24th august,2017 daily global regional local rice e newsletter

24th August,2017 daily global,regional and local rice e-newsletter by riceplus magazine Unedited Version www.ricepluss.com www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com

Despite floods, Thai rice output unchanged Bangkok Post / Khmer Times Share:

An aerial view of the floods in Sakon Nakhon province. Reuters

BANGKOK (Bangkok Post) – Around 1 million rai (160,000 hectares) of rice plantation in the Northeast was destroyed by the recent floods, but it is unlikely to have any severe effect on Thai rice production and export, with shippers and industry officials keeping rice export forecasts unchanged at 10 million tonnes.

Unexpectedly, flooding is expected to support the rise in Thai rice prices as global demand remains strong.

Thailand‟s Agriculture Ministry said that although areas cultivated with rice were affected by the floods, the annual production forecast remained unchanged at 28 to 30 million tonnes of paddy, or around 18 million tonnes of milled rice. This amount is sufficient for domestic consumption and abundant exports, the ministry said.

Tropical depression Sonca has lashed the province of Sakon Nakhon over the past few weeks, bringing the worst floods that the region has seen for two decades and briefly halting operations at Sakon Nakhon airport, inundating the city as well as agricultural areas.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the floods would cause a slight delay in the harvesting period of the major crop, which normally starts in late October, but it was unlikely to have any major impact on production, price or export outlook.

“The flooding would affect the production of glutinous rice, grown mostly in northeastern areas, but it would not hurt rice exports,” Mr Chookiat said. Glutinous rice makes up 10 to 20 percent of total Thai rice production.

He said the major negative factor hurting rice exports was the strengthening baht, making Thai rice prices uncompetitive in the eyes of some buyers paying with US dollars.

But Mr Chookiat and the Thai Rice Exporters Association are keeping the Thai rice export forecast unchanged at 10 million tonnes in 2017.

In addition to the stronger baht, the slight dip in supply caused by flooding in the Northeast at a time when global demand remains strong is expected to keep Thai rice prices rising, said an industry official.

The psychological effect of the recent floods has pushed paddy price up by 5 percent to 7,600 baht ($228.50) per tonne, up from 7,200 baht ($216.47) previously. That has pushed the offer price of Thai common grade white rice to $390 a tonne, free on

board, higher than the $340 a tonne offered by other major exporting countries such as India, Vietnam and Pakistan.

Wichai Phochanakij, deputy permanent secretary in the Commerce Ministry, said he expected the price of glutinous rice to be slightly higher because of falling supply caused by the recent floods, and that would help reduce pressure on prices during the harvesting period, when prices are typically weighed down by increasing supply

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5079415/desp ite-floods-thai-rice-output-unchanged/ Food

group exports from Pakistan up by 34.74% By DND August 23, 2017

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Food group exports from the Country during first month of current financial year increased by 34.74 percent as compared to the corresponding month of last year.

During the month of July 2017, different food commodities including rice, fish, meat, fruits, vegetables and spices worth US$ 250.860 million exported as compared the exports of US$ 188.180 million of same month of last year, according the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, rice exports from the Country grew by 28.49 percent and 200,995 metric tons of rice worth US$ 107.896 million exported as compared the exports of US$ 83.974 million of same period last year.

During the first month of current financial year Country earned US$ 32.990 million by exporting 30,951 metric tons of basmati rice as the basmati rice exports increased by 18.96 percent when it was compared with the exports of same month of last year.

Basmati rice exports from the Country during month of July 2016 was recorded at 28,725 metric tons valuing US$ 27.731 million, the data reveled.

Besides, 170,044 metric tons of rice other than basmati worth US$ 74.906 million exported as compared the exports of 135,367 metric tons valuing US$ 56.243 million of same period last year.

During first month of current financial year exports of fish and fish preparations grew by 12.19 percent where as exports of meat and meat products increased by 15.80 percent.

In month of July 2017 about 4,821 metric tons of fish and fish preparations worth US$ 12.473 million exported as compared the exports of 3,693 metric tons valuing US$ 11.118 million of same month last year.

READ Over Rs 276.995 billion released for developmental projects

During the period under review, about 4,167 metric tons of meat and meat products worth US$ 16.286 million exported as compared the exports of 4,138 metric tons valuing US$ 14.64 million of same period last year.

The food commodities including wheat and sugar witnessed tremendous increase in their respective exports during first month of the current financial year by showing 100 percent increase.

On the other hand food group imports into the Country during first month of current financial year swelled by 43.15 percent as compared the imports of same month last year.

The imports of food commodities into the Country was recorded at US$ 534.693 million as compared the imports of US$ 373.512 million of same month last year.

The major food items which had registered increasing trend in their respective imports included dry fruits, nuts tea, spices, soya bean and palm oil.

The food commodities with negative growth in their respective imports including tea and leguminous vegetables (pluses) and milk cream and milk food for infants. https://dnd.com.pk/food-group-exports-from-pakistan-up-by-34-74/133213

India revives traditional grains Thomson Reuters Foundation / Khmer Times Share:

Indian farmers are considering traditional rice varieties that are resistant to pests and disease, and capable of dealing with floods and drought. Reuters

THIRUTHURAIPOONDI, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – For Nel Jayaraman, the realisation that hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides were making farmers more vulnerable to extreme weather came slowly.

In fields near the town of Thiruthuraipoondi in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Mr Jayaraman saw yields falling and farmersâ€&#x; debt rising as their reliance on modern seeds and pesticides grew, even as the rains became increasingly fickle.

Fifteen years ago, Mr Jayaraman gave up both, returning to traditional varieties and organic farming methods that had become nearly extinct in the Cauvery river delta region where his family had lived for generations.

Since then, he has revived about 150 indigenous varieties of rice, and become an evangelist for traditional seeds and organic farming, which he sees as key to combating the impacts of climate change and protecting harvests and farmersâ€&#x; incomes.

“Hybrid varieties need more water, fertilisers and pesticides. They are just not sustainable in this region,” he argued in his small office as a steady stream of farmers walked in and out to talk to him or buy seeds.

“We should go back to traditional varieties that are suited to this soil that can withstand these conditions. It is the only way farmers can make a decent living.”

That is particularly crucial as Tamil Nadu faces its worst drought in more than a century, after the monsoon rains failed last year, he said.

As India‟s population expanded quickly after its independence from colonial rule in 1947, the government backed a programme to increase food production to meet rising demand.

The Green Revolution, launched in the 1960s, increased harvests with improved technology, including high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice developed by scientists, and greater use of chemical fertilisers.

While productivity rose, there has been criticism that the benefits were overstated, that the cultivation methods damaged the land and drained groundwater, and that the gene pool for staple crops narrowed, leaving farmers fewer options when faced with disease and drought.

Several organisations in southern India have since launched efforts to revive traditional cultivation and rice varieties.

The Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems (CIKS), for example, has revived dozens of traditional rice varieties that are resistant to pests and disease, capable of dealing with floods and drought, and that have valuable medicinal properties.

“Particularly for coastal regions such as this, you need varieties that can handle the higher salinity of the soil and groundwater, and are resistant to drought,” said Subhashini Sridhar at CIKS in neighbouring Nagapattinam district.

“You need a large and diverse genetic pool to preserve these qualities,” she said, citing the example of the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which hit Nagapattinam hard.

Afterward, only some traditional varieties could be successfully grown because salinity in the soil and groundwater was higher than normal.

About 60 percent of India‟s population depends on land to make a living.

But while agriculture made up more than two-thirds of a farm family‟s income in the 1980s, its share is less than a third today as commodity prices fall but the costs of seed, fertiliser and pesticides rise.

Rising debt – in part from harvests slashed by drought and uneven rainfall – has triggered tens of thousands of farmer suicides, including in Tamil Nadu.

Mr Jayaraman and Mr Sridhar see traditional seeds as a solution.

Farmers do not need to buy seed every year as they have to with hybrids – instead they simply save part of their harvest to replant – and the older varieties often need less water and do not need chemical fertilisers and pesticides, Mr Jayaraman said.

A move to healthy eating in India‟s cities has also sparked demand for traditional grains and organic fruits and vegetables, for which consumers are willing to pay more, he said.

About 37,000 farmers in the delta region are now cultivating traditional rice varieties, said Mr Jayaraman.

Irregular rainfall and extreme weather, including drought in the Cauvery delta over the past decade, have convinced more farmers of their merits, he said.

“But it can be hard to switch, as the government subsidises fertilisers and pesticides and gives cheap loans to farmers, leading them deeper into debt when crops fail or prices fall,” he said.

“Instead, they should subsidise organic farming and promote it better.”

India was once home to about 100,000 varieties of indigenous rice, but the Green Revolution wiped out most of them, and consumers began to prefer eating the finegrained, polished white hybrid varieties that were promoted by the government.

Government support for reviving traditional grains and for organic farming has been uneven.

The northeastern state of Sikkim became the first organic state in January 2016. Nine other states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, have an organic farming policy.

Separately, organic farming is also drawing an unlikely enthusiast – city dwelling professionals.

They include Senthil Kumar, a former software engineer who quit his job a year ago to focus on his 3-hectare organic farm, a two-hour drive from the southern city of Chennai where he lives.

“When I realised the impact of chemicals and pesticides on my health and the environment, I started looking at the organic alternative,” said Mr Kumar, who then set up a non-profit to train farmers and urban enthusiasts with some help from Mr Jayaraman.

“We have such a wealth of traditional grains, pulses and native cattle that benefited farmers for centuries. They are too valuable to lose,” he said. http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5079414/india-revives-traditional-grains/

Import of rice, wheat, diesel, fertilizer gets nod 24 August, 2017 12:00 AM

The Cabinet Purchase Committee at a meeting here on Wednesday approved a total of 21 proposals, including the import of 100,000 mt of wheat and 50,000 mt of non-bashmoti rice, reports UNB. The meeting, held with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair, gave the approval amid the growing concern over the possible food grain shortage due to the loss of crops in countrywide flooding.

The government has already withdrawn duty on rice import and also declared some banking facilities to encourage the import of food grains in the private sector.

As per the cabinet body‟s approval, the Food Ministry imports the food grains through international quotations.

Of these, Dubai-based Phoenix Global company won the contract to supply 50,000 mt nonbashmoti at a total cost of Tk 170.61 crore as per metric tonne of rice was quoted at $ $411.11.

Of the wheat, Aston company will supply 50,000 mt of wheat at a cost of Tk 104.16 crore as per metric tonne was quoted at $258 while another foreign company Agro Crop will supply 50,000 mt wheat at a total cost of Tk 103.49 as pere metric tonne of what was quoted at $249.31.

The Cabinet body approved another import proposal of the Energy Division to import 165,120 mt of diesel import from Indian Shiliguri to Bangladesh‟s Parbatipur through rail wagon. The premium for per metric tonne diesel was set at $5.50.

The other proposals which received approval include contract for Gazipur-Airport Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project, procurement of six rail-gantry crane for Chittagong port, contract for cyclone shelter construction in Laxmipur, contract award for construction of dual-gauge railway line from Dohazari to Cox‟s Bazar via Ramu, and Ramu to Gundum near Myanmar border.

The Cabinet purchase body also approved three separate proposals for the import of a total of 90,000 metric tonnes of fartiliser from three countries under government-to-government agreements.

Of these, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) will import 30,000 mt MOP fartiliser from Belarusian Potash Company while it will import 30,000 from Russia and the remaining 30,000 MOP fertiliser from Canadian commercial corporation http://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/250076/Import-of-rice-wheat-diesel-fertilizer-gets-nod

Liberia: Rice Price to Drop?

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With 48 days to the Presidential and Legislative Elections scheduled for October 10, 2017, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has issued an Executive Order suspending tariff on Liberia's staple food, rice. Executive No. 87 is an extension of Executive Order No. 80 - thus suspending tariff on rice.

A release from the Executive Mansion said this Executive Order takes effect as of August 22, 2017.

According to Executive Order 87, the President is quoted as saying "whereas, the Government of Liberia is committed to ensuring that the prices of certain basic commodities

on the Liberian market are affordable and do not impose unnecessary burden on the people; that the government conducted an assessment and evaluation on the causes of increases in the price of various strategic commodities, and intends to initiate measures to ameliorate the situation."

Although the price of rice has been high and uncontrollable for years, Executive Order noted that in furtherance of the findings of the assessment, government has recognized the need to curb the continuous increase in the price of rice, the country's staple, in order to make it affordable for purchase.

The Executive Order further disclosed "there exists a need for exigent measures to achieve the desired objectives of easing the economic burden on the citizens and residents to enable access to the staple food and such measures cannot await long Legislative processes; and whereas in the exercise of the Executive Power vested in the President by the Constitution, the President issued Executive Orders No. 11, 19, 45, 61, 70, and 80 suspending import tariffs on rice in the interest of the public, and circumstances again necessitate similar measures."

"Now therefore, the Government of Liberia in its desire to continue bringing relief to the public hereby extends Executive Order No. 80, suspending the import tariff on rice as classified under Tariff No. 1006.30.00 (in packaging of more than 5kg or in bulk); 1006.30.00 (in packaging of at least 5kg); and 1006.40.00 (broken rice) under the revenue Code of Liberia Act 2000 as amended," Executive Order No. 87 concluded.

