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Latest News Headlines…
Want to Become A Professional Rice Taster? Here’s How Farm Is the Canvas, Rice Grains the Colours What’s Good for Rice is Good for Ducks LSU rice specialist focuses on new varieties Dry Fall, Cold Winter Shortened Crawfish Season Nigeria spends $4 billion annually on rice importation – Alade Scientific interventions provide healthier rice varieties Rice intensification uplifts Mvomero rice farmers Investment to support the Philippines’ drive for rice self-sufficiency Parboiled rice price to be 15 per cent cheaper than white rice
News Detail… Want to Become A Professional Rice Taster? Here’s How May 30, 2014
Rice can be tasted, exactly as it happens for wine: this is the mission of Accademia italiana degustatori di riso (Italian Academy of Rice Tasters), a new association based in Villarboit, near Milan.Their goal is to teach people how to recognize a good rice and certify it. One can find all information about it at their site www.degustariso.it: The association wants to explain to retail and cooking professionals the specific characteristics of every variety farmed in Italy whose taste can vary according to the production site. They don't taste cooked risottos: they first smell the rice, then they boil it, and taste it hot and cold. They are building a method, as the ones for wine, cheese, honey, in order to capture the different smell, taste, observing also the cooking resistance of the grains and so on.Accademia is working at a tasting project commissioned by an Italian seed company which may take place in IV International Rice Congress in Bangkok, from October 27 to November 1, 2014. Tags: Rice, tasting, academy, Italy
Farm Is the Canvas, Rice Grains the Colours May 30, 2014
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Who says rice fields have to be boring and conventional? Not if the Japanese farmers decide to make their fields as their canvas, the coloured rice varieties as their colours and create rice art from their heart.Every April, Japanese farmers in Inakadate (600 miles from Tokya) and Yonezawa villages meet to plan the 'rice art' they want to grow. They brainstorm to decide the theme, draw up the designs on computers, choose rice varieties of varied colours and plant them in a pattern so that when the fields are lush, the Tanbo art (rice paddy art) is obvious. The popular coloured ones are yellow-leafed Kodaimai rice and green-leafed Tsugaru. If it's growing Naoe Kanetsugu, a commander from the Sengoku period for one harvest, it is the world-famous Japanese robotic cat Doraemon the next season! Even the classy Mona Lisa during another harvest.These 20-year-old art forms don’t affect the rice production in any way. On the contrary, it is getting them a lot of good press and curious tourists as well. Want to witness their art? Visit Japanese farms in September when the paddy fields sprout art, literally. Tags: Japan, rice art, paddy art, tabo art, creativity
What’s Good for Rice is Good for Ducks May 30, 2014
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. In the US, what’s good for rice is good for ducks. According to a study conducted by Ducks Unlimited (NGO) scientists, flooded rice fields provide nearly 40 percent of food to ducks in the central Valley and Gulf Coast. Those in the rice business for a few decades now vouch for the fact that rice farms in the US don’t just produce rice, they also support waterfowl and other migratory birds, thus ensuring that the delicate ecological balance stays intact. Interestingly, the three rice-growing regions of the US (the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Gulf Coast and California’s Central Valley) coincide with its waterfowl wintering grounds. These very regions face water shortage and could affect both rice production and the duck population’s survival.Realising the synergy between the ducks and rice farms, the NGO and the USA Rice Federation formed a partnership in 2013 to advocate ecosystem benefits of rice agriculture. Like USA Rice Federation president and CEO Betsey Ward sums it up in one sentence: What’s good for rice is good for ducks.
