17th april ,2017 daily globa regional & local rice e newsletter by riceplus magazine

Daily Global Rice

E-Newsletter

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April 17,2017 Vol 8 Issue IV

Today Rice News Headlines... Japanese technology to increase rice yields 5% tariff on rice imports, overhaul of NFA pushed Keep a close watch on rice prices How importers, smugglers held FG, farmers hostage for 37years Rice stock left to dry outside godown Kota Belud IADA implements Japanese technology to increase rice yields

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News Detail...

Japanese technology to increase rice yields April 17, 2017, Monday

KOTA BELUD: About 32.3 hectares of rice land in Kampung Jawi-Jawi, here, serves as the first area to implement the use of technology and modern machinery from Japan to increase farmers‘ rice yields.

Kota Belud Integrated Agriculture Development Area (IADA) director Salmah Labulla said the technology and modern machinery were similar to that used by Japanese farmers in their rice cultivation activities.

She said the approach would be implemented through a smart partnership between Kota Belud IADA and two private companies for a period of five years, with the first phase involving capital investments of RM2.5 million, which began last January.

She said the two companies were Alku Corporation, a company involved in the construction of agricultural machinery from Japan, and Semai Agro, a local service provider company. ―For the first phase, Kota Belud IADA allocated RM500,000, while the two companies invested RM2 million and provided the technology and modern machinery from Japan. They will help Kota Belud farmers to increase the yields of their rice, ‖ she told Bernama here recently.

Salmah also said that said six Japanese experts in each field namely drainage, area mapping, land preparation and harvesting, were at hand and given roles and responsibilities to ensure the success of the effort, apart from providing seven tractors and 20 implements, namely equipment for plowing and leveling the ground. http://www.theborneopost.com/2017/04/17/japanese-technology-to-increase-rice-yields/

5% tariff on rice imports, overhaul of NFA pushed By: Ben O. de Vera - Reporter / @bendeveraINQ Philippine Daily Inquirer / 01:00 AM April 17, 2017 Slapping an import tariff of 35 percent on rice imports alongside reforms in the agency mandated to stabilize both the supply and prices of the Filipino staple food will help temper rising inflation in the near term, the country‘s chief economist said.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told the Inquirer last week that among the measures that could mitigate rising prices of basic goods included ―passing the law that can tarrify

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rice in lieu of qualitative restriction (QR)‖ as well as ―reforming the National Food Authority to allow timely importation to forestall impending shortages.‖Pernia earlier said the recent upward trend in inflation needed to be closely monitored such that the government needed to implement timely mitigating measures to ensure that prices remained stable after headline inflation rose 3.4 percent year-on-year in March, the fastest rate of increase in prices of basic goods in 28 months.Inflation averaged 3.1 percent in the first quarter, past the midpoint of the government‘s 2 to 4 percent target range for 2017. In contrast, the average inflation rates during the past two years were both below 2 percent.The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expects further monthly inflation upticks until the third quarter.

Pernia said the state-planning agency National Economic and Development Authority, which he headed, was amenable to the proposal of state-run think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) to slap a 35-percent tariff on rice when the import quota system expires by the middle of this year.

Besides tarrification, PIDS was also pitching subsidies to farmers to improve agricultural productivity.In a policy note published last month titled ―Quantitative restriction on rice imports: Issues and alternatives‖ authored by Roehlano M. Briones, Ivory Myka Galang and Lovely Ann Tolin, the PIDS said there were two policy options that the government could pursue following the expiration of the so-called QR.―First is to extend the QR for two more years. The second and the preferred option is to pursue tariffication, with revenues earmarked as safety net for rice farmers,‖ Pids said.

Specifically, a 35-percent tariff rate seems appropriate as a tariff equivalent, according to the PIDS.Alongside slapping import duty on the Filipino staple food, PIDS proposed to financially support farmers. ―A safety net for rice farmers can be as much as P20 billion annually and can be financed entirely by earmarking funds from the tariff revenue.‖According to the PIDS, ―tariffication with safety nets will bring down the price of rice and ease the dislocation of rice farmers.‖Pids said that ultimately, removal of the QR would also increase imports and depress palay prices.Based on PIDS‘ projections under a scenario that the QR would be ultimately repealed while imposing a 35-percent tariff on rice, imports were expected to double and reach 4.4 million tons a year on the average from 2017 to 2022 http://business.inquirer.net/227810/35-tariff-rice-imports-overhaul-nfa-pushed#ixzz4eVStewDD

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Keep a close watch on rice prices Share it!