It remains unclear whether the price of rice will reduce in line with the presidential order as the government through the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has always said it has no control over prices. http://allafrica.com/stories/201708231035.html

AUGUST 23, 2017 / 3:01 PM / A DAY AGO

Bangladesh to import 250,000

tonnes rice from Cambodia at $453/T Reuters Staff 3 MIN READ

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DHAKA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Bangladesh will import 250,000 tonnes of white rice at $453.00 a tonne from Cambodia in a government-togovernment deal, two food ministry officials said on Wednesday, more expensive than a previous deal.

Rice is a staple food for Bangladesh's 160 million people and high prices pose a problem for the government which faces a national election next year.

The country produces around 34 million tonnes of rice annually but uses almost all its production to feed its population, and often requires imports to cope with shortages caused by floods or droughts.

The government is building buffer stocks to combat high domestic prices after flash floods in April wiped away around 1 million tonnes of rice output, with ongoing floods, more severe, set to destroy more.

"The proposal to import rice from Cambodia is currently awaiting approval," one of the officials said.

Bangladesh, the world's fourth-biggest rice producer, has emerged as a major importer of the staple grain, with the government seeking to import as much as 1.5 million tonnes in the year to June.

Early this month, the government agreed to buy 1 million tonnes of rice from Cambodia, its firstever deal with the country, over the next five years.

It has so far imported 200,000 tonnes of white rice at $430 a tonne and 50,000 tonnes of parboiled rice at $470 a tonne from Vietnam in a state-to-state deal at rates much higher than in tenders.

Growing demand from Bangladesh could help stoke Asian rice prices that hit multi-year highs in June.

The state grains buyer is issuing a series of tenders after its initial talks with Thailand and India suffered a setback over high prices.

The government is also in talks with Myanmar to import rice, while it is engaged in a second round of discussions with Thailand and India.

Although it slashed the duty on rice imports last week to 2 percent from 10 percent, the second cut in less than two months, rice prices have dropped only slightly.

Bangladesh also needs to import sizeable quantities of wheat after floods damaged its crops, but tough state purchasing conditions and slow ship unloading in ports mean trading houses are unwilling to sell the grain. (Reporting

by Ruma Paul; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath https://in.reuters.com/article/bangladesh-rice-cambodia-idINL4N1L93EP

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Thursday, August 24, 2017 Editions

Bangladesh's trade deficit poised to rise as rice imports skyrocket Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-23 21:18:31|Editor: Yurou

DHAKA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's imports surged over 37 percent to 4.50 billion U.S. dollars in the first month of the current 2017-18 fiscal year

(July 2017-June 2018) as imports of rice skyrocketed amid flesh floods in parts of the country, officials said Wednesday.

"Increased importation of rice in the last month pushed up the over all import bills," said a central bank official who did not like to be named.

He said imports also quickened last month, outpacing exports as domestic demand or ready-made garment items and capital machinery propelled the overall economic growth.

Driven by ready-made garments, Bangladesh's exports in July surged over 26 percent to 3.21 billion U.S. dollars.

According to the official, rice imports climbed over 200 percent to a record 69.63 million U.S. dollars in the last last month against 21.17 million U.S. dollars in the previous month.

Quoting the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, the official said the settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual imports, stood at 4.50 billion U.S. dollars in the July compared to 3.64 billion dollars in the same period a year earlier.

Overall import orders also surged by 26 percent in the July, showed the BB data.

The overall import orders, officially known as fresh opening of import letters of credit (LCs), increased to 5.06 billion dollars in July against 3.89 billion dollars in the same period of the last 2016-17 fiscal year, it showed.

Officials say rice imports jumped as after the second round of flooding the Bangladeshi government in June eased import duty on rice to 10 percent from 28 percent in a bid to stabilize the domestic market.

Bangladesh last week again announced to cut import duty on rice further to 2 percent amid flash floods.

Bangladeshi Food Minister Qamrul Islam said the government decided to import 1.5 million tons of rice in the current 2017-2018 fiscal year in an effort to replenish reserves and rein in prices of the staple in the wake of the flooding.

Apart from this, he said Bangladesh will import 500,000 tons of wheat in the current fiscal year.

Flash floods struck Bangladesh in March, causing huge loss of boro (winter) rice. Apart from this, rice blast disease has also affected boro rice production elsewhere in the country.

Against such circumstances, prices are seen rising in the short term on a supply shortage.

The situation seems to have worsened in Bangladesh in the last couple of week as fresh floods have reportedly hit 20 districts, mostly in the country's north, leaving dozens of people dead.

As rice imports skyrocket, officials said, Bangladesh trade deficit may widen further in the coming months, if the existing trend of export earnings and import payments continues

Rice import trapped in plastic bags  

Shafiqul Islam Published at 01:58 PM August 23, 2017

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Last updated at 12:27 AM August 24, 2017

A trader says a ton of rice would cost Tk1,000 more if exporters supplied rice in jute sacks.Representational image/Bigstock

At least 50,000 tons of rice are stuck at ports, a trader says Thousands of tons of imported rice are stuck at the ports as businessmen are yet to get clearance from customs authorities.

The problem lies in the plastic sacks since the government has made it mandatory to use jute sacks for transportation, preservation, stocking and marketing of rice and 12 other products.

Bangladesh, the worldâ€&#x;s fourth-biggest rice producer, was hit by floods in recent months which hit the domestic output and pushed up rice prices. There is little sign that the situation will improve soon.

Amid dwindling state reserves, the government slashed taxes on rice imports to 2% from 28% to replenish supplies and cool the soaring prices.

Sources say the Textiles and Jute Ministry has ignored a request from the Commerce Ministry to allow the rice importers to unload their consignments, and is instead advising the importers to approach the prime minister directly to resolve the issue.

However, traders said only the Textiles and Jute Ministry can break the stalemate since it issued the order on using jute sacks. Sources say the ministry is yet to comply with a directive from the Prime Ministerâ€&#x;s Office to solve the problem.

Disgruntled businessmen pointed out that customs had given clearance to rice imported in plastic sacks from Vietnam and Thailand under the government-to-government agreement, but was unwilling to give approval when it came to private importers.

“At least 50,000 tons of rice are stuck at various ports and we fear that rain will damage the rice,” one importer said on condition of anonymity. “It will negatively impact the rice market and the economy.”

Several traders said exporters had packed the rice in plastic as they were not bound to use jute sacks for the transportation or preservation of the commodity.

“The price of each ton of rice would have gone up by Tk1,000 if we supplied rice in jute sacks. In that case, the government‟s purpose would not have been fulfilled and the rice price would not go down,” the importer said.

Food Minister Qamrul Islam said the problem will be solved eventually. “Even if the imported rice hits the market late, it will have a positive impact,” he added.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said he could do nothing about the situation as it was not under his ministry but added that he had requested the textiles and jute secretary to relax the order on sacks for the sake of the businessmen.

“I hope it will be resolved soon,” he said http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/08/23/rice-import-trapped-plastic-bags/

GoL suspends tariff on rice 23 August 2017

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has issued Executive Order No. 87; extending Executive Order No. 80 - thus suspending tariff on rice. This Executive Order went into immediate effect on August 22, 2017.

An Executive Mansion release said, whereas, the Government of Liberia is committed to ensuring that the prices of certain basic commodities on the Liberian market are affordable and do not impose unnecessary burden on the people; that the government conducted an assessment and evaluation on the causes of increases in the price of various strategic commodities, and intends to initiate measures to ameliorate the situation; Executive Order No. 87 notes that in furtherance of the findings of the assessment, Government has recognized the need to curb the continuous increase in the price of rice, the country‟s staple, in order to make it affordable for purchase.

The Executive Order furthered: “There exists a need for exigent measures to achieve the desired objectives of easing the economic burden on the citizens and residents to enable access to the staple food and such measures cannot await long Legislative processes; and whereas in the exercise of the Executive Power vested in the President by the Constitution, the President issued Executive Orders No. 11, 19, 45, 61, 70, and 80 suspending import tariffs on rice in the interest of the public, and circumstances again necessitate similar measures;

Executive Order No. 87 is concluded as saying: “Now therefore, the Government of Liberia in its desire to continue bringing relief to the public hereby extends Executive Order No. 80, suspending the import tariff on rice as classified under Tariff No. 1006.30.00 (in packaging of more than 5kg or in bulk); 1006.30.00 (in packaging of at least 5kg); and 1006.40.00 (broken rice) under the revenue Code of Liberia Act 2000 as amended.”-Press release

http://www.thenewdawnliberia.com/politics/14595-gol-suspends-tariff-on-rice

Flood situation improves further STAFF REPORTER

A girl dries her textbooks in flood-hit Botahdoi in Dhemaji, on Saturday. – UB Photos

GUWAHATI, Aug 19 - The prevailing flood situation in the State has showed further signs of improvement with floodwaters receding in nine districts today, even as the cumulative figure concerning flood-related death during the current wave has shot up to 63.

However, 22,11,265 people are still reeling under flood in 1,791 villages under 50 revenue circles of 16 districts of the State. Of them, 68,014 people are still taking shelter in 191 relief camps in 13 districts.

During the current wave of flood, 4,33,918 flood-hit people had to take shelter in 923 relief camps, said the official flood bulletin issued by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) here this evening.

Between August 10 and the afternoon of August 18, the NDRF, SDRF, CRPF, Army, police, frest and revenue authorities personnel and the local community rescued 51,197 marooned people in 26 districts.

As of today, a total crop area of 1,18,362 hectares have still remained affected by the floodwaters.

The districts still reeling under floodwaters are Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat and Majuli.

Today, the Brahmaputra was flowing above danger level at Neamatighat and Dhubri, while its tributaries Dhansiri (South), Jia Bharali, Kopili and Beki are also flowing above their respective danger levels at Numaligarh, NT Road Crossing, Dharamtul and Road Bridge points respectively, the flood bulletin stated.

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=aug2017/at059

Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- August 4, 2017 CommoditiesAug 04, 2017 14:10

Š Reuters. Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- August 4, 2017

Nagpur Foodgrain Prices - APMC/Open Market-August 4 Nagpur, August 4 (Reuters) - Gram and tuar prices recovered further in Nagpur Agriculture Produce and Marketing Committee (APMC) here on good festival season buying support from local millers amid thin supply from producing regions. Healthy rise in Madhya Pradesh gram prices and reported demand from South-based millers also pushed up prices. About 1,100 of gram and 900 bags of tuar were available for auctions, according to sources.

FOODGRAINS & PULSES

GRAM * Desi gram reported higher in open market on good demand from local traders amid weak supply from producing regions.

TUAR * Tuar gavarani and tuar Karnataka reported down in open market on lack of demand from local traders. * New rice arrival reported strong in open market on increased demand from local traders amid weak supply from producing regions. * In Akola, Tuar New - 3,400-3,6500, Tuar dal (clean) - 5,100-5,400, Udid Mogar (clean) - 7,200-7,900, Moong Mogar (clean) 6,500-7,200, Gram - 4,500-4,700, Gram Super best - 7,400-7,700 * Wheat, other varieties of rice and other commodities moved in a narrow range in scattered deals and settled at last levels in thin trading activity.

Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg FOODGRAINS Available prices Previous close Gram Auction 4,400-5,174 4,400-5,010 Gram Pink Auction

n.a.

2,100-2,600 Tuar Auction 3,500-3,865 3,400-3,800 Moong Auction n.a.

3,900-4,200 Udid Auction n.a.

4,300-4,500 Masoor Auction n.a.

2,600-2,800 Wheat Mill quality Auction 1,600-1,717 1,550-1,708 Gram Super Best Bold 7,500-8,000 7,500-8,000 Gram Super Best

n.a. n.a.

Gram Medium Best 6,700-7,000 6,700-7,000 Gram Dal Medium n.a. n.a Gram Mill Quality 5,000-5,100 5,000-5,100 Desi gram Raw 4,750-4,950 4,700-4,900 Gram Yellow 7,100-8,100 7,100-8,100 Gram Kabuli 12,300-13,400 12,300-13,400 Tuar Fataka Best-New

5,400-5,700 5,400-5,700 Tuar Fataka Medium-New 5,200-5,300 5,200-5,300 Tuar Dal Best Phod-New 5,000-5,200 5,000-5,200 Tuar Dal Medium phod-New 4,700-5,000 4,700-5,000 Tuar Gavarani New 3,500-3,600 3,600-3,700 Tuar Karnataka 3,600-3,800 3,700-3,900 Masoor dal best 4,700-4,900 4,700-4,900 Masoor dal medium

4,400-4,600 4,400-4,600 Masoor n.a. n.a.

Moong Mogar bold (New) 6,700-7,000 6,700-7,000 Moong Mogar Medium 6,000-6,500 6,000-6,500 Moong dal Chilka 5,200-5,800 5,200-5,800 Moong Mill quality n.a. n.a.

Moong Chamki best 6,400-6,800 6,400-6,800 Udid Mogar best (100 INR/KG) (New) 7,500-8,000

7,500-8,000 Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG) 6,500-7,000 6,500-7,000 Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG) 4,000-4,500 4,000-4,500 Batri dal (100 INR/KG) 4,500-5,000 4,500-5,000 Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg) 2,800-3,000 2,800-3,000 Watana Dal (100 INR/KG) 2,850-3,000 2,850-2,950 Watana White (100 INR/KG) 3,500-3,700 3,500-3,700 Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG) 4,100-4,600

4,100-4,600 Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG) 1,900-2,000 1,900-2,000 Wheat Mill quality (100 INR/KG) 1,750-1,850 1,750-1,850 Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,300 2,100-2,300 Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,300 2,100-2,300 Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG) 1,800-2,000 1,800-2,000 Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG) n.a. n.a.

MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG) 3,000-3,600 3,000-3,600

MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG) 2,200-2,700 2,200-2,700 Rice BPT new (100 INR/KG) 2,800-3,300 2,800-3,400 Rice BPT best (100 INR/KG) 3,300-3,500 3,300-3,500 Rice BPT medium (100 INR/KG) 3,000-3,100 3,000-3,100 Rice Luchai (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,800 2,500-2,800 Rice Swarna new (100 INR/KG) 2,350-2,450 2,300-2,400 Rice Swarna best (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,600 2,500-2,650

Rice Swarna medium (100 INR/KG) 2,300-2,400 2,300-2,400 Rice HMT New (100 INR/KG) 3,800-4,100 3,700-4,000 Rice HMT best (100 INR/KG) 4,500-5,000 4,500-5,000 Rice HMT medium (100 INR/KG) 4,100-4,300 4,100-4,300 Rice Shriram New(100 INR/KG) 4,500-4,800 4,400-4,800 Rice Shriram best 100 INR/KG) 6,500-6,800 6,500-6,800 Rice Shriram med (100 INR/KG) 5,800-6,200 5,800-6,200

Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG) 10,000-13,500 10,000-13,500 Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG) 5,000-7,500 5,000-7,500 Rice Chinnor New(100 INR/KG) 4,600-4,800 4,500-4,700 Rice Chinnor best 100 INR/KG) 5,800-6,000 5,800-6,000 Rice Chinnor medium (100 INR/KG) 5,400-5,600 5,400-5,600 Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG) 1,900-2,200 1,900-2,200 Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG) 1,800-1,900

1,800-1,900 WEATHER (NAGPUR) Maximum temp. 34.0 degree Celsius, minimum temp. 24.5 degree Celsius Rainfall : 0.6 mm FORECAST: Generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rains or thunder-showers. Maximum and minimum temperature would be around and 34 and 25 degree Celsius respectively. Note: n.a.--not available (For oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but included in market prices) https://in.investing.com/news/commodities-news/nagpur-foodgrain-prices-open-august-4-2017502678

Rice production in Assam set to go down as floods wreak havoc By Speed News Desk Aug 22, 2017

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Tell EveryoneI Found AwesomeNews On Mail With two spell of floods hitting Assam back to back, the production of rice will go down this year than the expectation. Assam agriculture minister Atul Bora said that the loss could be to the tune of 6 lakh metric tonnes. “The target for rice production this year was 62 lakh metric tonnes, but as the floods have severely hit the Sali paddy, the state is likely to suffer a loss of around 6 lakh metric tonnes,� Bora told reporters addressing a press conference on Monday.

In 2015-16, rice production of Assam was 53 lakh metric tonnes.

More than 1.73 lakh hectares of Sali paddy have been destroyed in the flood, besides vegetables in 10,692 hectares and jute in over 7,000 hectares. A total of 3.08 lakh hectares of crop land have been affected so far in the floods and 5,055 hectres of agriculture land with paddy saplings were also damaged.

“Around 6.29 lakh farmer families in 4,717 villages have been hit in the flood this year so far. Besides, we have included 45,000 farmers under crop insurance. The department has also decided to distribute around 1 lakh shallow tube well,” added Bora.

Bora said that more than 6000 hectors agriculture lands have been affected by severe siltation in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Darrang, Golaghat, Majuli and Barpeta districts.

The department will distribute the seeds among the farmers to overcome the loss in the flood. “Farmers cultivating sali paddy are unlikely to make any gains this year. So we are laying stress on the rabi crops. We are giving more thrust on crops like mustard, potato, onion and pumpkin gourd among others,” said Bora.

Bora has asked all the districts officers to compile the losses of the farmers in flood for further compensation works.

“The government will pay compensation through direct benefit transfer system to the farmers and the money will be deposited in the accounts of the farmers,” he said.

https://thenewsmill.com/rice-production-assam-set-go-floods-wreak-havoc/

Urgent funds needed to support people devastated by flooding in India and Bangladesh REPORT from Islamic Relief Published on 23 Aug 2017

Farmers hugely indebt as crops destroyed and unable to farm on land for next 5 years “So many people are traumatised at losing their loved ones and millions of people are now living under open skies on the highway, with nothing!�

Urgent funds are needed to deal with the worst flooding in India and Bangladesh for decades, says Islamic Relief staff in both countries.

Flash flooding in India has claimed more than 500 lives in Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and this figure is likely to be much higher as many areas are inaccessible and thousands of people are still missing, presumed dead. Whole districts have been submerged, directly affecting up to 15 million people and millions of people have been forced to evacuate their homes.

The situation in Bihar is particularly bad because of the existing poverty and sudden rapid onset of the floods, which caught whole communities unaware.

“It’s absolutely heart-wrenching,” says Islamic Relief’s Head of Mission in India, Akmal Shareef. “So many people are traumatised at losing their loved ones and millions of people are now living under open skies on the highway, with nothing!

“Our staff on the ground have heard about whole families being swept away by the floods and the landslides. It’s so painful.”

Mr Shareef is from Bihar, one of the worst-affected regions. He added: “In Kishanganj in Bihar, the water rose from 3-10 feet in only four hours and people were fleeing for their lives. I have not known this to happen in more than 40 years. My brother-in law’s house was under water for five days.”

More than 500,000 hectares of crops are known to have been destroyed in Assam and Bihar and this number is likely to increase as many areas are currently inaccessible. Farmers are under extreme stress as they took out loans for cultivating paddy rice following forecasts for a good monsoon this year and now have no hope for a good yield. Farmers have also told Islamic Relief staff that it will be impossible to farm on their flooded land for the next five years.

Thousands of families have lost all of their food stocks and are now facing chronic food shortages.

“Bihar is already an acutely poor and marginalised area, where people migrate up north and further afield to make a living. But now that the agricultural sector has collapsed, this is happening on a massive scale,” Mr Shareef explains. “There has always been child trafficking and prostitution because of the poverty. But this is now increasing. And there are children who have been orphaned by the floods who are particularly vulnerable.”

There has been a cholera outbreak in Assam and Islamic Relief fears this will also happen in Bihar, if urgent support for clean water and sanitation is not provided.

Islamic Relief is concentrating its efforts in Katihar and Kishanganj - the twomost affected districts in Bihar, where thousands of water sources have been contaminated.

We have set up two high capacity water treatment plants in Assam and Bihar, providing clean water for 7,500 people.

And we are providing food, temporary shelter and hygiene items such as buckets and soap for 5,000 households. This will increase when more funds are available.

Third of the country submerged in Bangladesh; water levels continue to rise More than 100 people have died in Bangladesh where floods have submerged more than a third of the country.

Iqbal Hossain, Head of Humanitarian Department for Islamic Relief in Bangladesh said: “People’s homes are completely submerged under the water, roads have become rivers and the railways are down.”

Almost 50,000 wells have been contaminated with flood water and water levels are continuing to rise in the lower and central parts of the country.

Islamic Relief has established two water treatment plants in Jamalpur district which are providing 20 litres of clean water a day for 3,000 people. We have also supplied 250 buckets.

Almost five million hectares of cultivated land have been damaged and there are chronic food shortages.

Iqbal Hossain, said: “There are no crops in the fields and people are now only eating one meal a day. Food for both people and animals is now urgently needed.”

We are providing rice, sugar and energy biscuits and packets of saline solution to 12,000 people in the three worst-affected districts - Jamalpur, Kurigram and Gaibhanda.

And we will be providing 550 cows to flood-affected families for Qurbani (animals to be sacrificed and eaten during Eid celebrations).

Iqbal Hossain added: “The need for food, shelter and clean water is absolutely essential and we are desperately in need of funds to be able to provide these as soon as possible for all those in urgent need. http://reliefweb.int/report/india/urgent-funds-needed-support-people-devastated-flooding-india-andbangladesh

Published : 23 Aug 2017, 01:08:53 July imports rise 37pc Rice imports up by 229pc Siddique Islam

An 229 per cent rise in rice imports enhanced country's overall import growth by over 37 per cent or US$1.22 billion in July, officials said.

They said the country had to count such higher trade bills at the outset (first month) of the current fiscal year on account of substantial amount of rice import for crop losses caused by flood onslaughts.

Higher back-to-back imports for readymade garment (RMG) products and capital machinery also contributed to the rise in national imports.

Settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual imports, rose to US$4.50 billion in July from $3.27 billion a month before. It was $3.64 billion in July 2016.

The opening of fresh LCs, generally known as import orders, increased by over 26 per cent or $1.05 billion to $5.06 billion in July from more than $ 4.00 billion last June. It was $3.89 billion in July last year.

"The overall imports increased significantly during the period under review mainly due to higher import of rice, back-to-back imports for readymade garment (RMG) products and capital machinery," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Monday.

The rising trend in import of food-grains, practically rice imports, may continue in the coming months to keep the prices of the staple stable in the local markets through boosting its supply, the central banker explained.

Both the government and the central bank have already taken different measures to encourage the importers to import more rice to meet the growing demand for the essential item amid a slowing local supply.

Earlier on July 20 last, the BB relaxed its foreign-exchange-transaction rules for opening LCs against rice import to ensure sufficient supply of the staple food on the domestic market.

Under the relaxed rules, the banks have been allowed till December 31, 2017 to open LCs against deferred or usance bills or under buyer's credit up to a 90-day term.

The central bank had also allowed the banks to open LCs for importing rice with zero-margin on the basis of bank-client relationship.

Besides, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) brought import duty on rice down further to 2.0 per cent on August 17 from the previously pared-down rate of 10 per cent.

Earlier on June 20 this year, the government slashed the import duty on rice to 10 per cent from 28 per cent in the wake of price spirals.

The government as well as the central bank had taken the latest moves against the backdrop of damage to the output of the single-biggest crop, Boro, in May due to flashfloods particularly in haor areas (marshlands) of Bangladesh.

"We're encouraging importers to import rice for ensuring country's food security despite flashfloods," a senior executive of a leading state-owned commercial bank told the FE.

Echoing the BB official's view, he also said the upward trend in rice import may continue until the next Aman harvest.

The overall rice imports in terms of value surged by nearly 229 per cent to $69.63 million in last July against $ 21.17 million in the previous month.

Of the total, rice imports through private sector stood at $39.47 million while the bill was $30.16 million for import through public sector in July, the BB data showed.

However, the back-to-back import of RMG accessories rose by more than 100 per cent to $924.70 million in the month of July from $461.55 million in June last following an increased demand for the largest export-oriented industry.

Export earnings from garments, covering both knitwear and woven apparel, jumped by more than 17 per cent to $2.48 billion in July from $2.12 billion in the same period of last year.

On the other hand, import of capital machinery-industrial equipment used for production-was up by 50.13 per cent to $347.93 million during the period under review as against $231.75 million in June 2017.

siddique.islam@gmail.com http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/23/80482/July-imports-rise-37pc

Rice crop faces further setback August 22, 2017 | Filed under: News | Posted by: The Bangladesh Chronicle

Rice crop faces further setback Aus and Aman rice crops, as well as vegetables, have suffered a severe blow like the Boro crop in the recent floods in 40 districts of the country.

The Boro rice crop was affected by the floods only in the haor regions whereas the recent floods inundated 652,654 hectares of Aus and Aman croplands in the 40 districts, revealed agovernment estimation.

The agricultural extension department (DAE) expected that rice production from each hectare of land will be around 3.5 tonnes. According to that estimation, the production of rice was expected to be at least 2.3 million tonnes from the land that went under water.

The rice production may fall by as much as one million tonnes if half of the expected amount of production is destroyed due to the floods this season.

An estimate of the agricultural affairs ministry revealed that the production of rice in the Boro season fell by one million tonnes in the haor regions.

Contrary to this estimate, the food ministry says the production diminished by two million tonnes whereas the rice mill owners claimed that the production shortage was four million tonnes.

Agricultural ministry secretary, Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah, said to Prothom Alo, “We are making a list of affected farmers. We shall provide them with seeds and other agricultural equipment as soon as the floodwater recedes.”

“We have already prepared a list of 600,000 affected farmers of the haor regions. They will receive agricultural rehabilitation assistance very soon,” he hoped.

According to economists, the country will suffer from a serious shortage of rice this year. The government has already signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) and rice import agreements with four countries to tackle the situation. But the amount of rice imported so far is inadequate.

According to food ministry’s daily food grain situation report, prepared on Monday, the government has imported 46,000 tonnes of rice while private entrepreneurs have imported 262,000 tonnes from July till now.

The report also said the stock of rice in the government warehouses at present is 295,000 tonnes.

The stock was about 700,000 tonnes in the same period last year.

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) researcher M Asaduzzamn told Prothom Alo that the production of Boro and Aman rice could be 10 per cent less [than the previous year].

“As a result the price hike might put poor people’s food security at risk. This is why the government should buy imported rice from the businessmen and increase the stock on an emergency basis.”

Source: Prothom Alo

http://bangladeshchronicle.net/2017/08/rice-crop-faces-further-setback/

Asia Rice -Prices fall in major exporters; Bangladesh to buy from Cambodia HANOI, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Rice prices fell in India, Vietnam and Thailand on weak demand, traders said on Thursday, while Bangladesh is likely to spend more on importing rice as part of the government's plan to cope with shortages.

