of the 45 million hectares over which rice is grown, 2.5 million hectares are on coastal saline soils in 11 Indian states.

Of the 100,000 varieties of indigenous rice in India, most have been replaced by a handful of modern hybrids after India‘s 1960s green revolution. Those that are still surviving in challenging conditions like Pokkali are proof of the amazing genetic adaptation ability of local landraces and their conservation is crucial for India‘s food security, scientists emphasise. http://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2017/10/16/mechanise-climate-smart-farming-food-security/

First spring paddy cultivation yields 77MT October 16, 2017 News

The ministry is also planning of growing rice three times a year Spring paddy cultivation, which the agriculture ministry tried on a commercial scale earlier this year, produced more than 77 metric tonnes (MT) of paddy, agriculture minister Yeshey Dorji said.

Spring paddy was grown on 533 acres in Gelephu (136 acres) and Chuzergang (185) in Sarpang dzongkhag, Yoeseltse (118) in Samtse and Khamethang (94) in Samdrupjongkhar. ―This being the first commercial scale cultivation there were some lessons learnt,‖ Lyonpo Yeshey Dorji said at the meet the press session on October 13.

In some of the areas, irrigation facilities were lagging because they were under repair.

The ministry transplanted in the beginning of March and the harvesting coincided with monsoon. ―We‘re going to transplant early next season from mid February to harvest before the monsoon,‖ the minister said.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com He said there was labour shortage and most of the areas were not suitable for mechanisation. ―So we have started consolidation of farm machinery in some places,‖ he said. ―These are some of the problems, but we cannot reduce them at once as agriculture is a sensitive business and depends on lots of factors.‖ The minister said that since paddy cultivation was organic, the yield was low.Although spring rice cultivation was initiated more than a decade ago, it was done on a small scale, he said.The ministry is considering to grow rice three times a year with the 15 months cycle especially in the southern parts of the country. ―With this initiative and incremental reverting of fallow land to cultivation, we‘re hopeful of achieving close to rice self-sufficiency or at least 90 percent,‖ he said.The crop sector alone contributed Nu 14 billion to the gross domestic product of the economy according to a World Bank report.

In 2012, rice production was 52,252MT. The yield was 1,493kg an acre which has today increased to 1,604kg an acre, he said.In 2012, the paddy production was 78,000MT, which jumped to 85,090 MT last year. So between 2012 and 2016, production increased by more than 7,000MT, the minister said. ―The rice industry in Bhutan is worth about Nu 4.375 billion,‖ he said.Paddy fields area expanded from 52,252 acres under cultivation in 2012 to 53,000 acres last year.In terms of rice self-sufficiency, it has increased from 53 percent to 58.7 percent as of this year, agriculture statistics show.

He said that the five percent would be equal to more than 30,000MT or 5,000 acres. ―So paddy production has been improving,‖ lyonpo said.He said more than seven dzongkhags are rice selfsufficient. Top of the list is Punakha with 267 percent, followed by Tsirang with 216 percent, Paro, Dagana, and Samtse, among others.

Lyonpo said that the ministry continues to invest in electric fencing, hybrid seeds, machinery, research and technology, institutional changes, and farm mechanisation.He said that agriculture is identified as one of the five jewels for economic development and that the media would know better about whether agriculture has developed.―Look around. In 2013, most of us, including the Cabinet ministers were lean and thin and today we‘re well nourished, including me.‖ http://www.kuenselonline.com/first-spring-paddy-cultivation-yields-77mt/

ALGON, 16 foreign partners to create 5.9m jobs from new agriculture scheme Posted By: Our Reporter On: October 16, 2017 In: Featured,News, News Update 13

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2 As part of steps to boost agriculture in the country, the Association of Local Government of Nigeria(ALGON) and 16 foreign partners and institutes are expected to float a new scheme which will create 5,959, 800 jobs nationwide.

The scheme will lead to the generation of 7,700 jobs in each of the 774 local government areas in the country.

But the new initiative called Comprehensive Agricultural Plans for Local Government Areas (CLAP) will begin with a seminar on October 26 and 27.A statement last night said ALGON has initiated the process of C-LAP at grassroots level to prepare a Comprehensive Local Agriculture Plan (C-LAP) through participatory process involving various organizations and stakeholders.

The statement said: ―The project is expected to generate direct employment of 2700 in nursery production, pack houses and integrated model farms, mega food parks processing units and indirect employment of 5000 persons per LGA is as follows: Managerial and scientific

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com manpower (100 persons); Skilled manpower in Mega Food Park (600 persons); Unskilled manpower (2000 persons) and Indirect employment like transport, marketing etc. (5000 persons).

The heavyweight international partners of ALGON are Global AgriSystem Pvt Ltd; Progressive Research Organization for Welfare (PROW); Ananya Seeds (P) Ltd; International Tractors Limited; Horticulture Produce Management Institute, HPMI (India); Population, Women & Environment Development Organization(Nepal); International Rice Research Institute(Philippines); Ananya Seeds (P) Ltd.; Top Greenhouses Limited; and International Tractors Limited.

Others are Michigan State University; G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology; Carrier Point University; New Age Green Solution Pvt Limited; Afghan Agro Services; eEco Solutions Pvt Limited; Horticulture Produce Management Institute; M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation.

The statement explained why ALGON decided to collaborate with the 16 foreign partners.

It added: ―Nigeria is an agrarian society, with agriculture contributing about 24 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). About 70 percent of the population live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for livelihood. ―Nigeria is presently facing several challenges in Agriculture sector. These problems can be attributed to natural and human cause, affecting overall economic development and growth. ―This has consequently undermined socio-economic growth and thus constitutes a threat to the Federal Government of Nigeria‘s ―Vision 2020‖. Recent assessments of the situation in the country confirm that the scale of the problem rise above what communities, Local Governments, States and Federal Government can address without help from development partners.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com Consequently, The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) is adopting a bottom-up approach through a Comprehensive Plan for Development of Agriculture (C-LAP) at ―Local Government Level‖ in 774 LGAs of Nigeria towards the improvement of the agricultural sector. ―Thus C-LAP is an integrated and participatory action plan for the development of LGAs in agriculture and allied sectors. CLAP will add value to Nigeria‘s agricultural raw materials and integrate Nigeria into world agricultural markets. ―ALGON has initiated the process of C-LAP at grassroots level to prepare a Comprehensive Local Agriculture Plan (C-LAP) through participatory process involving various organizations and stakeholders http://thenationonlineng.net/algon-16-foreign-partners-create-5-9m-jobs-new-agriculture-scheme/

Vietnam‟s rice prices up on low supply Low supplies boosted rice prices in Vietnam this week amid prospects of fresh purchase interest from the Philippines, while deals with Bangladesh remained the sole bright spot for the otherwise subdued demand in top Asian exporters.