Published April 17, 2017, 12:05 AM

If rice prices start moving up in the coming weeks, it will be because our officials are still debating on whether our farmers are already producing enough for our consumers or we still have to import hundreds of thousands of tons of rice from Thailand and Vietnam.

Last month, the National Food Authority (NFA) called for the immediate importation of 250,000 tons as it foresees the usual shortage in the country. It said it is supposed to be buying our farmers‘ output at the government support price of P17 per kilo. But farm-gate prices have already gone up to P18 to P20 per kilo, it said, indicating low supply.

The NFA‘s decision, however, was opposed by other officials, notably Secretary of Agriculture Emmanuel Piñol, who has been pushing the country‘s rice farmers to increase their production with a variety of incentives, including free irrigation.

The Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), which seeks market reforms along with consumer protection, has taken a middle position. Stopping all rice importations is a dangerous policy that could lead to significant shortages, it said. At the same time, it does not believe in the policy of

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allowing only the NFA to import rice for the country. ―The government is a poor judge of the timing of rice imports,‖ it said. ―Decisions to import are best left to the private sector since it is in the interest of the private sector to import at the lowest possible price and in an amount that will not lead to an oversupply.‖ This position – leaving rice imports to the private sector – however, cannot be accepted by those who remember the time in a previous administration, when government allowed smuggled rice to dominate the market, discouraging local production. This was what prompted the government to take control of all importations via the NFA. We thus have so many opposing positions and President Duterte has put off making a final decision, perhaps until he returns from his state visit to the Middle East. Do we maintain the status quo of no importation, as Secretary Piñol insists? Does the government start importing, as the NFA wants? Should it all be left to the private sector, as the FEF proposes?

Right in the middle are the nation‘s consumers who will benefit or suffer from the ultimate decision. We continue to hope that we will succeed in achieving rice self-sufficiency, if not this year, then in the next one. But our ultimate concern is the Filipino consumer and rice prices must, therefore, be kept steady for him. http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/04/17/keep-a-close-watch-on-rice-prices/

How importers, smugglers held FG, farmers hostage for 37years

By Vincent A. Yusuf | Publish Date: Apr 16 2017 7:10AM Since 1980, rice has topped the list of the country‘s food import and until last year, the figures for rice import were on the increase.The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said that ―Figures available with the CBN show that from the period January 2012 to May 2015, the country spent over $2.41 billion on importation‖ of rice.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, while speaking in Abuja at the 2016 LEADERSHIP Conference and Awards on the topic ‗The Rice Economy‘ enumerated the many challenges confronting the nation‘s rice economy since 1980, said, ―the question I asked then (as a minister in 1982) was why not a taskforce for rice production? I was told I was too young to understand; that the solution was import first, then production later. This unusual and demeaning logic obviously reflected our ignorance about the dynamics of international trade.‖

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He stressed that, ―the moment the importers discovered the swiftness of the Nigerian market, they ensured that local production was not only disrupted but they made sure it never took place.

This is how rice kept coming and for a period of nearly 30 years, the import bill of rice stood at $6 million a day. And we kept paying because there was money from oil and gas until the music stopped.‖Ogbeh opined that the consequences of lack of discretion on the part of the nation on rice consumption have been a terrible drain on the economy, adding that ―Nigerians are the second highest importers of rice in the world.‖ The minister lamented that the resultant inability of the country to develop its own strategy of ensuring self-sufficiency in local staples, including rice has cost it a lot of money, stressing that ―We are now lamenting but there is no time for lamentation because I think we have started solving the problem.‖With a growing population, the country‘s demand for rice rose from less than a million metric tonnes in 1980 to 7 million metric tonnes of milled rice per annum.

Companies and individuals taking advantage of lack of government strong policy on rice went into importation and smuggling with no plan for backward integration.But the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, while in office said rice production in the country generated about N400 billion to the Nigerian economy between 2011 and 2013.Adesina told stakeholders in Abuja at the Second Nigeria Rice Investment Forum in 2014, that the country had attained 80 per cent self-sufficiency in paddy rice production and added 7 million metric tonnes of paddy rice to the domestic food supply in 2013.

Despite Akinwumi‘s claims of attaining 80% self-sufficiency in rice, importation and smuggling thrived on the nation‘s land and seaports and the imported product dominated the rice market.Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that warehouses were built at border towns to aid smuggling activities while corrupt Customs officials abetted the practice and local production was grounded.While local farmers were producing they lacked the market to sell their produce because millers sought import quota and were busy importing and/or smuggling.Rice farmers under the aegis of Rice Farmer Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) and rice millers quarreled over availability of the product with the former accusing the later of having more interest in importation of paddy than buying locally.