India's 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices RI-INBKN5-P1 eased by $4 per tonne to $403 to $406 per tonne.

"There wasn't any improvement in demand this week. Buyers are delaying purchases expecting further drop in prices," said an exporter in Andhra Pradesh.

India's non-basmati rice exports could slow in the coming months as shipments have become too expensive on strong rupee and higher local paddy prices..

Prices also dropped in Vietnam as market was quiet, traders said. The benchmark 5 percent broken rice RI-VNBKN5-P1 fell to $385-$395 a tonne this week, FOB Saigon, down from $395$405 last week.

Rice output in Vietnam's Mekong Delta was affected as crop was submerged in flooding.

Traders were however unable to estimate the loss.

Thailand's rice prices dipped as demand has been flat in both domestic and international markets, Thai traders said.

Thai benchmark 5 percent broken rice RI-THBKN5-P1 was quoted at $375-$377 a tonne, FOB Bangkok, down from $376-$382 a tonne last week.

"The weakening of the baht against the US dollar is also attributed to the drop in prices," a trader in Bangkok said.

Rice production in Thailand's north and northeast have been delayed due to flood in July, leading to more supply towards the end of the year, which could affect prices.

Rice exporters in Thailand are looking to meet fresh demand from markets like Bangladesh, while Dhaka is likely to buy from Cambodia.

Bangladesh's food ministry said it would import 250,000 tonnes of white rice at $453 a tonne from Cambodia in a state-to-state deal, more expensive than a previous deal with Vietnam.

The country is building buffer stocks to combat high domestic prices after flash floods in April wiped away around 1 million tonnes of rice.

Prices have dropped only slightly in Bangladesh after it slashed the duty on imports last week to 2 percent from 10 percent, the second cut in less than two months.

"More rice from India is being imported by private traders after the second cut. This will have a good impact on the domestic market," a food ministry official said. (Reporting by Mi Nguyen in Hanoi, Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok and Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai; Editing by Vyas Mohan) Author Name: https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-rice-idINL4N1LA3O5

Asia Rice -Prices fall in major exporters; Bangladesh to buy from Cambodia HANOI, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Rice prices fell in India, Vietnam and Thailand on weak demand, traders said on Thursday, while Bangladesh is likely to spend more on importing rice as part of the government's plan to cope with shortages.

India's 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices RI-INBKN5-P1 eased by $4 per tonne to $403 to $406 per tonne.

"There wasn't any improvement in demand this week. Buyers are delaying purchases expecting further drop in prices," said an exporter in Andhra Pradesh.

India's non-basmati rice exports could slow in the coming months as shipments have become too expensive on strong rupee and higher local paddy prices..

Prices also dropped in Vietnam as market was quiet, traders said. The benchmark 5 percent broken rice RI-VNBKN5-P1 fell to $385-$395 a tonne this week, FOB Saigon, down from $395$405 last week.

Rice output in Vietnam's Mekong Delta was affected as crop was submerged in flooding.

Traders were however unable to estimate the loss.

Thailand's rice prices dipped as demand has been flat in both domestic and international markets, Thai traders said.

Thai benchmark 5 percent broken rice RI-THBKN5-P1 was quoted at $375-$377 a tonne, FOB Bangkok, down from $376-$382 a tonne last week.

"The weakening of the baht against the US dollar is also attributed to the drop in prices," a trader in Bangkok said.

Rice production in Thailand's north and northeast have been delayed due to flood in July, leading to more supply towards the end of the year, which could affect prices.

Rice exporters in Thailand are looking to meet fresh demand from markets like Bangladesh, while Dhaka is likely to buy from Cambodia.

Bangladesh's food ministry said it would import 250,000 tonnes of white rice at $453 a tonne from Cambodia in a state-to-state deal, more expensive than a previous deal with Vietnam.

The country is building buffer stocks to combat high domestic prices after flash floods in April wiped away around 1 million tonnes of rice.

Prices have dropped only slightly in Bangladesh after it slashed the duty on imports last week to 2 percent from 10 percent, the second cut in less than two months.

"More rice from India is being imported by private traders after the second cut. This will have a good impact on the domestic market," a food ministry official said. (Reporting by Mi Nguyen in Hanoi, Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok and Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai; Editing by Vyas Mohan) Author Name: https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-rice-idINL4N1LA3O5

Rice production likely to be hit in Mysuru district

Paddy cultivated on only 2,922 hectares as against the targeted 1,02,650 hectares As most of the farmers have desisted from growing paddy in Mysuru district owing to the State government’s decision to not provide water for paddy crop in the command area during the kharif season, production of

rice may come down considerably in the district. Farmers have cultivated paddy on only 2,922 hectares as against the target of 1,02,650 hectares during the kharif season. The Agriculture Department has stopped distributing seeds in order to prevent farmers from growing paddy this season. Hence, rice production in the district may be adversely affected this year. Somasundra, Joint Director of Agriculture, told The Hindu that paddy was grown in over 88,740 hectares during 2015-16 and there was a rice production of over 3,00,709tonnes during the year. He said that over 35.67 quintal rice was produced per hectare last year and he said farmers had grown paddy in many taluks despite drought.The Agriculture Department, at the behest of the State government, is prevailing upon farmers not to cultivate paddy this year owing to failure of rain.

The department, through Raitha Samparka Kendras (farmer contact centres), and through other various other platforms had insisted the farmers not to grow paddy this season and it also made it clear that government was not responsible if farmers grew paddy and the crop got damaged for want of water. Apart from instructing the farmers not to grow any water intensive crop such as paddy, and sugarcane, the department had also called upon the farmers to grow ragi, hybrid maize, jowar, pulses, cotton, and oil seeds, which require less water. Many farmers had cultivated the above crops in most parts of the district. Hence, most of the farmers did not take up paddy this season and only a small number of farmers in the rain-fed area and are dependent on their borewells have cultivated paddy this season, Mr. Somasundra said. He said that water being let into the canals would be used to fill the tanks for drinking purposes. In K.R. Nagar taluk, paddy cultivation is down to 2,384 hectares as against the target of 26,500 hectares, in Mysuru it is 160 hectares as against the target of 8,000 hectares, while in Nanjangud only 53 hectares has been brought under paddy cultivation this year as against the target of 17,000 hectares. In Periyapatana 325 hectares has been brought under paddy cultivation as against the targeted 8,400 hectares and paddy has not been cultivated in H.D. Kote, Hunsur, and T. Narsipur.

Author Name: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/rice-production-likely-to-be-hit-inmysuru-district/article19548507.ece

Rice farmers , others to access Bill Gates’ $30bn agric grant Abuja—The Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, RIFAN, has said it was working to access the $30 billion agricultural grant contributed by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other donor agencies for rice production in Africa. Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, the National President of the association, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja yesterday that the association had submitted a template that would qualify it for the grant. According to him, a team of experts from Geneva has met with the association on the grant, which Nigerian farmers can access as

much as $600 million. He said the visit was a fallout of the Green Revolution Forum, tagged ‘New Push for Africa’s Agricultural Transformation,’ held in September 2016 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, where the fund was pledged by various agencies. He said the grant would cover various rice value chains, including production, processing, packaging and marketing, and would assist the country attain self-sufficiency in rice production. Goronyo listed other partners that contributed to the fund to include Grow Africa and John Kufor Foundation. Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/08/rice-farmers-others-access-bill-gates-30bn-agricgrant/

Govt to import 500,000 tons of rice and wheat

'As a ton of wheat costs $251, the entire purchase will cost of the government Tk104 crore ` As a ton of wheat costs $251, the entire purchase will cost of the government Tk104

crore' The government has offered international tenders to import half a million tons of rice and wheat. They are set to buy 1,00,000 tons of wheat and 50,000 tons non-basmati rice. The Cabinet Committee meeting on the Public Procurement Procurement Committee was chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith which approved three separate proposals for this. After the meeting, Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Mustafizur Rahman said the rice and wheat will be imported with three different proposals under the package-2 in the budget for the Fiscal Year 2017-18. “As a ton of wheat costs $251, the entire purchase will cost of the government Tk104 crore. “The proposal to make separate purchases of 50,000 tons of non-basmati rice through international tenders has also been approved. Each ton cost $411.11, and the total cost to the government will be Tk170.89 crore. A Dubai based company had already won the tender bid,” said the additional secretary. He also said that the proposal to import another 50,000 tons of wheat has been approved by the Ministry of Food. The cost of each ton of wheat is Tk2449.38, which totals to Tk103.49 crore.

Author Name: http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/08/24/govt-import-500000-tons-ricewheat/

Warong Dechgitvigrom

Politician‟s risky detective work uncovered irregularities politics August 23, 2017 01:00

By JAKRAWAN SALAYTOO THE NATION

DEMOCRAT Party key figure Warong Dechgitvigrom realised just days after the 2011 election that a full-scale implementation of a rice mortgage scheme by Yingluck Shinawatra‟s government would open up many problems.

As the party‟s so-called “Shadow Cabinet” member for commerce, Warong already knew from talking to people involved in the rice trading that the then-government‟s rice-pledging scheme had flaws, not least of which was that it opened doors for corruption both large and small.

Warong was convinced that every rice grain mortgaged under the scheme would be plagued by potential corruption.

“Generally, it was widely perceived that a rice mortgage is corrupt in principle,” he told The Nation. “As the government introduced the scheme to take every grain of rice, it was a sure bet that it [corruption] would happen,” said Warong. “My view was that it‟s not farmers who would benefit from the scheme as claimed by Pheu Thai Party, but traders and distributors of rice who would instead.”

And he assumed that there would be flaws in the programme that would inevitably lead to corruption.

Warong decided he had to closely watch how the scheme was rolled out and run. And thus began his “detective” work into the Yingluck government‟s rice mortgage scheme as he began to seriously investigate the government-to-government deal with a Chinese firm claiming to represent the government of China.

For months, Warong travelled extensively to meet farmers, rice traders, millers, exporters and many others to study the rice cycle in detail, and organise and test his ideas. He came to understand the rice cycle, dividing it into three stages: rice production, rice stocking and rice distribution, the most problematic part.

Warong focused on monitoring activities involving the second and third stages of the cycle, and eventually stumbled upon irregularities, some due to his team‟s efforts, others by luck.

“One day I received a call from some millers who informed me that there would be rice moved from one province to another. So I sent my team to accompany a truck driver for a few days so that they would not be suspected, and they were able to collect evidence for me,” said Warong.

What his team discovered was that some degrading rice was being transported from one silo to another to allegedly benefit from the prices guaranteed under the scheme. One team member was discovered, but he narrowly escaped the scene by telling silo owners that he was with them and had come to check their silos to ensure they would take degra-ding rice from his boss.

Recognising the danger of the undercover work, Warong chose men that he could trust who were close to him as they had to be able to keep the secret, he said.

Along the border, irregularities involving the transport of rice from neighbouring countries also took place as poor quality rice was transported across the border in order |to claim benefits from the scheme.

Warong did not hesitate to look into the details after being tipped off by some Thai-Khmer residents who had called him. They also helped film the activities, which showed many trucks transporting rice across the border before ending up at silos inside Thailand.

Warong personally went to Prachin Buri to observe the cross-border transport and confirmed the truth of claims. Along with that evidence on the ground, Warong by chance received related documents and contracts from people he calls “citizens with good faith”. To get the documents without putting informers at risk, Warong drove past the sources without stopping while they threw the papers into his car.

“It was just like a detective movie,” recalled Warong, who later got help from friends to decode the documents. He then used that information to kick-start a motion in Parliament to expose irregularities in the scheme.

After he and his team put together the jigsaw puzzle of evidence, Warong says he found corroborating details about alleged irregularities in the scheme. In particular, he said the documents gave him insights into rice distribution and trade that he saw as allegedly linking irregularities to government ministers and to their boss, the then-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

To this day, Warong does not talk about many of the details around his detective work.

“I must say it was a dangerous task,” he said. “Everything had to be kept in secret and done in a secret manner. Even today, I have not yet disclosed all of my informants as they would definitely be targeted if exposed.”

And now? It is up to the court to rule after seeing all the documentary evidence, and hearing all the witnesses that have appeared before the judges, he concluded. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30324603

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„Non-delivery of rice by millers caused Rs 30-cr loss to exchequer‟

‘Non-delivery of rice by millers caused Rs 30-cr loss to exchequer’ As per PSWC, the non-delivery of rice by the millers during the said period caused a loss of nearly Rs 30 crore to the state exchequer.

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Written by Navjeevan Gopal | Chandigarh | Published:August 23, 2017 1:18 am

As per PSWC, the non-delivery of rice by the millers during the said period caused a loss of nearly Rs 30 crore to the state exchequer. (Representational Image)

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BETWEEN 2009 and 2014, nearly a dozen rice millers in several districts of Punjab failed to supply rice to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) by milling the allotted paddy in a stipulated time causing a loss of Rs 30 crore to the state exchequer, but the police did not register First Information Reports (FIRs) despite the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC), the state procurement agency, writing to the Senior Superintendents of Police concerned for registering criminal cases.

As per PSWC, the non-delivery of rice by the millers during the said period caused a loss of nearly Rs 30 crore to the state exchequer. Documents accessed by The Indian Express revealed that apart from PSWC, which wrote to the police authorities concerned, Financial Commissioner

(Development) and Additional Chief Secretary (Development), also wrote to Punjab DirectorGeneral of Police and Home department for registration of cases.