Traders in Vietnam quoted the benchmark 5-percent broken rice at $390-395 a tonne, free-onboard (FOB) Saigon, up from the $385-$390 last week. "Supply is low after the summer-autumn crop was completely harvested, bringing prices up. Some sellers held back grains in an attempt to make larger profits," a trader in Ho Chi Minh city said. "As for trading, Philippines will import rice from Vietnam, Thailand and other countries under the MAV (Minimum Access Volume) 2017. I think they'll buy around 290,000 tonnes from Vietnam, same as last year. " However, another trader said no deals have been finalised. The Philippines opened the rice import scheme, Minimum Access Volume 2017, in August to private traders in Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and India, the National Food Authority (NFA) said on its website. As of late September, importers in the Philippines have applied to buy over 2.2 million tonnes, mostly from Thailand and Vietnam, according to the NFA document. Meanwhile, Bangladesh, which has emerged as a major importer this year after floods damaged its crops and sent domestic rates soaring, has finalised deals to import 250,000 tonnes of parboiled rice from Thailand and India.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com Bangladesh has also approved the purchase of 100,000 tonnes from Myanmar, setting aside a rift over an ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis.

In India, the 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices eased by $2 per tonne to the $400-$403 level on expectations of a rise in supply. "From the end of this month, supplies from the new season crop will rise," said an exporter in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, Thailand's benchmark 5-percent broken rice prices dropped to $380-$388 a tonne, FOB Bangkok, from the $385-$390 range last week, traders said. "With the exception of Bangladesh, there hasn't been much demand from other countries. We expect Bangladesh to demand more rice until the end of the year," said a Bangkok-based trader.

Thai prices are likely to remain stable, traders said, even as the market takes stock of the impact of recent floods in the country. "It is still too soon to tell whether there will be damage to crops because most of the rice has already been harvested," said Charoen Laothamatas, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association. https://fp.brecorder.com/2017/10/20171015226534/

Methane good news G.S. Mudur New Delhi: An independent academic study has found India's emissions of methane, a major greenhouse gas that drives global warming, are consistent with the government's estimates and have shown little growth over the past five years.The study has found that India's average emissions of methane emissions - mainly from paddy fields and cows, among other sources were about 22 trillion grams per year between 2010 and 2015, consistent with India's emissions reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The scientists who conducted the study say their estimates for India's methane emissions are about 30 per cent smaller than figures in a global inventory of greenhouse gases calculated by an international research consortium called the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research.

"Our approach should help bolster confidence in India's official estimates," said Anita Ganesan, an environmental chemist at the University of Bristol in the UK who led the study published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. "Estimating the methane emissions is particularly challenging, and this work demonstrates a new way to do that."

The concentrations of methane, the second-most powerful greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, have been growing in the atmosphere in recent years. But methane emissions are much harder to estimate because they emerge from biological systems influenced by the environment.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com "Methane emissions from rice paddies, for example, are influenced by temperature, rainfall or irrigation, fertiliser applications, so emissions can vary dramatically from one place to another and at different times," Ganesan said. "This makes methane more difficult to account for in inventories."

Ganesan and her colleagues from institutions in Germany, India, the UK and the US combined satellite imagery and ground and aircraft observations with computer models of the atmosphere and winds to arrive at estimates for methane emissions for each month between 2010 and 2015.

Their study showed spikes in methane between June and September each year, the monsoon season, when paddy is grown across the country. The stable methane emissions in India contrast with China where measurements have suggested increasing emissions of methane in recent years.

Ganesan said the growth in China has been shown to be driven by large increases in fossil fuel emissions of methane. In India, fossil fuels make up a much smaller source of the methane emissions, which are overwhelmingly generated from agriculture - paddy and livestock.

The study also showed a small winter peak in emissions, which the scientists say could be due to winter rice that makes up about 14 per cent of total rice production in India or due to increases in fossil fuel emissions.

Rice imports in 2018 to hit 1.7 MMT–USDA

By Jasper Y. Arcalas October 15, 2017

Philippine rice imports next year could increase by more than half to 1.7 million metric tons (MMT), from the 1.1 MMT projected for 2017, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) had earlier said that the scrapping of the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice would boost demand for lower-priced imports.The latest projection of the USDA-FAS for 2018, however, is lower by 100,000 metric tons (MT). The FAS attributed this to the change in the National Food Authority‘s (NFA) importation policy. ―Philippine imports are trimmed 100,000 MT to 1.7 MMT based on limitations set by the government on import arrival times,‖ the USDA-FAS report read.

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In Photo: A farmer piles up grain harvested from a rice field in Nueva Ecija. FILE PHOTO

The USDA-FAS also slashed its forecast for rice exports to the Philippines this year by 500,000 MT to 1.1 MMT. However, its latest forecast was still higher by 37.5 percent than last year‘s estimate of 800,000 MT. ―Philippine imports are cut 500,000 MT to 1.1 MMT based on government announcements that the minimum access volume [MAV] imports will be allowed beginning in late-December,‖ the report read.Despite this, total milled rice traded globally this year would remain at 44.557 MMT, according to the USDA-FAS.―Global trade is nearly unchanged this month, as larger imports by Bangladesh and Nigeria nearly offset reductions for the Philippines and Ghana,‖ it said.

In a separate report, the USDA-FAS projected that Philippine milled-rice production next year would reach 11.20 MMT, 4.19 percent lower than the estimated 11.69-MMT output this year.

The USDA-FAS attributed the decrease to the expected contraction in area planted with rice next year. Data from the USDA-FAS showed that the country‘s rice areas next year may shrink to 4.5 million hectares, from 4.72 million hectares this year.

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For this year, the NFA Council (NFAC) revised the rules and regulations governing rice imports under the MAV scheme, staggering the arrival of shipments into two periods. The NFAC is the highest policy-making body of the NFA. Under Memorandum Circular AO-2017-08-002, rice imported by the private sector will arrive from December 20 until February 28, 2018, and from June 1, 2018 until August 31, 2018.