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LSU rice specialist focuses on new varieties May 31, 2014
LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station director Steve Linscombe said providing viable varieties of rice for Louisiana growers is one of his main missions.“Variety development is an ongoing endeavor that started over 100 years ago,” Linscombe said.When the Rice Research Station was established in 1909, rice germplasm from across the world was tested to determine varieties suitable for southwestern Louisiana conditions, Linscombe said. Since then, the station has released 51 varieties.Linscombe said a variety is considered good if it remains an acceptable choice for seven to 10 years and very good if it lasts 20 years.The variety Cypress, released by the LSU AgCenter in 1992, had yield and quality advantages along with seedling vigor beyond anything grown at the time. It became the predominant choice for three to four years, Linscombe said, and it still remains in use.Cocodrie, released by the LSU AgCenter in 1998, replaced Cypress with better yield, and it continues to be grown.Linscombe said varieties don’t change for the worse through years of growing seasons. “It’s inevitable that factors affecting a variety tend to change over time,” he said.He explained every variety is susceptible to different disease pathogens that are able to thrive on a new variety. Those pathogens increase in population with each growing season until they eventually affect a variety’s ability to produce a crop.To stay ahead of diseases, Linscombe said, it’s essential to develop new varieties.Linscombe said when he evaluates new lines of rice for their potential as new varieties, he’s not focusing on just yield, plant height, disease resistance or quality. “I’m looking for everything,” he said.Often, rice breeding requires a compromise among different traits. And sometimes a trait makes a line of rice an obvious choice for development.For example, Linscombe said a line of rice that is ready for harvest 10 days earlier than usual is a big advantage in Louisiana where farmers want to get their crop out of the field as early as possible to beat the possibility of hurricanes and possibly to get a second crop started.Linscombe said variety development at the Rice Research Station has also led to introducing new specialty varieties, such as Jazzman I and Jazzman II, which are now being improved with a Clearfield Jazzman. The specialty varieties have specialized characteristics such as aroma and grain shape that appeal to niche markets.
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Image: Experimental rice grows as rice farmers particpate in a previous LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station's Field Day Crowley. / GANNETT LOUISIANA
Dry Fall, Cold Winter Shortened Crawfish Season 05/30/2014 12:09 PM
Baton Rouge -- When fall weather is dry, and winter is as cold and as long as it was this year, the combination spells problems for the crawfish industry.That scenario put this year’s season about one month behind, said LSU AgCenter aquaculture researcher Robert Romaire.“When you get behind, it’s really hard to catch up,” Romaire said. “We lost a month of growing this season due to weather.”Because crawfish growth is temperature-dependent, those months from November through February are important to size and availability. “It was cold longer this year than we usually expect,” Romaire said.LSU AgCenter aquaculture researcher Ray McClain, who studies crawfish at the Rice Research Station near Crowley, said this has definitely been an atypical year for pond-raised crawfish.“Some crawfish are still being harvested, and as is typical, harvesting will continue in those ponds that are catching as long as it is profitable,” McClain said.The recent dry spell has caused some crawfish farmers to end their seasons, while others are looking toward the Atchafalaya Basin for the wild crop that comes in this time of the year. “It’s possible that a period of cool, rainy weather could prolong the season some,” McClain said. But hot, dry weather spells the end of this year’s pond crop. LSU AgCenter aquaculture specialist Greg Lutz said years ago nobody really expected to find boiled crawfish during winter, but now, if you don’t mind the size, you can find boiled crawfish during the colder months.
“It’s a matter of economics,” Lutz said. “If the farmer can justify going out to run the traps, and he can get a good enough price, he will get crawfish.”When the weather cooperates in the fall, it is possible to find boiled crawfish as early as Thanksgiving, which was unheard of just over 10 years ago, Romaire said.“During the past decade, people have been demanding and getting crawfish around Thanksgiving, but it hasn’t always been so,” Romaire said. “You didn’t expect to get them until around March.Normally the crawfish season would be down to the last few weeks by now, Lutz said. “But with the season starting off slower and the wild catch just now really coming in, crawfish could be available for several more weeks before they start burrowing up for the summer.”One of the problems encountered by crawfish farmers when the season starts slow is many are actually rice farmers first and crawfish farmers second, Romaire said. “When it’s time to plant rice, they can’t wait.