Some cases: For crop year 2011-12, property of a Gidderbaha-based rice miller was attached in favour of PSWC and it calculated the amount of loss as Rs 1.24 crore. Following award in its favour on December 22, 2016, PSWC filed execution of award for recovery of amount from the miller, who challenged the award under a section of The Aritration and Conciliation Act. Correspondence for getting FIR registered PSWC Divisional Manager (DM) submitted an application to Muktsar SSP for lodging an FIR against the miller on October 11, 2013. PSWC managing director (MD) sent a DO letter to Punjab DGP on November 18, 2013. Financial Commissioner, Development, wrote to Punjab DGP on May 19, 2014. ACS (Development) wrote to ACS (Home) on September 30, 2016. NO FIR registered against the miller. For crop year 2013-14, PSWC filed an arbitration case against another Gidderbaha based miller for causing a loss of Rs 6.86 crore. For attachment of property of miller, application filed with arbitrator. Case under process in district court y PSWC Divisional Manager submitted application to Muktsar SSP on February 16, 2016 for lodging FIR against miller. On September 30, 2016 ACS (Development) wrote to ACS (Home). No FIR registered.

For crop year 2012-13, PSWC calculated a loss of Rs 4.80 crore caused by a Bhikhiwind based miller in Tarn Taran district. Arbitration proceedings initiated and fixed for cross examination, Property of miller attached in favour of PSWC. y PSWC Divisional Manager submitted an application to Tarn Taran SSP on August 20, 2014 for lodging FIR against miller. On September 13, 2013 MD sent DO letters to DGP. On September 27, 2013, MD sent a note to FCD regarding lodging FIR against the miller. On October 17, 2013 and December 12, 2013, PSWC MD again wrote to DGP for lodging FIR against the miller. On May 19, FCD wrote to DGP to lodge FIR. On September 30, 2016 ACS (Development) wrote to ACS (Home). No FIR registered. For crop year 2012-13, PSWC calculated a loss of Rs 5.64 crore caused by a Tarn Taran-based miller.

Property of the miller attached in favour of PSWC. Arbitration award given in favour of PSWC and execution filed.

Opinion | How Is The BJP Dealing With The Crises In Agriculture & Presidential Poll?

PSWC DM wrote to SSP Tarn Taran on July 24,2013 for lodging FIR against the miller. On September 13, 2013, MD sends DO letters to DGP. On September 27, 2013, MD wrote to FCD to get the FIR lodged. On October 17, 2013 and December 12, 2013, PSWC MD again wrote to DGP for lodging FIR against the miller.On May 19, FCD wrote to DGP to lodge FIR. On September 30, 2016 ACS (Development) wrote to ACS (Home). No FIR registered. Acting on a communication by PSWC, Department of Development has written to Home department to intervene in the matter and issue instructions to the concerned district police authorities for immediate registration of FIRs against the defaulter millers.

ACS (Development) M P Singh in a letter to ACS (Home) Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi last month noted that “millers had defalcated the stocks” as rice could not be delivered in terms of Custom Milling Policy of the State. As a procurement agency, PSWC undertakes purchase and milling of paddy through the alloted millers, under the Custom Milling Policy of the State every year.

Paddy is milled by the alloted millers and rice is delivered to FCI. The millers have to complete milling by a specified milling date under the Custom Milling Policy of the year.

A PSWC official said, “PSWC arranges for gunny bags, pays for transportation of paddy, pays taxes and interest. This all adds up to the losses to state exchequer due to non-delivery of rice.

While arbitration is civil aspect, FIRs have to be lodged as there is defalcation and violation of the contract on the part of millers when they fail to supply rice in stipulated time period.” DGP Suresh Arora was unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to contact him http://indianexpress.com/article/chandigarh/non-delivery-of-rice-by-millers-caused-rs-30-crloss-to-exchequer-4809070/

U.S. rice shipments to China expected to start slowly

The next two months will be important ones for U.S. rice shipments to China, USA Rice expert says.

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The announcement of the signing of a phytosanitary protocol for shipments of U.S. rice to China on July 19 represented more than 10 years of efforts to win an agreement by the U.S. rice industry.

So the USA Rice Federation doesn’t expect a large number of shipments to begin occurring immediately, says Bob Cumming, chief operating officer of USA Rice, who spoke at the Horizon Ag Field Day at the Mark Wimpy Farm near Jonesboro, Ark. “We are working very closely with U.S. exporters and USDA to make the first shipments of rice to China a reality now that the phytosanitary protocol has been signed,” he said. That means arranging and supporting a visit of Chinese inspectors to rice country in the MidSouth and California in late September.

He said USA Rice has identified 25 to 28 facilities in the U.S. that could potentially export rice to ports in China. Those facilities, most of them rice mills, could be visited by the Chinese inspectors as early as the second half of September.

“China is the world’s largest consumer and importer of rice, and we hope to be shipping early in 2018 if things go smoothly,” he said.

Those shipments are expected to start slow and hopefully will gain momentum into 2018 and 2019.

For more information, visit https://www.usarice.com/ http://www.deltafarmpress.com/rice/us-rice-shipments-china-expected-start-slowly

PHL to feel doubleedged effect of weaker peso soon By Cai U. Ordinario & Catherine N. Pillas AUGUST 23, 2017 0 52

Photo from Creative Commons Images The weakening of the peso against the US dollar could make certain food items more expensive in the near-term, but it would be good for exporters as it could improve their bottom line, economists said on Tuesday.

The Philippines is a net food importer that purchases various food items from across the globe. A weaker peso would increase the cost of importing some food products.

This could accelerate inflation, as nearly 40 percent of the country‟s basket of goods is made up of food and beverages.

“Inflation will most likely increase because depreciation makes imports expensive,” University of Asia and the Pacific School of Economics Dean Cid Terosa told the BusinessMirror.

However, Philippine Institute for Development Studies Senior Research Fellow Roehlano Briones said higher costs could discourage businessmen from importing these items.

Briones added the impact of the peso appreciation may be limited, since the country‟s rice imports may not be affected. The government has already bought its rice requirements for the year.

The share of rice to the total expenditure of households nationwide is at 8.92 percent, or nearly a tenth of the share of food and nonalcoholic beverages to the Consumer Price Index.

“Clearly, depreciation will tend to push up inflation. That will be tempered by reduced incentive to import due to higher cost,” Briones told the BusinessMirror.

EagleWatch Senior Research Fellow Alvin Ang and National Economic and Development Authority Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon are not worried about the peso‟s impact on inflation.

Ang said the depreciation may have a “limited” impact on inflation, since what the government measures is the average price.

Edillon said the peso‟s level of depreciation is still within the expectations of the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).

While the current level of the peso against the US dollar is above the exchange assumption of P48 to P50 for 2017, it is within the DBCC‟s expectations of P48 to P51 until 2022.

“We‟re okay. [The foreign exchange level] is still within our target,” Edillon said via text message.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed food imports are included in raw materials and intermediate goods, particularly wheat and corn, as well as nondurable consumer goods.

Based on the latest import data, the PSA said imported raw materials and intermediate goods accounted for 36.9 percent, or $2.6 billion of total payments, in June.

The PSA added wheat and corn imports amounted to $99.88 million and $11.91 million, respectively. Wheat accounted for 1.4 percent of total imports, while corn accounted for 0.2 percent.

‘Good for economy’ The peso reached an 11-year low last Friday, closing at its weakest at P51.49 to the greenback.

“Yes, it will be good for them,” Briones said when asked whether the depreciation of the peso would be beneficial to exporters.

The Semiconductors and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi), however, said the weakening of the peso would not have a significant impact on their profits. “The foreign exchange impact is not that significant. It takes up less than a percent,” Seipi president Dan Lachica told the BusinessMirror in a text message.

In its board meeting in July, the group projected that electronics shipments could grow by as much as 8 percent this year. Earlier, Seipi said it expects electronics exports this year to expand by 5 percent to 7 percent. Export receipts from electronics could return to the $30-billion level this year on the back of the recovery in demand from the country‟s major markets.

Last year export receipts from electronics reached $ 28.44 billion. It was in 2010 when revenues from electronics shipments reached $31 billion. Electronics products remained as the country‟s top export in June, accounting for 53.3 percent of total receipts in June. Revenues from electronics exports reached $2.62 billion.

Consumer spending could also pick up, as a weaker peso is generally good for families of overseas Filipino workers. The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) echoed the sentiment of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr., who said the weakening of the peso is no cause for alarm, as it contributes to strengthening macroeconomic fundamentals.

“Generally, a weaker peso improves consumption in the economy, and I don‟t think that even if it reached P52 to a dollar, there‟ll be an adverse impact,” Philexport President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. said http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/phl-to-feel-double-edged-effect-of-weaker-peso-soon/

Rice import trapped in plastic bags  

Shafiqul Islam Published at 01:58 PM August 23, 2017



Last updated at 12:27 AM August 24, 2017

A trader says a ton of rice would cost Tk1,000 more if exporters supplied rice in jute sacks.Representational image/Bigstock

At least 50,000 tons of rice are stuck at ports, a trader says Thousands of tons of imported rice are stuck at the ports as businessmen are yet to get clearance from customs authorities.

The problem lies in the plastic sacks since the government has made it mandatory to use jute sacks for transportation, preservation, stocking and marketing of rice and 12 other products.

Bangladesh, the worldâ€&#x;s fourth-biggest rice producer, was hit by floods in recent months which hit the domestic output and pushed up rice prices. There is little sign that the situation will improve soon.

Amid dwindling state reserves, the government slashed taxes on rice imports to 2% from 28% to replenish supplies and cool the soaring prices.

Sources say the Textiles and Jute Ministry has ignored a request from the Commerce Ministry to allow the rice importers to unload their consignments, and is instead advising the importers to approach the prime minister directly to resolve the issue.

However, traders said only the Textiles and Jute Ministry can break the stalemate since it issued the order on using jute sacks. Sources say the ministry is yet to comply with a directive from the Prime Ministerâ€&#x;s Office to solve the problem.

Disgruntled businessmen pointed out that customs had given clearance to rice imported in plastic sacks from Vietnam and Thailand under the government-to-government agreement, but was unwilling to give approval when it came to private importers.

“At least 50,000 tons of rice are stuck at various ports and we fear that rain will damage the rice,” one importer said on condition of anonymity. “It will negatively impact the rice market and the economy.”

Several traders said exporters had packed the rice in plastic as they were not bound to use jute sacks for the transportation or preservation of the commodity.

“The price of each ton of rice would have gone up by Tk1,000 if we supplied rice in jute sacks. In that case, the government‟s purpose would not have been fulfilled and the rice price would not go down,” the importer said.

Food Minister Qamrul Islam said the problem will be solved eventually. “Even if the imported rice hits the market late, it will have a positive impact,” he added.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said he could do nothing about the situation as it was not under his ministry but added that he had requested the textiles and jute secretary to relax the order on sacks for the sake of the businessmen.

“I hope it will be resolved soon,” he said

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/08/23/rice-import-trapped-plastic-bags/

July imports rise 37pc Rice imports up by 229pc Siddique Islam

An 229 per cent rise in rice imports enhanced country's overall import growth by over 37 per cent or US$1.22

billion

in

July,

officials

said.

They said the country had to count such higher trade bills at the outset (first month) of the current fiscal year on account of substantial amount of rice import for crop losses caused by flood onslaughts.

Higher back-to-back imports for readymade garment (RMG) products and capital machinery also contributed

to

the

rise

in

national

imports.

Settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual imports, rose to US$4.50 billion in July from

$3.27

billion

a

month

before.

It

was

$3.64

billion

in

July

2016.

The opening of fresh LCs, generally known as import orders, increased by over 26 per cent or $1.05 billion to $5.06 billion in July from more than $ 4.00 billion last June. It was $3.89 billion in July last year.

"The overall imports increased significantly during the period under review mainly due to higher import of rice, back-to-back imports for readymade garment (RMG) products and capital machinery," a senior official

of

the

Bangladesh

Bank

(BB)

told

the

FE

Monday.

The rising trend in import of food-grains, practically rice imports, may continue in the coming months to keep the prices of the staple stable in the local markets through boosting its supply, the central banker explained.

Both the government and the central bank have already taken different measures to encourage the importers to import more rice to meet the growing demand for the essential item amid a slowing local supply.

Earlier on July 20 last, the BB relaxed its foreign-exchange-transaction rules for opening LCs against rice import

to

ensure

sufficient

supply

of

the

staple

food

on

the

domestic

market.

Under the relaxed rules, the banks have been allowed till December 31, 2017 to open LCs against deferred

or

usance

bills

or

under

buyer's

credit

up

to

a

90-day

term.

The central bank had also allowed the banks to open LCs for importing rice with zero-margin on the basis of bank-client relationship.

Besides, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) brought import duty on rice down further to 2.0 per cent on

August

17

from

the

previously

pared-down

rate

of

10

per

cent.

Earlier on June 20 this year, the government slashed the import duty on rice to 10 per cent from 28 per cent

in

the

wake

of

price

spirals.

The government as well as the central bank had taken the latest moves against the backdrop of damage to the output of the single-biggest crop, Boro, in May due to flashfloods particularly in haor areas (marshlands)

of

Bangladesh.

"We're encouraging importers to import rice for ensuring country's food security despite flashfloods," a senior

executive

of

a

leading

state-owned

commercial

bank

told

the

FE.

Echoing the BB official's view, he also said the upward trend in rice import may continue until the next Aman

harvest.