Rice traders and farmers‘ groups can import 293,100 MT of rice from Thailand and Vietnam.

They can also import 50,000 MT of rice from China, India and Pakistan; 15,000 MT from Australia; and 4,000 MT from El Salvador.

Based on the list uploaded on the NFA‘s web site, as of September 25, 297 private firms and cooperatives are seeking to import 2.2 MMT of rice under the MAV scheme https://businessmirror.com.ph/rice-imports-in-2018-to-hit-1-7-mmt-usda/

Sri Lanka returns to MRPs, confirms international orders to steer rice supply

2017-10-14 00:00:50

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Minister Bathiudeen (centre) addresses the special press conference joined by the Secretary of Ministry of Industry and Commerce Ranjan Asoka (right) and Chairman of Lanka Sathosa TMKB Tennakoon (left) Sri Lanka has confirmed the purchase of 500000 metric tons of rice from four global suppliers to face pressure from its domestic markets distressed by paddy shortfall for three straight seasons. Shipments from one country are already being offloaded at Colombo Port. Sri Lanka is also returning back to its scrapped rice MRPs in the next two weeks. ―As a result of these purchases, we have overcome any rice shortages and prices are back to low levels,‖ said Minister of industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, addressing a special press conference on rice supplies and other essential product prices at his ministry. ―The aim of the Cost of Living Committee (CoLC) of the government is to support our consumers with lowest prices. As a result of shortfall in the local paddy production for three seasons, we experienced rice shortages and higher prices in the local market,‖ said Minister Bathiudeen, and added: ―Based on estimates of rice supply shortages in the coming months, CoLC ordered 500,000 MT rice to be imported from abroad. As a result my officials at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce ordered rice 500,000 MT rice from Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand and India. The 100,000 MT ―raw rice‖ (Nadu) ordered from India has already started arriving; 8890 MT of it is now being offloaded at Colombo Port. This is a government to foreign private sector order. ―The rest –the 400,000 MT from other three countries are government-to-government purchases and includes other varieties of rice as well. As a result of these purchases, we have overcome any rice shortages and prices are back to low levels. The Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) under my Ministry is receiving these government imported rice stocks and releases them to Lanka Sathosa under this Ministry to be sold at low prices to the consumers. I am pleased to say that today Lanka Sathosa has the lowest rice prices in the market compared to other local supermarkets. White raw (sudu kekulu) at Rs 65 per kilo, white raw samba Rs 90, samba Rs 84, and Nadu Rs 74. ―Recently we removed the maximum retail prices imposed on rice due to requests from private sector to stabilise market prices and to stop mixing of local and imported rice but the MRP removal was not successful. Therefore we are planning to bring back max retail prices, perhaps as early as the end of this month. ―Lanka Sathosa has also very low prices on other essential items-white sugar Rs 107, red lentils Rs 152, spratts Rs 99, B onions Rs 134, potatoes Rs 125, and gram 425 salmon at Rs 129, and coconuts at 65. Lanka Sathosa is also planning to give special discounted promotions to 500 products in the coming season. There will be many brand promotions too. We will be opening 50 new branches in the next two months. We are also in discussions with the Ministry of Public 21

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com Administration and Home Affairs to open mini-sized Lanka Sathosas in conjunction with their 332 Divisional Secretariats (Pradeshiya Lekam offices) so that the Lanka Sathosa network becomes even more accessible.‖ As a support measure to private sector importers, the Consumer Affairs Authority under Minister Bathiudeen temporarily removed all MRPs imposed on rice in August 2017 (Order no 45, Gazette No 2032/25), to which the Minister shall revert to, likely with new and lower rice prices. http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Sri-Lanka-returns-to-MRPs-confirms-international-orders-to-ste

Vietnamâ€&#x;s rice prices up on low supply Low supplies boosted rice prices in Vietnam this week amid prospects of fresh purchase interest from the Philippines, while deals with Bangladesh remained the sole bright spot for the otherwise subdued demand in top Asian exporters. Traders in Vietnam quoted the benchmark 5-percent broken rice at $390-395 a tonne, free-on-board (FOB) Saigon, up from the $385-$390 last week. "Supply is low after the summerautumn crop was completely harvested, bringing prices up. Some sellers held back grains in an attempt to make larger profits," a trader in Ho Chi Minh city said.

"As for trading, Philippines will import rice from Vietnam, Thailand and other countries under the MAV (Minimum Access Volume) 2017. I think they'll buy around 290,000 tonnes from Vietnam, same as last year." However, another trader said no deals have been finalised. The Philippines opened the rice import scheme, Minimum Access Volume 2017, in August to private traders in Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and India, the National Food Authority (NFA) said on its website. As of late September, importers in the Philippines have applied to buy over 2.2 million tonnes, mostly from Thailand and Vietnam, according to the NFA document. Meanwhile, Bangladesh, which has emerged as a major importer this year after floods damaged its crops and sent domestic rates soaring, has finalised deals to import 250,000 tonnes of parboiled rice from Thailand and India.

Bangladesh has also approved the purchase of 100,000 tonnes from Myanmar, setting aside a rift over an ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis. In India, the 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices eased by $2 per tonne to the $400-$403 level on expectations of a rise in supply. "From the end of this month, supplies from the new season crop will rise," said an exporter in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Thailand's benchmark 5-percent broken rice prices dropped to $380-$388 a tonne, FOB Bangkok, from the $385-$390 range last week, traders said. "With the exception of Bangladesh, there hasn't been much demand from other countries. We expect Bangladesh to demand more rice until the end of the year," said a Bangkok-based trader. Thai prices are likely to remain stable, traders said, even as the market takes stock of the impact of recent floods in the country. "It is still too soon to tell whether there will be damage to crops because most of the rice has already been harvested," said Charoen Laothamatas, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association. https://fp.brecorder.com/2017/10/20171015226534/

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Rice to become more expensive due to „disastrous‟ EU import rules

The price of a curry will rise from December due to “disastrous” new EU import restrictions on rice, politicians have warned.

The EU Commission has ordered basmati manufacturers to slash levels of the pesticide Tricyclazole to a hundredth of its current legal level, despite being told it is impossible to do so sustainably in less than three years. The compound has been used by Indian farmers, who produce roughly 60 per cent of the world‘s basmati, to protect against rice blast disease for the last 30 years.