In November 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari launched the Anchor Borrowers‘ Programme for rice. The programme, which is being managed by the CBN, is to help the nation achieve selfsufficiency in rice production.Chief Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who are key drivers of the programme, promised Nigeria that this year (2017), the country will attain self-sufficiency and begin to export rice.That perhaps may not happen as the minister said recently in Abuja that 2018 is now the new target date to achieve self-sufficiency.

In November 2016, the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, a body consisting of over 25 million indigenous rice farmers, petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari that there was massive

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smuggling of rice into the country.They said documents at their disposal showed that shiploads of rice were being stored in neighbouring countries, ready to be smuggled into the country.

Mr. Abubakar Mohammed, the chairman of the processors and former Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), the secretary, in a joint statement in Abuja, urged the federal government to check the practice otherwise the local rice industry would die and over N200 billion worth of investment in the sector would be destroyed.Announcing a decision that did not go down well with local rice farmers and processors, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), in October 2016, ordered the immediate lifting of the ban on rice importation from the import restriction list and the re-introduction of import duty payment at land borders.

The argument was that ―Over the years importation has been restricted to the seaports because border authorities found it difficult to effectively monitor and control importation of rice. ―When the decision to ban it (rice) was taken it was not an effective measure because smuggling of the product thrived with people using different means of conveyance.‖ So what exactly has been the problem with the country‘s rice industry despite huge interventions by various governments, and why is the target for self-sufficiency difficult to achieve despite resources committed to the rice project?

Experts believe we must look totally inwards: provide quality and improved seeds, fertiliser and set up good milling machines, encourage backward integration and shutdown the borders to incoming rice. https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/business/how-importers-smugglers-held-fg-farmershostage-for-37years/193774.html

Rice stock left to dry outside godown Home States Odisha

By Express News Service | Published: 16th April 2017 02:02 AM | Last Updated: 16th April 2017 05:05 AM JEYPORE: Irregularities in functioning of private entrepreneur godowns, run by State Civil Supply Corporation at Dumuriput, have come to the fore as hundreds of quintals of PDS rice are drying up outside the godown for the past two weeks. The godown managers are yet to keep them in the storage room.According to sources, as per the rice delivery programme of the civil supply corporation, some millers had sent as many as 30 trucks of rice meant for PDS to private godown at Dumuriput in Koraput sub-division two weeks back from milling points of different parts of Koraput district and the rice should have been unloaded immediately after arrival of the trucks within 24 hours as per the norms.

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However, the private godown owner held up the trucks without any reason and the rice-laden trucks were halted outside storage points for days together. The millers complained about it to the State Civil Supply Department and Koraput district civil supply office and alleged that the rice has been drying up outside the godown due to unloading issues. This will only lead to damage of the rice stock. However, the godown owner informed that there was no space in the godown for stocking the rice.

Meanwhile, at a meeting here, the district rice millers‘ association have alleged that they have been facing harassment by both civil supply officials and private godown owners and threatened to stop delivery of PDS rice to private godowns if this continues. They also sent an SOS to State civil supply and consumer welfare secretary PK Mohaptra to look into the issue http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2017/apr/16/rice-stock-left-to-dry-outsidegodown-1594134.html

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Kota Belud IADA implements Japanese technology to increase rice yields Posted on 16 April 2017 - 02:19pm

Last updated on 16 April 2017 - 03:57pm

The Japanese machinery used to increase rice yields is introduced in Kampung Jawi-Jawi, Kota Belud, April 16, 2017. — Bernama

KOTA BELUD: About 32.3ha of rice land in Kampung Jawi-Jawi, here, serves as the first area to implement the use of technology and modern machinery from Japan to increase farmers' rice yields.Kota Belud Integrated Agriculture Development Area (IADA) director Salmah Labulla said the technology and modern machinery were similar to that used by Japanese farmers in their rice cultivation activities.

She said the approach would be implemented through a smart partnership between Kota Belud IADA and two private companies for a period of five years, with the first phase involving capital investments of RM2.5 million, which began last January.She said the two companies were Alku Corporation, a company involved in the construction of agricultural machinery from Japan, and Semai Agro, a local service provider company.

"For the first phase, Kota Belud IADA allocated RM500,000, while the two companies invested RM2 million and provided the technology and modern machinery from Japan. They will help Kota Belud farmers to increase the yields of their rice, " she told Bernama here recently.Salmah also said that said six Japanese experts in each field namely drainage, area mapping, land preparation and harvesting, were at hand and given roles and responsibilities to ensure the success of the effort, apart from providing seven tractors and 20 implements, namely equipment for plowing and leveling the ground. www.thesundaily.my/news/2017/04/16/kota-belud-iada-implements-japanese

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