The overall rice imports in terms of value surged by nearly 229 per cent to $69.63 million in last July against

$

21.17

million

in

the

previous

month.

Of the total, rice imports through private sector stood at $39.47 million while the bill was $30.16 million for

import

through

public

sector

in

July,

the

BB

data

showed.

However, the back-to-back import of RMG accessories rose by more than 100 per cent to $924.70 million in the month of July from $461.55 million in June last following an increased demand for the largest

export-oriented

industry.

Export earnings from garments, covering both knitwear and woven apparel, jumped by more than 17 per cent to $2.48 billion in July from $2.12 billion in the same period of last year.

On the other hand, import of capital machinery-industrial equipment used for production-was up by 50.13 per cent to $347.93 million during the period under review as against $231.75 million in June 2017. siddique.islam@gmail.com 60180

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/08/23/80482/July-imports-rise-37pc

Bangladesh's trade deficit poised to rise as rice imports skyrocket Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-23 21:18:31|Editor: Yurou

DHAKA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's imports surged over 37 percent to 4.50 billion U.S. dollars in the first month of the current 2017-18 fiscal year (July 2017-June 2018) as imports of rice skyrocketed amid flesh floods in parts of the country, officials said Wednesday.

"Increased importation of rice in the last month pushed up the over all import bills," said a central bank official who did not like to be named.

He said imports also quickened last month, outpacing exports as domestic demand or ready-made garment items and capital machinery propelled the overall economic growth.

Driven by ready-made garments, Bangladesh's exports in July surged over 26 percent to 3.21 billion U.S. dollars.

According to the official, rice imports climbed over 200 percent to a record 69.63 million U.S. dollars in the last last month against 21.17 million U.S. dollars in the previous month.

Quoting the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, the official said the settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual imports, stood at 4.50 billion U.S. dollars in the July compared to 3.64 billion dollars in the same period a year earlier.

Overall import orders also surged by 26 percent in the July, showed the BB data.

The overall import orders, officially known as fresh opening of import letters of credit (LCs), increased to 5.06 billion dollars in July against 3.89 billion dollars in the same period of the last 2016-17 fiscal year, it showed.

Officials say rice imports jumped as after the second round of flooding the Bangladeshi government in June eased import duty on rice to 10 percent from 28 percent in a bid to stabilize the domestic market.

Bangladesh last week again announced to cut import duty on rice further to 2 percent amid flash floods.

Bangladeshi Food Minister Qamrul Islam said the government decided to import 1.5 million tons of rice in the current 2017-2018 fiscal year in an effort to replenish reserves and rein in prices of the staple in the wake of the flooding.

Apart from this, he said Bangladesh will import 500,000 tons of wheat in the current fiscal year.

Flash floods struck Bangladesh in March, causing huge loss of boro (winter) rice. Apart from this, rice blast disease has also affected boro rice production elsewhere in the country.

Against such circumstances, prices are seen rising in the short term on a supply shortage.

The situation seems to have worsened in Bangladesh in the last couple of week as fresh floods have reportedly hit 20 districts, mostly in the country's north, leaving dozens of people dead.

As rice imports skyrocket, officials said, Bangladesh trade deficit may widen further in the coming months, if the existing trend of export earnings and import payments continues http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-08/23/c_136549762.htm

Hidden Rivers Found Underground in Antarctica Tue, 08/22/2017 - 11:34am1 Comment

by Kenny Walter - Digital Reporter -

@RandDMagazine

An example of seafloor bathymetry data that Rice University oceanographers used to identify a paleo-subglacial channel, grounding line landforms, volcanic seamounts and other features used in their study. (Image courtesy of L. Simkins/Rice University)

Hidden, underground rivers in Antarctica may play a key role in determining the fate of Antarctic ice streams.

Researchers from Rice University have discovered hidden rivers in Antarctica after spending two years analyzing sediment cores and precise seafloor maps covering 2,700 square miles of the western Ross Sea. The researchers found that as recently as 15,000 years ago, the area was covered by thick ice that later retreated hundreds of miles inland to its current location.

The new maps showed that the ice retreated during a period of global warming after the last ice age on Earth and in several places there were not just river systems, but also subglacial lakes that fed the ancient water courses.

Modern Antarctica is covered by ice that is more than two miles thick in some places. However, the ice is not static and gravity compresses it and moves it under its own weight to create rivers of ice that flow to the sea.

Scientists have had difficulty understanding the undersides of massive ice streams because they are rarely accessible to direct observation.

“One thing we know from surface observations is that some of these ice streams move at velocities of hundreds of meters per year,” Lauren Simkins, a postdoctoral researcher at Rice and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “We also know that ice, by itself, is only capable of flowing at velocities of no more than tens of meters per year.

“That means the ice is being helped along. It’s sliding on water or mud or both,” she added.

According to Simkins, the fossilized river system offers a different picture of how Antarctic water drains from subglacial lakes through rivers to the point where ice meets the sea.

“The contemporary observations we have of Antarctic hydrology are recent, spanning maybe a couple decades at best,” she said. “This is the first observation of an extensive, uncovered, water-carved channel that is connected to both subglacial lakes on the upstream end and the ice margin on the downstream end.

“This gives a novel perspective on channelized drainage beneath Antarctic ice,” Simkins added. “We can track the drainage system all the way back to its source, these subglacial lakes and then to its ultimate fate at the grounding line, where freshwater mixed with ocean water.”

Meltwater builds up in subglacial lakes and intense pressures from the weight of ice causes some melting. With several volcanoes heating ice from below, Simkins and Rice co-author and volcanologist Helge Gonnermann confirmed that volcanoes could have provided the necessary heat to feed the lakes. Simkins found at least 20 lakes in the fossil river system, along with evidence that water built up and drained from the lakes in episodic bursts as opposed to a steady stream.

The discovery may lead to new ice maps that show exactly how ice retreated across the channel-lake system, allowing hydrologists and modelers to better predict how today’s ice streams behave and how much they contribute to rising sea levels. The researchers also found the retreating ice streams in the western Ross Sea made a U-turn to follow the course of an under-ice river—the only documented example on the Antarctic seafloor where a single ice stream reversed retreat direction to follow a subglacial hydrological system.

https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/08/hidden-rivers-found-underground-antarctica

Rice researcher gives boost to hydrogen as fuel of the future

By Chris Tomlinson August 22, 2017 Updated: August 23, 2017 8:41am        

7



Photo: Sharon Steinmann, Staff

IMAGE 1 OF 7 Rice University professor Jim Tour: "Hydrogen is a great way to store electricity."

In the race to replace oil as a transportation fuel, researchers at Rice University are giving hydrogen a boost by introducing an economical and ecological way of generating the gas.

Their breakthrough could make hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which emit only water, competitive with electric vehicles that rely on batteries. While U.S. companies have focused on storing electricity in batteries, the Japanese government has promoted a hydrogen-based economy.

Both technologies aim to solve the same problem of how to store energy produced by renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The technology that comes to dominate this global competition will make or break entire industries.

Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, but on Earth most of it is molecularly tied to something else, like carbon in natural gas or oxygen in water. To use hydrogen as a fuel, we have to break the hydrogen molecules free and isolate them.

Jim Tour and his team of chemists and material scientists at Rice University have been working on finding a way to do this conveniently and inexpensively.

"How do you store electricity? You have to make it into a fuel - something you can put into a bottle and ship around," Tour said. "Hydrogen is a great way to store electricity."

The cheapest and most common way to produce hydrogen is to use heat, steam and a nickel catalyst to split methane into hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

But generating one carbon dioxide molecule for every two hydrogen molecules makes little environmental sense if the goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

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Chemists can produce hydrogen using other processes and catalysts, but they required enormous energy and were uneconomical. Until now.

Tour has been working with a form of carbon called graphene, which is a oneatom thick lattice that is stable, nontoxic, very light and very conductive. In 2014, Tour perfected a way to use a laser to grow graphene inexpensively on plastic, wood and other materials.

RELATED: A full menu of fuels will transport us in the future This month, Tour announced that his laser-induced graphene sheets, when coated with inexpensive nickel- or cobalt-based catalysts, can split two water molecules into two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen. If the small amount of electricity needed for this process comes from wind or solar source, it produces no greenhouse gases.

"From one side of the graphene on plastic sheet comes hydrogen, and from the other comes oxygen, so you don't have to do a gas separation, which normally you'd have to do," Tour told me. "What these catalysts do is allow you to do it at a very low voltage, which is very efficient."

Tour's work was peer-reviewed in the American Chemical Society's journal Applied Materials and Interfaces.

A low-cost, highly efficient method of generating hydrogen improves the economic competitiveness of hydrogen fuel cells, which capture the energy produced when hydrogen and oxygen are combined to make water. Fuel cells can generate energy for as long as there is hydrogen and oxygen, which is usually taken from the atmosphere.

While U.S. automakers have focused on electric vehicles powered by lithium ion batteries, which store electricity as chemical energy, Japanese automakers have made major strides in reducing the cost of fuel cell cars. Toyota executives say they are working to develop a hydrogen infrastructure for Japan within 15 years.

"Fuel cell vehicles have been made. Tanks to store hydrogen to 5,000 pounds per square inch have been made," Tour said. "With a battery, you are storing the electricity in the vehicle. Here you would store the electricity in the form of hydrogen, and you would bring it back in a fuel cell. The efficiencies would be very similar. But the amount of energy you can store is much, much greater in the hydrogen form."

Fuel cell demonstration vehicles from Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and MercedesBenz have clocked more than 3 million miles and 27,000 refueling stops. They typically have a 250-mile range, like all-electric battery cars, but they can be refueled in five minutes compared to hours for recharging a battery. For now

fuel cells are far more expensive than internal combustion engines or batterypowered cars.

RELATED: Hydrogen fuel cell cars creep up on electrics Fuel cells, though, have many applications outside of transportation. Fuel cells are used for electricity generation in remote locations, including on spacecraft.

Japanese manufacturers are experimenting with home units that use solar power during the day to generate hydrogen, which is then used in a fuel cell to power homes at night. Because the hydrogen is produced from water and returned to water after it is used in the fuel cell, these systems consume few resources.

Tour says these are still early days for his laser-induced graphene sheets, but experiments have demonstrated enormous potential. Rice has already licensed the graphene technology to Houston-based PfP Technologies, which plans to initially use graphene to recycle water produced in oil fields.

Tour's breakthrough is yet another example of how innovation is changing the energy landscape, and why the future does not have to rely on fossil fuels. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/Rice-researchergives-hydrogen-boost-as-fuel-of-11951460.php

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Basmati rice becomes India’s top exporting commodity

Basmati rice exports surged to Rs.8,168 crore during April-June compared to Rs.6,196 crore last year.

The Dollar Business Bureau Basmati rice has again become the top commodity to be exported from India. The popular variety of rice overcame the exports of buffalo meat to take the position of the top most exporting commodity in the April-June quarter of 2017-18.

For years, Basmati rice had been the major export commodity of the country. However, since 2014-15, buffalo meat had too over the former‟s position.

According to reports, the reason was that all new orders were suspended earlier by Iran, which consumes more than a fourth of India‟s exports Basmati rice to the world.

During its harvesting season, Iran generally suspends rice import orders. According to reports, this year Iranian traders have continued to import Basmati rice even in the harvesting season.

Basmati rice exports increased to 1.26 million tonnes in the said quarter from 1.18 million tonnes in the same period a year ago.

The average realisation of Basmati surged 28% to $1,009 per tonne this year compared to $787 per tonne last year.

Basmati rice exports from India increased to Rs.8,168 crore during the April-June period as compared to Rs.6,196 crore in the same quarter last year, as per the estimates by Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

The other factor for Basmati rice taking the top position in the country‟s exports is the drop in the buffalo meat exports. Buffalo meat exports declined to 279,409 tonnes in the quarter of April-June this year from 280,869 tonnes in the same quarter last year.

Despite the drop in exports, the revenue from buffalo meat exports increased marginally to $849 million (Rs.5,473 crore) in the April-June quarter from $823 million (Rs.5,445 crore) in the corresponding period last year.

Exporters of buffalo meat faced supply issues when the Government banned the sales of animal, on which the Supreme Court put stay after a few weeks

https://www.thedollarbusiness.com/news/basmati-rice-becomes-indias-top-exportingcommodity/51079

Watch out for arsenic poisoning from rice (1) Published August 23, 2017

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Prof. Oladapo Ashiru

Rice is a cereal grain that is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the worldâ€&#x;s human population, especially in Asia. It is the agricultural commodity with the third highest worldwide production after sugar cane and maize.

With the recession in our part of the world, rice has now become one of the cheapest and most readily affordable and available staple food, despite being mostly imported.

Even our own locally grown crops like yam, cassava and beans are a lot more expensive to buy. Gone were the days in Nigeria when rice was a festivity meal, it is now eaten in many homes and by many people on a daily basis.

Apart from its relative affordability, it is quite loved by many, a comfort food par excellence. What is chicken stew without rice?

Unfortunately, our „dear riceâ€&#x; has its hitches and those who love it and want to eat should know how to eat it safely. Arsenic, a toxic and highly dangerous chemical element with symbol As, has stealthily invaded our food supply, especially rice. Arsenic in rice has tested at levels capable of triggering symptoms of arsenic poisoning!

How does arsenic get to food?

It shows up in our food through three main sources.