Current EU restrictions limiting traces to 1 mg/kg were already considered conservative compared to Japanese and US import limits of 3 mg/kg.But in June the Commission ruled traces must be all but eradicated from December. The Indian Government has said it would take producers at least three harvests over three years to effectively modify their crops, and that the abrupt change of rules will hand a monopoly to Pakistan, where the pesticide is not used.You don‘t need a PhD in business and economics to realise that if you ban imports from a country that grows 60 per cent of the world‘s rice, the price will go upSyed Kamall MEP Syed Kamall, Conservative MEP for London, said: ―This could have a disastrous effect on farmers‘ livelihoods in India, and at the same time we in Britain will end up paying more for our favourite rice.‖ He added: ―I am calling on the Commission to delay implementation of this order

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com to give the Indians time to make their crop comply, especially since no-one is seriously claiming that Indian Basmati rice has suddenly become unsafe to eat. ‖ A letter from India‘s Ambassador in Belgium, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, said the Commission took its decision on the basis of a ―precautionary principle‖ without knowing the carcinogenic effect of Tricyclazole, a fungicide. He said: ―Indian suppliers who have built the Indian brands of basmati rice over four decades would be precluded from the EU market based on the EU decision.‖ The EU currently imports around 360,000 tonnes of basmati rice a year, of which 150,000 tonnes comes to the UK. Around 80 per cent is brown, and 20 per cent white.The ruling threatens farmers' livelihoods CREDIT: AFP ―You don‘t need a PhD in business and economics to realise that if you ban imports from a country that grows 60 per cent of the world‘s rice, the price will go up," said Dr Kamall. Basmati is popular because of its versatility, aroma and ability to absorb flavours of the dish it accompanies. The EU regulation states: ―In view of the long shelf life of rice, this Regulation should provide for a transitional arrangement for rice grown in 2016 or before, in order to allow for the normal marketing, processing and consumption of rice. ―However taking into account the uncertainties regarding certain properties of Tricyclazole, the timelines foreseen in this Regulation do not allow for any treatment with Tricyclazole in 2017 or thereafter.‖ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/14/rice-become-expensive-due-disastrous-eu-import-rules/

Rice imports in 2018 to hit 1.7 MMT–USDA Philippine rice imports next year could increase by more than half to 1.7 million metric tons (MMT), from the 1.1

MMT

according

projected to

the

for

2017,

United

States

Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The

USDA

Foreign

Agricultural

Service (USDA-FAS) had earlier said that the scrapping of the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice would boost demand for lower-priced imports. The latest projection of the USDA-FAS for 2018, however, is lower by 100,000 metric tons (MT). The FAS attributed this to the change in the National Food Authority‘s (NFA) importation policy.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com ―Philippine imports are trimmed 100,000 MT to 1.7 MMT based on limitations set by the government on import arrival times,‖ the USDA-FAS report read. The USDA-FAS also slashed its forecast for rice exports to the Philippines this year by 500,000 MT to 1.1 MMT. However, its latest forecast was still higher by 37.5 percent than last year‘s estimate of 800,000 MT. ―Philippine imports are cut 500,000 MT to 1.1 MMT based on government announcements that the minimum access volume [MAV] imports will be allowed beginning in late-December,‖ the report read. Despite this, total milled rice traded globally this year would remain at 44.557 MMT, according to the USDA-FAS. ―Global trade is nearly unchanged this month, as larger imports by Bangladesh and Nigeria nearly offset reductions for the Philippines and Ghana,‖ it said. In a separate report, the USDA-FAS projected that Philippine milled-rice production next year would reach 11.20 MMT, 4.19 percent lower than the estimated 11.69-MMT output this year. The USDA-FAS attributed the decrease to the expected contraction in area planted with rice next year.

Data from the USDA-FAS showed that the country‘s rice areas next year may shrink to 4.5 million hectares, from 4.72 million hectares this year. Meanwhile, yield per hectare is projected to maintain at 3.95 MT per hectare. For this year, the NFA Council (NFAC) revised the rules and regulations governing rice imports under the MAV scheme, staggering the arrival of shipments into two periods. The NFAC is the highest policymaking body of the NFA. Under Memorandum Circular AO-2017-08-002, rice imported by the private sector will arrive from December 20 until February 28, 2018, and from June 1, 2018 until August 31, 2018. Rice traders and farmers‘ groups can import 293,100 MT of rice from Thailand and Vietnam.

They can also import 50,000 MT of rice from China, India and Pakistan; 15,000 MT from Australia; and 4,000 MT from El Salvador. Based on the list uploaded on the NFA‘s web site, as of September 25, 297 private firms and cooperatives are seeking to import 2.2 MMT of rice under the MAV scheme. https://businessmirror.com.ph/rice-imports-in-2018-to-hit-1-7-mmt-usda/

PAU‘s nitrogen use practice gets thumbs up at Delhi meet Tribune News Service Ludhiana, October 15 The Indo-UK Nitrogen Virtual Joint Centres have declared the Punjab Agricultural UniversityLeaf Colour Chart (PAU-LCC) technology as the best nitrogen management practice to improve nitrogen use efficiency. They have also recommended it, ensuring the supply of the chart to all farmers in India.

Four scientists of the PAU, namely Dr Parveen Chhuneja, Dr Varinderpal Singh, Dr Satinder Kaur and Dr Jayesh Singh, represented the university at a meeting of the Indo-UK Nitrogen Virtual Joint Centres, held at the National Agricultural Science Complex, New Delhi, from October 3 to 5. The meeting aimed at discussing ‗Challenges and opportunities in agricultural nitrogen science in India.‘ This was followed by a meeting of ‗Cambridge India network for 25

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com translational research in nitrogen (CINTRIN)‘ in Hyderabad from October 5 to 7. More than 90 researchers from 46 research institutes across the globe discussed their works to improve the fertiliser nitrogen use efficiency.

Dr Varinderpal Singh, senior soil chemist, PAU, presented the university‘s work and discussed PAU-Leaf Colour Chart as a diagnostic tool to improve the efficiency and reduce escape of nitrogen from soil plant system to atmosphere. He said originally, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)-LCC was adopted by the PAU for need-based fertiliser nitrogen management in rice, maize and wheat. However, the colour strips of the IRRI-LCC could not precisely measure the leaf greenness differences of less than 10 SPAD (Chlorophyll metre) units and thus, restricted its wider application for need- based nitrogen management. The Department of Soil Science, PAU, modified the IRRI-LCC and improved the precision by introducing new colour strips (differing by 5 SPAD units) in PAU-LCC, he said. Discussing the benefits of PAULCC, he said it could be used for precision nitrogen management in rice, wheat, maize and basmati rice to achieve potential yield.

Dr Varinderpal Singh further said farmers in Bassian village were happy with the use of PAULCC in rice and had saved 50 to 75 kg urea per acre in comparison to farmers‘ practice of applying 150 kg urea per acre. http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/ludhiana/pau-s-nitrogen-usepractice-gets-thumbs-up-at-delhi-meet/482867.html

History News of The Week – Ancient Amazonians, Rapa Nui and Medieval Jewellery Daryl WorthingtonPosted date: October 15, 2017

The biggest history news stories of the last seven days, including a study claiming Amazonians domesticated wild rice 4,000 years ago, new insights into the history of the Rapa Nui, and an explanation of a Medieval jewellery manufacturing process.

Amazonians Domesticated Wild Rice 4,000 Years Ago Amazonian farmers were manipulating wild rice to boost food production more than 4,000 years ago, long before Europeans arrived in South America, according to new research.A team of scientists from the UK and Brazil have discovered the first evidence that ancient South American farmers had domesticated wild rice to grow bigger crops with larger grains. The researchers speculate that this knowledge may have been lost with the arrival of Europeans and the decimation of the indigenous population in 1492.

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Different species of rice were first grown around 11,000 years ago near the Yangtze River in China, and around 2,000 years ago in West Africa. Led by the University of Exeter, the latest study has unearthed evidence of successful rice farming on the vast wetlands of Guaporé River in Rondônia state, Brazil The study highlights the importance of the huge wetlands of lowland South America in providing food for the ancient settlers of the continent. Ancient inhabitants also managed to domesticate cassava, peanut and chilli pepper crops for food.

By analysing 16 samples of microscopic plant remains from ten different time periods, which were excavated by a team from the University of São Paulo in South West Amazonia, it was determined that more phytoliths – hard, microscopic pieces of silica made by plant cells, were found at higher ground level. This suggests that rice began to play a bigger role in the diet of the people who lived in the area over time, leading to increasing amounts being farmed.

It was also revealed that the Amazon residents likely became more efficient farmers over time.

Changes in the ratio of husk, stem and leaves at different ground levels suggest they brought more grain and fewer leaves to the site.

Professor Jose Iriarte, from the University of Exeter, who led the research, said: ―This is the first study to identify when wild rice first began to be grown for food in South America. We have 27

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com found people were growing crops with larger and larger seeds. Even though they were also eating wild and domesticated plants including maize, palm fruits, soursop and squash, wild rice was an important food, and people began to grow it at lake or river edges.‖ The results of the study have been published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

New Light Shed on the Mysteries of Rapa Nui The history of Rapa Nui, popularly known as Easter Island, has long been shrouded in mystery.

As well as the obvious fascination with the monolithic stone heads that dominate the island, the history of the Rapa Nui people prior to the arrival of Europeans is far from clear.

New palaeogenomic research carried out by a team of scientists led by University College Santa Cruz has shed some new light on Rapa Nui‘s ancient history. The study has ruled out any intermixing between the inhabitants of the incredibly remote island and other South Americans prior to the arrival of Europeans in 1772.

The international team of scientists, led by Lars Fehren-Schmitz, associate professor of anthropology at UC Santa Cruz, analysed bone fragments from the remains of five individuals excavated in the 1980s. Three of the individuals lived on the island prior to contact with Europeans, and two after. ―We found no evidence of gene flow between the inhabitants of Easter Island and South America,‖ said Fehren-Schmitz. ―We were really surprised we didn‘t find anything. There‘s a lot of evidence that seems plausible, so we were convinced we would find direct evidence of preEuropean contact with South America, but it wasn‘t there.‖ Previous research found genetic traces of early inhabitants of the Americas in present-day indigenous residents of Easter Island. It was suggested that this was likely the result of intermixing that occurred sometime between 1280 and 1425. Fehren-Schmitz is the first to use paleaogenomic analysis to test that hypothesis, and the results suggest that the contact must have happened after 1722. ―The most likely scenario is that there wasn‘t a single episode,‖ said Fehren-Schmitz.

Acknowledging that his results answer one question but leave many others unanswered, he said, ―The story is simply more complicated than we expected.‖ The findings don‘t solve one of the most enduring mysteries of Rapa Nui, which is how a landmass 1,300 miles from the nearest inhabited island and 2,200 miles from central Chile on the nearest continent of South America came to be populated. Some archaeologists have suggested that sea travel between Polynesia and the Americas was plausible, leading to the intermingling of 28

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com those populations and perhaps even the peopling of the Americas. Fehren-Schmitz pointed out in a statement that plausibility isn‘t proof. ―We want to do more work to determine more precisely when this gene flow between Native Americans and the people of Rapa Nui occurred, and where in the Americas it originated,‖ he said. ―The population dynamics of these regions are fascinating. We need to study the ancient populations of other islands–if remains exist.‖ New technological advances mean such insights could eventually be gained, yielding new clues from materials long kept in museum collections. ―Our methodologies have evolved so much in the last five years that we might need to re-study samples we gave up on in the past to see if we can get DNA out of them,‖ Fehren-Schmitz concluded.

Secrets of Medieval Jewellery Manufacture Revealed Scientists have gained startling insights into the techniques used to make gold jewellery in the Medieval period.

The techniques used by artisans to manufacture the gold-coated silver threads found in textiles from the Middle Ages have long perplexed historians, despite the wealth of examples in the form of artefacts available to study. Four decades of intensive research have yielded limited insights, comprehensive investigation of the materials restricted by their small size. A single metal thread is sometimes no thicker than a human hair, while its gold coating is only a hundredth of that.

Scientists from the American Chemical Society set out to fill in the knowledge gap. Tamás G. Weiszburg, Katalin Gherdán and colleagues examined medieval gilded silver threads, and silver and gold strips produced during and after the Middle Ages, from a variety of European cultures.