First, it naturally occurs in the earthâ€&#x;s crust, coming in at the 33rd most abundant substance that makes up the outer layer of the earth. It often occurs in higher concentrations with other precious or industrial metals, like gold and tungsten.

Thus, a certain amount of exposure is unavoidable and normal. Some areas, though, have naturally elevated and thus problematic base arsenic levels, especially areas known for mining.

Second, some industries release arsenic into the environment. While those industries connected to mining and refining appear to be the largest emitters, they are not alone. Depending on their proximity to these industries, arsenic can end up in its water and soils, and then in the food grown there.

Third, some pesticides and other agricultural chemicals contain arsenic, which builds up over time in soils where they are used.

For many decades, farmers cultivated cotton using arsenic containing agricultural chemicals. Unfortunately, some of the best places to grow rice today are the same places farmers once grew cotton using arseniclaced chemicals. In addition, commercial chicken farms used arsenic for a long time as a poultry feed additive.

More problematic is the fact that, the type of arsenic often, though not exclusively, used in agricultural processes is inorganic (meaning it is not bound to carbon but other elements and chemicals) and is far more dangerous to human health than the kind that naturally occurs in the earthâ€&#x;s crust.

Certain parts of the United States have startlingly high levels of arsenic contamination in the soil and water. California and Texas, two of the primary places rice is grown, rank as some of the worst in their nation.

Mississippi and Arkansas, also major rice producing regions, show problematic arsenic levels in their soils too.

However, it is not limited to these regions as arsenic contamination is incredibly widespread and problematic across any modern major agricultural region. This is especially the case with areas that have high concentrations of concentrated animal feeding operations, otherwise known as CAFO poultry production.

Poultry litter (chicken manure mixed with bedding) is a major source of arsenic contamination. For many years, industrial factory farms used arsenic as a growth stimulant for chickens. The arsenic causes the chickens to eat more, which means they grow faster, which means the big industrial farms make more money. The problem is that the chickenâ€&#x;s faeces is laced with lots of arsenic. All that manure is then used to fertilise grain and vegetable fields.

The arsenic also ends up in groundwater, which people drink and use to irrigate their crops in many regions.

This results in foods, especially those that tend to uptake more arsenic than others, becoming dangerously high in this contaminant. Rice is one such food.

Rice loves arsenic Unfortunately, arsenic easily contaminates rice crops for two reasons.

First, rice appears to have an innate penchant for picking up this chemical element from the soil. By some estimates, rice is 10 times more efficient than other plants at arsenic uptake.

Second, farmers almost always grow rice in flooded paddies. This method exposes rice to far more arsenic than other grain crops since arsenic is highly water soluble. It is also found in irrigation and other water sources, such as well water.

In 2013, the FDA finally banned arsenic as an additive to chicken feed but the environmental and human damage from decades of use is already done.

What does arsenic do to us?

According to a review of arsenic poisoning and its effect on human health by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, soluble inorganic arsenic can have immediate toxic effects. This means that ingestion of a one-time heavy load can lead to acute gastrointestinal symptoms such as severe vomiting, disturbances of the blood and circulation, damage to the nervous system, hallucinations, psychosis and

eventually death. When not deadly, it may reduce blood cells production, break up red blood cells in the circulation, enlarge the liver (causing chronic hepatitis or hepatic cirrhosis), colour the skin (melanosis, hyperkeratosis, desquamation and eventually carcinoma), produce tingling and loss of sensation in the limbs, and cause brain damage.

Long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic in drinking water in Taiwan has caused Blackfoot disease, in which the blood vessels in the lower limbs are severely damaged, resulting eventually in progressive gangrene.

However, arsenic exposure has caused other forms of blood vessel disease in the limbs in several other countries.

It can present with non-specific symptoms, which can be present in many other diseases such as palpitations, fatigue, headache, dizziness, insomnia, weakness, nightmares, numbness in the extremities and anaemia There is strong evidence supporting arsenic playing a part in elevated blood pressure, heart attacks and another circulatory disease. It may also be implicated in diabetes, infertility, stroke and cancers, especially that of the skin, lungs, bladder, kidneys and long-term neurological effects.

In the lungs, asthmatic bronchitis (a cough, expectoration, breathlessness, and restrictive asthma) are common symptoms in longterm insidious exposure. Symptoms of the clinical phase are associated with different complications as the other organs like lungs, liver, muscles, eyes, vessels are affected. Clinical symptoms are associated with biochemical evidence of organ dysfunction as well as high concentrations of arsenic in different organs involved. Liver enlargement

(hepatomegaly), spleen enlargement (splenomegaly) and fluid in the abdomen (ascites) are seen in several cases.

To be continued‌.

Copyright PUNCH. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH. Contact: editor@punchng.com http://punchng.com/watch-out-for-arsenic-poisoning-from-rice-1/

Rice Tops Goods Smuggled Through Creeks By admin August 23, 2017 0 264

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L-R: Country Director, UNDP Nigeria, Dr Samuel Bwalya, Special Advisor to the President on Economic Matters, Amb. Yemi Dipeolu and Regional Director of International Democracy Electoral Assistance, Prof. Adebayo Olukoshi, during the opening of a high level technical consultation on Public Tax and Fiscal Transparency Rules for multinationals and private individuals in Africa in Abuja, recently. muggling of rice through the Western creeks is on the increase thereby placing a question mark on the proficiency of the Western Marine Command of the Nigeria

Customs

Service.

A senior customs officer of the Federal Operation Unit who does not want his name in print confided in The Tide in Lagos yesterday while revealing some seizures

the

command

made

in

recent

times.

He noted that the creeks account for a higher degree of rice smuggling.

According to him, “there is an inlet behind Water Corporation Jetty, Ishashi, and another at Oto -Awori and behind Alaba International Market, where smugglers

are coming through with various prohibited goods with rice topping the lists.

Our findings also revealed that importers of Nigeria-bound goods through the Cotonou Ports now see the waterways as a most viable entry point either for duty

invasion

or

concealment

of

prohibited

items.

Most items that fall under the Federal Government’s import prohibition lists which are statutorily banned from entering the country through the land borders find

their

way

through

the

waterways.

Our correspondent who visited Ishashi Jetty also discovered that these items come in trickles and in bulk depending on who is bringing them into the country.

The volume of imports for which revenue is lost on the part of the government is over 24 trucks hauling rice weekly into the country which may far outweigh the generated revenue and create an adverse effect on government policy to encourage

local

production

of

some

of

the

products.

There are also unmanned areas that pose as an open field to smugglers. These areas are not policed by the customs men either for fear of confrontation by die-hard smugglers or customs officials chose to look the other way after settlement for the smugglers to have a field day.

Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos

http://www.thetidenewsonline.com/2017/08/23/rice-tops-goods-smuggled-through-creeks/

APEC officials interested in Vietnam’s rice production, export VNA THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017 - 14:47:00 PRINT

Representatives of APEC economies has a fact-finding trip to the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta Rice Research Institute and Trung An Hi-Tech Farming JSC in Can Tho city on August 24 (Photo: VNA) Can Tho (VNA) – Officials from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies expressed their special interest in Vietnam’s rice production and export during their fact-finding trip to the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta Rice Research Institute (CLRRI) and Trung An Hi-Tech Farming JSC based in Can Tho city on August 24.

At the CLRRI located in Ninh Kieu district, the delegates were briefed on the operation of the institute, which is the premier national institution specialising in rice research.

The institute has released more than 180 new varieties of rice with 77 varieties certified nationally, CLRRI Director Tran Ngoc Thach said, adding that about 25 new solutions have been developed and transferred to farmers.

It has collaborated with a number of organisations and universities worldwide such as the International Rice Research Institute, the UN Development Fund, the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, in terms of food security, poverty reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Thach said the institute aims to move towards a more efficient and climate-ready rice production system in the time to come.

Meanwhile, Trung An High-Tech Farming JSC has 20,000 ha of paddy fields which produce 400,000 tonnes of rice meeting GAP and organic standards annually.

The company’s major rice export markets include the US, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, China, Iran, Iraq, Germany, Italy, France and Australia, to name but a few.

Gerald Herbert Smith, a US delegate, said that the increasing level of water and salinisation remains biggest challenges to rice production in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region, especially at low-lying areas, requiring researchers and scientists to look for ways to ease their negative impacts.

He said post-harvest loss is also a challenge to agriculture in general and rice production in particular, noting that the US and the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have engaged in joint studies and scientific collaboration in order to seek the best ways to reduce the losses.

The official hailed the CLRRI’s plan to implement other production models like aquaculture apart from rice crops in the context of climate change.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Mekong Delta region has harvested 10,259 million tonnes of rice in the winter-spring rice crop in 2016-2017, up 188,375 tonnes from the same period in 2015-2016.

The region cultivated more than 1.5 million ha of rice during the crop, down 22,630 ha against the previous winter-spring crop, with an average productivity of 6.7 tonnes a hectare.

The ministry said in the rest of 2017, drastic measures will be taken to deal with unfavourable weather conditions and the impacts of climate change such as drought and saline intrusion.

The region will plant over 1.6 million ha of rice in the 2017 summerautumn crop, hoping to reach an estimated output of 9.45 million tonnes, up nearly 437,000 tonnes against the 2016 summer-autumn crop.

Rice varieties resistant to drought and salt water such as OM 6976, OM 2517, OM 5629, among others, will be used for the crop.-VNA http://en.vietnamplus.vn/apec-officials-interested-in-vietnams-rice-production-

Chinese high-yielding hybrid rice to be launched in Pakistan export/116841.vnp

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Iftikhar Alam inShare

LAHORE - China is all set to commercially launch a hybrid rice variety in Pakistan which has 18 tons per hectare yield or more than 150 maunds per acre.

The revolutionary rice seed was recently developed by the Chinese researchers under the guidance of worldâ€&#x;s leading agriculture scientist Professor Yuan Longping, who is commonly known as father of hybrid rice in the world.

The new rice variety would help Pakistani farmers to significantly increase per acre yield and hence the country would be able to export more rice to other countries, including China, in future.

“We will be happy to share the seed variety with Pakistan which is our great friend,” said the octogenarian Professor Yuan in a rare conversation with a group of journalists. The sitting with him was jointly arranged by the Guard Agriculture Research and Services (Pvt) Limited, pioneer in introducing hybrid rice in the country, and China‟s top agriculture research company, Yuan Longping Hi-Tech Industries.

Shah Rukh Malik and Rizwan Yousaf, Guard Group‟s executives, said, “Currently, China imports 30 per cent to 40 per cent of rice from Pakistan. The new rice variety will help country to enhance rice exports to the neighbouring country in the years to come.”

Hybrid rice variety is being cultivated in some parts of Sindh and Balochistan as the fields in tropical districts of Pakistan are highly friendly for paddy farming. The Guard Group in collaboration with Chinese researchers is making efforts to develop the hybrid variety for Punjab‟s regions and at the same time it has launched awareness programs for Sindh and Balochistan farmers to increase the area under hybrid rice.

The average production of presently sown hybrid rice in China and Pakistan is around 7-8 tons per hectares, almost 15 per cent high than the conventional rice‟s yield. Terming new variety his lifelong dream, Professor Yuan said the seed was the toughest ever in commercial large scale trials in terms of yield.

The father of hybrid rice is highly regarded in China as well as in the world for his contribution in ending the food crisis in the globe. The United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN World Intellectual Property Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) honoured him with different titles and awards during past four decades. He received the 2004 World Food Prize for his breakthrough achievement in developing the genetic materials and technologies essential for breeding high-yielding hybrid rice varieties. He continues his innovative scientific work as Director-General of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha, Hunan Province, China.

He is widely acknowledged as the first person to discover how to achieve fast growth with greater yield and stress resistance. In 1964, he happened to find a natural hybrid rice plant that had obvious advantages over others and in 1973, he successfully cultivated a type of hybrid rice species having 15 per cent 20 per cent more yield than the conventional ones.

As area of hybrid rice in the country is about 200,000 hectares ( around 450,000 acres), Professor Yuan believed it could be significantly increased. He encouraged young Pakistani researchers and agriculture scientists to take benefits from the Chinese expertise in the field of agriculture science. He believed Pakistan was good country and had great potential of growth and development.

The Guard Group also organised the visit of ISKY chemicals company which is one of the world‟s largest exporters of agri chemicals. Founded in 1994, ISKY is a major supplier of sulphur and related chemicals to Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and Oceania. The company management offered its full cooperation to Pakistan in the field of agriculture science http://nation.com.pk/business/24-Aug-2017/chinese-high-yielding-hybrid-rice-to-be-launchedin-pakistan

China To Launch Hybrid Rice In Pakistan By Darakhshan Anjum Aug 24, 2017

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China is about to launch a hybrid rice type in Pakistan that has 18 tons per hectare yield. The father of hybrid rice globally, Professor Yuan Longping guided Chinese researchers to develop this innovative rice seed.

The benefit of this launch will be that Pakistani farmers will be able to grow much more rice per acre field. Thus it would enable Pakistan to export to more countries and the economy of the country would boost up.

Interesting: Pest control mobile applications for agriculture department officials Professor Yuan said, “We will be happy to share the seed variety with Pakistan which is our great friend.” He said this in a discussion session organized by the Guard Agriculture Research and Services (Pvt) Limited that is the creator of hybrid rice in the country, and China’s biggest agriculture research company, Yuan Longping Hi-Tech Industries.