Using high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, electron back-scattered diffraction with energy-dispersive electron probe microanalysis and other analytical methods, the scientists were able to gather remarkable new insights. Their results suggest that the threads were gilded exclusively by using an ancient method that survived for a millennium. The goldsmiths simply heated and hammered the silver sheets and the gold foil together, and then cut them into strips.The results show that this process was used in the thirteenth century, and was still widely practiced well into the seventeenth century.These new insights, which are revealed in a study published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, could help scientists restore, preserve and date medieval artefacts. https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/methane-good-news-178697 29

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Meeting with Myanmar‟s Aung San Suu Kyi; journey to the Himalayas; next visit: Iran October 14, 2017, 10:00 PM

Jose C. De Venecia Jr.

By Jose C. De Venecia Jr.

We were travelling most of last month to Myanmar (which we, the older ones, still remember as Burma), to the Kingdom of Bhutan, high on the Himalayas; Dubai, the small bustling air travel and trading center of the United Arab Emirates, home to hundreds of thousands of Filipino overseas workers; and on to Iran, which everyone knows as the seat of the old Persian Empire, and which today is one of the leading petroleum powers, with Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the US.From Yangon, the old capital, my wife Gina and I travelled to the geographic center of the nation, Naypyidaw, the newly proclaimed capital. We were fortunate that in spite of the raging Rohingya crisis, where today some 500,000 Muslims, who had been living in Myanmar for decades were fleeing the endangered region to their ancestral Bangladesh, to escape persecution from the Myanmar military, Aung San Suu Kyi found time to receive us.

We conferred with Myanmar‘s constitutional senior government leader, an intelligent nononsense lady, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and much admired all over the world. In the last national elections, Aung San Suu Kyi‘s party, National League for Democracy (NLD), won overwhelming majority of the seats in parliament, in spite of many years under house arrest, but she could not be president under the terms of a military-influenced technicality in the Constitution because her late husband was British. As the senior leader in the Cabinet and largely running the country, she nominated the incumbent president and most cabinet posts, but the powerful ministries, defense, and security, are still held by the generals.

Accompanied by our old friends, Philippine Ambassador to Myanmar Eduardo Kapunan, Jr. and wife Elsa, we asked Aung San Suu Kyi, (who received us three years ago at her residence in Yangon, in the course of an Asian parties conference), to nominate her party‘s senior representatives to join the boards of our International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), based in Seoul, now composed of more than 340 ruling, opposition, and independent political parties in Asia, and the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP), based in New York, to which she enthusiastically agreed. This week we are sending her ICAPP‘s and IAPP‘s written invitations so she and her party would present their nominees.

With Ambassador Kapunan, we also raised the possibility of the Philippines acquiring perhaps 25,000 to 50,000 hectares of potential rice fields in Myanmar for a possible government-to30

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com government joint venture or an agreement among the Philippine private sector in partnership with Myanmar, hopefully with the bulk of rice production, following anticipated successful rice growing and shipment to the Philippines. The Philippines has been importing rice from Thailand and Vietnam in large volumes, as far we can remember, even when we were first assigned to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) as minister – Economic counselor there in 1966-1969 when we were 30, at the height of the Vietnam War. Today Vietnam is one of the world‘s major rice exporters, is industrializing and doing well.

Our friend Aung San Suu Kyi expressed much interest in the potential of Myanmar – Philippine economic collaboration and she asked our ambassador to immediately confer with her minister of agriculture. Upon return to Manila, we suggested to San Miguel Corporation Chairman Eduardo Cojuangco, a confirmed, successful, large-scale agriculturist, and San Miguel‘s dynamic President Ramon Ang and other leading agricultural-industrial groups to perhaps colead a Philippine private sector effort in a consortium that could present a helpful solution to the Philippines‘ perpetual rice crisis, with the current massive rice imports every year, largely from Vietnam and Thailand.

The Philippines is fragmented with 7,100 islands while Myanmar‘s land is massive, contiguous, perhaps larger than France and Ireland combined, and connected to Asia‘s two largest countries, China and India, the latter via Bangladesh. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Burma used to be ruled by the English Viceroy in British India. President Rodrigo Duterte might consider asking our capable Agriculture Secretary Piñol to look into this potential initiative in Myanmar.

We also asked the popular ambassador and former Armed Forces reformist to raise the possibility of joint Philippine-Myanmar exploration in Myanmar‘s rich oil-producing petroleum exploration concessions and explore establishment of an ASEAN-supported or Filipino-led Export Processing Zone with a petrochemical complex, as part of a combined agricultural – industrial initiative. We should be awaiting some feedback.

On the Rohingya crisis, we suggested the UN and ASEAN might propose an appreciable International Red Cross deployment in the Rakhine region, which will help, not inflame the refugees, and not alarm the Myanmar military.

From Myanmar, we flew back to Bangkok as there is no direct flight in the journey to the Kingdom of Bhutan, high on the mountain ranges, next door to Nepal. In the Himalayas, the Nepalese king sometime back was forced to abdicate the throne and gave way to an elected democratic civilian government, while the other Himalayan state Sikkim chose to give up its sovereignty and join the State of India.

We have been to the Himalayas a few times. In Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, the ruling Hindu Party and the Marxist Communist Party have their representatives on our Board in ICAPP. In Bhutan‘s Himalayan mountains, we were hoping to check on the Chinese-Indian military standoff but by the time we reached the capital, the crisis had calmed down, the forces in the highest hills had disengaged.

The well-loved Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and the prime minister were out of town but we had a delicious luncheon and good conversation with Bhutan‘s Chief Justice 31

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com Dasho Tshering Wangchuck, Foreign Minister Damcho Dorji, acting Speaker of Parliament Zigme Zangpo, and others, hosted by Bhutan‘s former ambassador to Thailand and Bangladesh Tsherung Dorji and his lady, who were introduced to us by former Thai Minister Nalinee Taveesin, Gina‘s friend, and our current ICAPP representative at the first Asia-Europe Political Forum, which met recently in Seoul, and which will now meet yearly among Asian and European political party leaders.

(We collectively set the trend a few years earlier with our bringing together Latin America‘s and the Caribbean‘s political parties under their regional organization, COPPPAL, with our ICAPP, followed by our successful encouragement of the founding of the Council of African Political Parties (CAPP), based in Khartoum, which is now a reality).

The Bhutanese leaders indicated their people are not living in paradise but are happy with God and with the world; their land has never been conquered; they live in a happy Kingdom, and national success is not measured in Gross National Product (GNP) but in Gross National Happiness (GNH). Our tourists should consider a visit there.

(Next week: our visit to Dubai and Iran and our pioneering journey to Saudi Arabia and in the Persian Gulf in the 1970‘s which helped lead to the employment of millions of Filipinos in the Arab world) https://news.mb.com.ph/2017/10/14/meeting-with-myanmars-aung-san-suu-kyi-journey-to-thehimalayas-next-visit-iran/

Rice County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisors attend training

Suzy Rook

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com Oct 13, 2017 Updated Oct 14, 2017 Supervisors from the Rice Soil and Water Conservation District attend the Soil and Water Conservation District Governance Conference Sept. 14-15 in Bloomington. Pictured, from left, are LeAnn Buck, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and Michael Ludwig and Timothy Little, Rice County SWCD supervisors

http://www.southernminn.com/faribault_daily_news/news/article_90aec5a5-d3f5-5e6b-97a6c7c9f4b12293.html

Rice to become more expensive due to 'disastrous' EU import rules

Most of the rice imported by the EU uses Tricyclazole CREDIT: ALAMY 

Henry Bodkin 14 OCTOBER 2017 • 10:00PM

The price of a curry will rise from December due to ―disastrous‖ new EU import restrictionson rice, politicians have warned.The EU Commission has ordered basmati manufacturers to slash levels of the pesticide Tricyclazole to a hundredth of its current legal level, despite being told it is impossible to do so sustainably in less than three years.

The compound has been used by Indian farmers, who produce roughly 60 per cent of the world‘s basmati, to protect against rice blast disease for the last 30 years.Current EU restrictions limiting traces to 1 mg/kg were already considered conservative compared to Japanese and US import limits of 3 mg/kg.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com But in June the Commission ruled traces must be all but eradicated from December.

The Indian Government has said it would take producers at least three harvests over three years to effectively modify their crops, and that the abrupt change of rules will hand a monopoly to Pakistan, where the pesticide is not used.

You don‘t need a PhD in business and economics to realise that if you ban imports from a country that grows 60 per cent of the world‘s rice, the price will go upSyed Kamall MEP

Syed Kamall, Conservative MEP for London, said: ―This could have a disastrous effect on farmers‘ livelihoods in India, and at the same time we in Britain will end up paying more for our favourite rice.‖ He added: ―I am calling on the Commission to delay implementation of this order to give the Indians time to make their crop comply, especially since no-one is seriously claiming that Indian Basmati rice has suddenly become unsafe to eat.‖ A letter from India‘s Ambassador in Belgium, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, said the Commission took its decision on the basis of a ―precautionary principle‖ without knowing the carcinogenic effect of Tricyclazole, a fungicide.

He said: ―Indian suppliers who have built the Indian brands of basmati rice over four decades would be precluded from the EU market based on the EU decision.‖ The EU currently imports around 360,000 tonnes of basmati rice a year, of which 150,000 tonnes comes to the UK.Around 80 per cent is brown, and 20 per cent white.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com The ruling threatens farmers' livelihoods CREDIT: AFP

―You don‘t need a PhD in business and economics to realise that if you ban imports from a country that grows 60 per cent of the world‘s rice, the price will go up," said Dr Kamall.

Basmati is popular because of its versatility, aroma and ability to absorb flavours of the dish it accompanies.

The EU regulation states: ―In view of the long shelf life of rice, this Regulation should provide for a transitional arrangement for rice grown in 2016 or before, in order to allow for the normal marketing, processing and consumption of rice. ―However taking into account the uncertainties regarding certain properties of Tricyclazole, the timelines foreseen in this Regulation do not allow for any treatment with Tricyclazole in 2017 or thereafter.‖ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/14/rice-become-expensive-due-disastrous-eu-import-rules/

A deadly plague epidemic, the evolution of skin color, and thrice-domesticated rice

BY ROBERT SCOTT ON 14 OCTOBER 2017SCIENCE

Giorgia Guglielmi

Deadly plague epidemic rages in Madagascar An epidemic of the deadliest form of plague, pneumonic, has hit major cities and towns in Madagascar and is spreading fast. As of 7 October, the Madagascar Health Ministry reported that 343 people had been infected and 42 died, and numbers are rising rapidly. A massive response is 35

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com underway, and the World Health Organization is on high alert. This poor island nation is regularly hit by plague outbreaks, but they are typically the relatively less dangerous bubonic form, transmitted from rats to humans by fleas, and occur largely in remote areas. New gene variants reveal the evolution of human skin color Most people associate Africans with dark skin. But different groups of people in Africa have almost every skin color on the planet, from deepest black in the Dinka of South Sudan to beige in the San of South Africa. Now, researchers have traced the evolution of a handful of new gene variants responsible for this palette of tones. While the dark skin of some Pacific Islanders can be traced to Africa, gene variants from Eurasia also seem to have made their way back to Africa.

And surprisingly, some of the mutations responsible for lighter skin in Europeans turn out to have an ancient African origin.

Watch the human genome fold itself in four dimensions Each human cell nucleus is packed with 2 meters of DNA wrapped around 46 chromosomes like a jumble of spaghetti. These ―noodles‖ are in constant motion as they adjust to what the cell needs to do, and these adjustments bring certain genes into contact so they can work together.

Now, researchers have visualized this dance at 20-minute intervals, so that they get a 4D rendering: They can see how this 3D structure changes over time. In doing so they have demonstrated how one protein helps orchestrate these movements.

Astronomers say they‘ve found many of the universe‘s missing atoms If you get frustrated when you can‘t find your keys, imagine how astronomers feel: For years, they‘ve been unable to locate roughly half the atoms they think the universe must contain. Now, researchers have tracked down a lot of that missing matter using radiation from the early universe that acts like a laser illuminating billowing smoke. The finding helps understand how the universe has evolved over time.

Rice so nice it was domesticated thrice Rice is unique among wild plants for having been domesticated independently on three continents: Asia, Africa, and now South America, researchers have discovered. The New World variety, tamed about 4000 years ago to produce larger grains, apparently was abandoned after Europeans arrived. But its genetic legacy could potentially help improve Oryza sativa, the Asian rice species that is now a dietary staple for half the world‘s population.