Guard Agriculture Executives said, “Currently, China imports 30 per cent to 40 per cent of rice from Pakistan. The new rice variety will help the country to enhance rice exports to the neighboring country in the years to come.”

Currently, hybrid rice is grown in some areas of Baluchistan and Sindh. The effort by Chinese companies is with the aim to introduce hybrid variety in Punjab as well.

Professor Yuan is a man known worldwide for his work to control food crisis in the world. He was awarded many titles and awards in last 40 years from United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN World Intellectual Property Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He continues to inspire and work for the people as Director-General of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. He introduced the concept of achieving rapid growth with higher yield and stress resistance.

Now his discoveries and innovation would benefit Pakistan as well and improve the overall economy of the country. https://www.researchsnipers.com/china-launch-hybrid-rice-pakistan/

Chinese high-yielding hybrid rice to be launched in Pakistan SHARE :

Iftikhar Alam inShare

LAHORE - China is all set to commercially launch a hybrid rice variety in Pakistan which has 18 tons per hectare yield or more than 150 maunds per acre.

The revolutionary rice seed was recently developed by the Chinese researchers under the guidance of worldâ€&#x;s leading agriculture scientist Professor Yuan Longping, who is commonly known as father of hybrid rice in the world.

The new rice variety would help Pakistani farmers to significantly increase per acre yield and hence the country would be able to export more rice to other countries, including China, in future.

“We will be happy to share the seed variety with Pakistan which is our great friend,” said the octogenarian Professor Yuan in a rare conversation with a group of journalists. The sitting with him was jointly arranged by the Guard Agriculture Research and Services (Pvt) Limited, pioneer in introducing hybrid rice in the country, and China‟s top agriculture research company, Yuan Longping Hi-Tech Industries.

Shah Rukh Malik and Rizwan Yousaf, Guard Group‟s executives, said, “Currently, China imports 30 per cent to 40 per cent of rice from Pakistan. The new rice variety will help country to enhance rice exports to the neighbouring country in the years to come.”

Hybrid rice variety is being cultivated in some parts of Sindh and Balochistan as the fields in tropical districts of Pakistan are highly friendly for paddy farming. The Guard Group in collaboration with Chinese researchers is making efforts to develop the hybrid variety for Punjab‟s regions and at the same time it has launched awareness programs for Sindh and Balochistan farmers to increase the area under hybrid rice.

The average production of presently sown hybrid rice in China and Pakistan is around 7-8 tons per hectares, almost 15 per cent high than the conventional rice‟s yield. Terming new variety his lifelong dream, Professor Yuan said the seed was the toughest ever in commercial large scale trials in terms of yield.

The father of hybrid rice is highly regarded in China as well as in the world for his contribution in ending the food crisis in the globe. The United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN World Intellectual Property Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) honoured him with different titles and awards during past four decades. He received the 2004 World Food Prize for his breakthrough achievement in developing the genetic materials and technologies essential for breeding high-yielding hybrid rice varieties. He continues his innovative scientific work as Director-General of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha, Hunan Province, China.

He is widely acknowledged as the first person to discover how to achieve fast growth with greater yield and stress resistance. In 1964, he happened to find a natural hybrid rice plant that had obvious advantages over others and in 1973, he successfully cultivated a type of hybrid rice species having 15 per cent 20 per cent more yield than the conventional ones.

As area of hybrid rice in the country is about 200,000 hectares ( around 450,000 acres), Professor Yuan believed it could be significantly increased. He encouraged young Pakistani researchers and agriculture scientists to take benefits from the Chinese expertise in the field of agriculture science. He believed Pakistan was good country and had great potential of growth and development.

The Guard Group also organised the visit of ISKY chemicals company which is one of the worldâ€&#x;s largest exporters of agri chemicals. Founded in 1994, ISKY is a major supplier of sulphur and related chemicals to Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and Oceania. The company management offered its full cooperation to Pakistan in the field of agriculture science. http://nation.com.pk/business/24-Aug-2017/chinese-high-yielding-hybrid-rice-to-be-launchedin-pakistan

FAO advocates efficient rice farming practice 1d ago | Source: Graphic Online

African farmers require high-yielding rice varieties to increase productivity in commercial volumes to improve livelihoods and ensure sustained food security, the Assistant Director-General and Africa Regional Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Mr Bukar Tijani, has said.

“The demand for rice is growing at more than six per cent a year – faster than any other major food staple in sub-Saharan Africa – but the local production has been unable to keep pace with the demand, and the continent continues to rely on imports to meet its increasing demand for rice,” he stated.

At the opening of a five-day workshop in Elmina on knowledge exchange for the promotion of efficient rice farming practices and value chains in sub-Saharan Africa through South-South Cooperation, Mr Tijani highlighted the rice value chain as a major example of the agricultural potential for income and employment generation and a critical entry point for poverty reduction.

“There has been a sharp rise in rice production in Africa in recent years, but producers in the region continue to contend with the lack of adequate and sufficient planting materials, tools, machinery for land preparation, harvesting, processing and prevention of post-harvest losses,” he added.

Participants Representatives of the government, AfricaRice, Coalition for Africa Rice Development (CARD), Rural Development Administration (RDA) of Korea, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), as well as FAO attended the workshop.

The Programmes Leader, Rice Sector Development (AfricaRice), Mr Josey Kamanda, noted that rice was a strategic and priority food security crop in Africa; the single most important source of dietary energy in West Africa and Madagascar and the third most important staple for Africa as a whole.

“As the demand-supply gap continues to widen, there is an increasing need for investments that will significantly increase local rice production to reduce the import bill.

Over the past several decades, development partners have made investments in rice production. Yield gaps, however, remain high,” he stated.

Performance

Growth rates went up to a high eight per cent between 2007 and 2012, but there were significant post-harvest losses of between 15 per cent and 25 per cent, AfricaRice estimates.

Top rice producing countries in Africa, namely Nigeria, Madagascar, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania have boosted their rice production through the introduction of high-yielding technologies and the application of modern rice cultivation techniques, including mechanisation.

FAO supports smallholder farmers The FAO is actively supporting AfricaRice to establish rice centres of excellence such as the Africa Korea Rice breeding laboratory launched this month in Saint-Louis, Senegal.

Also, under a $5-million regional project on Partnership for Sustainable Rice Systems Development in sub-Saharan Africa, FAO will support the sharing of technologies and innovations among beneficiary countries, strengthen capacity building, while facilitating access by smallholders, especially women and young people, to inputs and small-scale agricultural equipment.

The cooperation between FAO and AfricaRice offers a pathway out of poverty and employment opportunities for young men and women entering job markets in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) http://www.businessghana.com/site/news/General/150685/FAO-advocates-efficient-ricefarming-practice-

FLOODS LEAVE 8PC OF PADDY FIELDS UNPLANTED - Post Report, Kathmandu

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Aug 24, 2017Farmers have been forced to leave 8 percent of the country’s paddy fields unplanted due to floods which hit the southern Tarai plains in mid-August.

The country suffered record floods following torrential rain from August 11-14 that left 31 districts awash in water.

The Ministry of Agricultural Development said that paddy transplantation had been completed on 91.93 percent of the 1.55 million hectares of paddy fields as of Monday.

“Farmers in the Tarai still have the option of sowing paddy seeds. They have a week-long window before the beginning of September,” said Bhaba Prasad Tripathi, senior associate scientist of the International Rice Research Institute Nepal (IRRI-Nepal).

However, the floodwaters have to recede from the fields, so farmers will be able to plant paddy only on high ground or upland areas, he said.

Paddy can be either direct seeded or transplanted. In direct seeding, the seeds are sown directly in the fields. In transplanting, seedlings are raised in seedbeds and the paddy saplings are planted in the fields.

A number of seeds like Hardinath 1 and 3, Sukkha Dhan 3, Ciherang Sub 1 and others can tolerate submergence stress, Tripathi said. These seeds need to be kept in water for 36 to 48 hours for them to germinate. After that, they can be sowed directly.

“By sowing these seeds, we can reduce losses to some extent, but the question is availability of the seeds in the local market.”

Floodwaters have wiped out more than Rs8 billion worth of crops, according to government estimates. The paddy crop suffered the most with damage amounting to Rs3.18 billion. These figures, however, are estimates of losses during the plantation period.

Agro experts said that the impact of the floods can affect yield. Besides, farmers will not be able to plant paddy on at least 8 percent of the country’s paddy fields.

However, Tripathi said that it was too early to predict harvest losses.

Floods can be beneficial in many ways despite their immediate ill effects. They provide nutrients to the soil. “A flood makes the soil more fertile and increases agricultural production,” said Tripathi. There will be losses, but the extent cannot be predicted, he added.

The ministry’s statistics show that paddy transplantation has been completed on 99.92 percent of the fields in the mountain region, 97.67 percent in the hills and 89.41 percent in Tarai.

The Tarai, which is the major paddy producing region in the country, contains 71 percent of its rice fields. The hilly region contains 25 percent and the mountain region 4 percent. This year, the monsoon entered Nepal on June 12, two days after the normal onset date. However, it was weak and only started to pick up pace from June-end allowing farmers to start transplanting paddy.

According to the ministry, the transplantation rate is higher in the Far Western Region with 100 percent of the total 176,560 hectares planted to paddy.

Likewise, the transplantation rate in the Mid-Western and Western regions has been recorded at 99.34 percent of the 178,096 hectares and 99.18 percent of the 312,547 hectares respectively.

The Central and Eastern regions, however, have seen a low transplantation rate. According to the ministry, the transplantation rate in the Central and Eastern regions has been recorded at 82.53 percent of the 439,328 hectares and 89.94 percent of the 445,938 hectares.

In the plains, Dhanusha, Mahottari and Sarlahi districts have recorded a transplantation rate of only 55 percent as floods prevented farmers from transplanting paddy, the ministry said.

Likewise, Siraha and Morang districts have also observed low transplantation rates of 79 percent and 80 percent respectively.

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2017-08-24/floods-leave-8pc-of-paddy-fieldsunplanted.html

China’s Beloved Braised Chicken Rice Chain Is Finally Coming To The U.S. 08/21/2017 09:13 pm ET

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE YANG’S BRAISED CHICKEN RICE CHAIN.    

One of China’s most popular and fastest-growing restaurant chains is coming to the United States, and folks better watch out. This braised chicken rice shop could upend a lot of competitors in the area.

First opened in 2011, Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice is definitely the new kid on the fast food block. However, the chain already has a staggering 5,000 locations globally, proving that they’re no slouches when it comes to speed, service, and flavor. They’ve even been compared to West Coast cult icon InN-Out for their sleek model, swift output, and delicious food. Similar to the burger legend, Yang’s specializes in just one item and does it right: Huang Meng braised chicken rice. The only customization you can make to this dish is the level of spiciness. Other than that, the base to every clay pot of this Shangdong cuisine staple is the exact same.

In fact, the recipe has barely changed over the past 80-plus years. That’s because Yang’s Huang Meng chicken recipe is originally fromthe 1930s. Xiao Lu Yang, the founder of the new restaurant powerhouse, has inherited the recipe from his grandmother. He’s made some slight changes, but otherwise it’s the same chicken dish Yang’s grandmother first sold in the 1930s. Yang first opened his namesake chain when he discovered the national popularity of Huang Meng chicken served with rice, and it’s still the only item sold in the chain’s 5,000-plus locations. Many of those locations are in China, but some locations are in Melbourne, Singapore, and Japan as well.

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XIAO LU YANG, THE 37-YEAR-OLD FOUNDER OF YANG’S. IMAGE COURTESY OF THE YANG’S BRAISED CHICKEN RICE CHAIN. On September 10th, Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice will open its first USA location in Tustin, California. Yang’s sole menu offering, the Huang Meng chicken with rice, sells for $9.99 per clay pot. Each pot comes with a generous helping of rice and chicken thighs that braise with vegetables in Yang’s secret sauce. The sauce is actually made in China and shipped to the US, meaning the flavor should almost perfectly replicate what Yang’s sells in China.

If you want to be one of the first people to taste the food in the US restaurant, make sure to reserve a spot for the September 10th grand opening.

Otherwise, Yang’s does plan to expand out to the rest of the country and beyond. Franchise offers have already come in from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Canada.

You’ll definitely want to get a taste of this soon. With the wide popularity its had already, Yang’s could take the entire USA by storm in the very near future http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chinas-beloved-braised-chicken-rice-chain-isfinally_us_599b845fe4b0521e90cfb4cd FDA Releases New Tool to Aid FSMA

By Lydia Holmes

WASHINGTON, DC -- This week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a tool to assist food facilities with the development of food safety plans for compliance with regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

The FDA Food Safety Plan Builder (FSPB) is a free computer program that owners or operators of food facilities can download that walks through the process of creating a food safety plan.

Food manufacturers are not required to use the FSPB tool to comply with FSMA rules and the FDA does not have access to any of the content or documents developed using the tool.

Food safety plans are required for compliance with FDA's Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food regulation (20 CFR Part 117). Most facilities were required to comply with these rules starting in September 2016, with some smaller facilities given until September 2017 to comply. While the FSPB was primarily designed for use by small manufacturers with limited resources, any size manufacturer can opt to use it.

This and other FSMA compliance issues will be the focus of a 90-minute breakout session at the 2017 USA Rice Outlook Conference, December 10-12, in San Antonio, Texas. The session will include insights from seasoned food safety experts on rice facility compliance issues and a question and answer period where members can share FSMA compliance concerns.