Scientists uncover source of Old Faithful‘s hot water supply If only humanmade plumbing were as reliable as Old Faithful‘s. Every 90 minutes or so, Yellowstone National Park‘s iconic geyser spews water and steam 40 meters high, on a schedule so precise that tourists know when to gather to watch the show. Now, by listening for seismic waves from the water and steam percolating through the ground near Old Faithful, geophysicists have caught a glimpse of the subsurface reservoir that supplies the clockwork gusher. http://gearsofbiz.com/top-stories-a-deadly-plague-epidemic-the-evolution-of-skin-color-andthrice-domesticated-rice/122952 36

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com

Zanzibar Ministry of Agriculture to reduce rice importation ARUSHA Tanzania (Xinhua) -- Tanzania‘s semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago will soon reduce importation of rice following increasing production of the commodity in recent years, a senior official said on Thursday.Hamad Rashid Mohamed, Zanzibar‘s Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources, Livestock, and Fisheries said that rice production has increased from 33,655 tonnes in 2013 to 39,000 tonnes, this year. ―To us, this is a very good move and soon we will reduce the amount of rice we have been importing annually,‖ the minister said in an interview.―One of our aims is to ensure an increase in local rice production, at the moment we import 80 percent of total rice consumed as it is the staple food of the island.‖ He explained: ―Zanzibar has a good climatic condition that favors rice production, so we‘re now focusing on irrigation as a means to increase rice production.‖Mohamed cited adoption of the system of rice intensification (SRI) as the secrete behind the increased rice production in the archipelago made up of Unguja and Pemba major islands with 1.4 million people. ―There are more farmers who are adopting the new rice farming techniques,‖ he said, adding that the aim is to produce as more rice as possible; hence stop from importing the cereal crop.

He described SRI as a redeemer to many farmers in the Indian Ocean Island as it can produce more than 10 tonnes of rice per hector.

According to him, the new drive will make the Islands has enough internal production that can sustain home consumption and meet foreign exchange earnings that can guarantee diversification of the economy.

The minister urged farmers to heavily venture into rice farming because of the readily market from the overgrowing population and the booming tourism sector in Zanzibar, which consists of several islands lying off the coast of East Africa in the Indian Ocean.

Located 32 kilometres east of the Tanzanian mainland, and six degrees south of the equator, Zanzibar was once, for the Arabic and sub-continent traders, the gateway to Africa, and, with its capital located in the Zanzibar‘s stone town which possessing the world heritage site. http://www.coastweek.com/4041-Zanzibar-Ministry-of-Agriculture-to-reduce-rice-importation.htm

LT Foods sets up USD 5 mn plant in US for ready-to-heat rice PTI | Oct 15, 2017, 10:57 IST 37

www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com New Delhi, Oct 15 () Leading basmati rice company LT Foods has set up a plant in the US for ready-to-heat organic rice with an investment of USD 5 million as it seeks to tap the huge market for this product in America.

The company is aiming to generate revenue of over USD 20 million in next five year from this product to be sold under organic food brand 'EcoLife', its CEO & MD Ashwani Arora said.

"We have set up a plant in the US to produce ready-to- heat organic rice. Trial run is happening and production will start from December. The total market size is USD 265 million in the US and growing at 14 per cent," Arora told .

This plant, the company's fourth facility outside India, will produce 20 million pouches of ready to heat organic rice initially and expand to 70 million pouches by 2018.

On investment, he said the initial capital investment on the plant is USD 5 million and the company expects to generate revenue of USD 21 million in next 5 years.

"We already have a strong presence in the US through our Basmati rice brand 'Royal' and we will be leveraging our strong presence and experience to grow our US market even further," Arora said.

LT Foods basmati rice brand 'Royal' is largest brand in the US with a market share of more than 40 per cent, he added.

The company, which posted a turnover of about Rs 3,300 crore during last fiscal, is continuously diversifying its product portfolio.

Besides, selling basmati rice under many brands, including 'Daawat', LT Foods has been focusing on organic food and rice snacks.

"Keeping a pulse on changing consumer trend to innovate and bring out products that is relevant to the change is one of the core strengths of LT Foods," Arora said.

"Changing consumer lifestyles, including longer working hours and multi-schedule household, is leading to unstructured meal times. Convenient, ready to heat rice options appeal to millennials," he said.

LT Foods' US plant will import all required ingredient from India, including basmati rice.

"The US is a big market for the company as it contributes Rs 1,000 crore to overall turnover," Arora said.

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www.ricepluss.com | www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com For Online/Newsletter Advertisment mujahid.riceplus@gamil.com Earlier this month, LT Foods announced foray into healthy snacks market and will invest USD 5 million (about 32 crore) on launch of rice-based snack products.

The company has partnered Japans Kameda Seika to launch premium rice based snacks brand Kari Kari in India. MJH BAL ABM https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/lt-foods-sets-up-usd-5-mn-plant-in-us-forready-to-heat-rice/articleshow/61087711.cms

Manipulations in rice and veg market 10:59, Oct 14, 2017 With the price of rice skyrocketing, life has become hard for the poor. Despite a lot of talk and initiative, the government rice reserves remain inadequate. This has had a negative impact on the market. Rice is being imported by both the government and private sectors, but prices refuse to go down.

Vegetable are also extremely costly with the price of eggplant doubling within a week to Tk 80 per kg. Cucumbers are Tk 90 per kg, string beans Tk 80, and bitter gourd (korolla) Tk 70. Even green chillies have shot up to Tk 250 per kg. No vegetable sells less than Tk 60 per kg in the market.

There are natural causes behind the price hike. Floods in the haors (marshlands) and 32 districts of the country caused extensive damage to the crops. The vegetable harvest has been less too.

The traders point to short supply in vegetables. Prices will go up if demand is higher than supply, but that does not mean nothing should be done about it.

The government has no idea how much rice is in private stocks, but the rice mill owners and rice traders are well aware that the government stock is low. There should be a probe into the private stocks of rice to ensure that prices are not being deliberately pushed by hoarders.

The price hike in rice is because of the fall in government food reserves, the crops being destroyed by the floods, and the unclear idea about how much rice is in the stock of the millers and traders. It is imperative that the government accelerate the import process and also speed up the rice procurement drive at a local level. This will certainly have a positive impact on the market.

The prices of vegetables may be high, but the farmers are not happy. They are not receiving payment anywhere near what the consumers are having to pay. It is the middlemen syndicate that is making the money as well the extortionists who collect ‗toll‘ during the transportation of the produce. This increases the price of vegetables and food grain excessively and this must be stopped http://en.prothom-alo.com/opinion/news/163005/Manipulations-in-rice-and-veg-market

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