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” Lutz said the crawfish know what they are supposed to do and when they are supposed to do it.“These crawfish have been doing this for hundreds of millions of years. When the days start to get longer and the water starts to get warmer, they know that summer is coming soon, so they’ve got to go find a place to spend the summer, and they’ll start burrowing down,” Lutz said.The researchers agree that the wild crawfish coming in now are about the same quality as pond-raised were in March. Copyright 2014 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Nigeria spends $4 billion annually on rice importation – Alade May 30, 2014 | Filed under: main story | Author: Editor Dr Sarah Alade, Acting Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, said on Friday that Nigeria spends an average of four billion dollars annually on the importation of rice.Speaking at the ongoing Africa Rising Conference on Friday in Maputo, Alade who featured as a panelist in a session with the theme: “Structural Transformation and Private Sector Development in Sub-Saharan Africa’’, said: “Agriculture is key to economic development in Africa; on the average, Nigeria spends about four billion dollars on the importation of rice. “We need to improve domestic market to harness the natural resources we have.”Alade said if Africa was able to transform the agricultural sector, it would be able to feed itself and have surplus for others.She said that the Nigerian government was doing everything possible to minimise risks in the sector to enable participation of local investors.She added that the ongoing agricultural transformation programme had equally attracted many foreign investors.In his contribution, Mr Andrew Rugasira, Chief Executive Officer, Good Africa Coffee, Uganda, said mineral resources abound in Africa that could be explored even as transformation in the agricultural sector was been pursued.He noted that developed countries were more interested in the development of agriculture in the continent than Africans who own arable lands.According to him, Nigeria, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire which have huge coffee resources export less products compared to Germany. “Germany exports on the average of about 12 million metric tonnes of coffee worth about 9. 3 billion dollars compared to the 10 million metric tonnes with a value of 2.2 billion dollars by countries in Africa.“Germany does not grow coffee but they export more than us; it needs to be changed,’’ Rugasira, said.He said that implementation of well thought out policies in African countries remained a major challenge to be tackled.Also, Jingdong Hua, Vice President and Treasurer, International Finance Corporation called for the introduction of technology in trading in Africa.He said that focus should be on improving the agricultural sector through various capital markets, adding that money should be channelled into improving areas that would be of economic value to the countries.This, Jindong said, would help to use agriculture to achieve inclusive economic growth. (NAN)
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Scientific interventions provide healthier rice varieties Category: Science 31 May 2014 Written by Rowena Galang-Bumanlag / Special to the BusinessMirror JANICE RECOMETA, 32, a mother of one and an overseas Filipino worker in the United Arab Emirates, lives with her family abroad.At mealtime, she serves them a steaming bowl of white rice even if there is an abundance of international food choices.On monthly payday, her grocery basket is filled with two 5kilogram packs of Jasmine rice that she buys at the nearest grocery store at 5 dirhams, or P60, a kilo.Jasmine rice is a favorite choice among rice lovers in Asia because it is tender, exudes sweet scent and is mild in flavor when cooked.Recometa is aware of the healthier benefits of the more widely promoted brown rice but she said it has a certain texture in the mouth that just doesn’t quite satisfy her family’s discriminating taste.Theirs is a typical Filipino family, whose palate is used to eating polished rice.Most rice consumers like Recometa and her family prefer white rice as the more palatable and fashionable staple, choosing it over the healthier, unpolished and half-milled rice varieties.This preference is even more predominant among upscale consumers.Scientists have a take on this. Polished rice is devoid of essential nutrients RESEARCH shows that polished-rice grains lack nutrients that are present in the outer (bran) and inner (germ) layers, which are ripped off in the refining process.Among the nutrients that are taken away along with the bran layers during milling include magnesium, manganese, zinc and iron.The loss of these micronutrients—particularly zinc and iron—has become a global concern, especially in poor nations suffering from zinc and iron deficiency.Both iron and zinc are essential elements for human health to complete bodily functions and highly complex processes that are indispensable for survival—such as production of red blood cells and transportation of oxygen throughout the body. According to the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), micronutrient deficiency is widespread in countries where rice is the staple food.Regarded as the most pervasive form of malnutrition and a leading cause of anemia, iron deficiency has affected the health of millions of women and children, in particular.The World Health Organization puts the figure at a staggering 2 billion people, or over 30 percent of the world’s population.One important item on IRRI’s research agenda is to address this global concern.IRRI develops healthier rice with more nutrients to significantly contribute to worldwide interventions that aim to reduce micronutrient deficiencies and improve the nutrition of rice consumers. This agenda is realized through biofortification.
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Biofortified rice is nutrient-rich rice BIOFORTIFICATION can help poorer groups in society gain access to nutritious foods, which they would otherwise not be able to purchase because of lack of resources.IRRI’s rice-breeding research usually uses traditional or conventional methods, but increasing the iron content of rice is not achievable using these techniques.Dr. Jessica Rey of the Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Division (PBGBD) of IRRI said conventional breeding methods were not successful because there are no donor rice germplasm with exceptionally higher levels of iron.Genetic modification, thus, becomes the more applicable method, she said. Using biotechnology as a tool, the rice is genetically modified (GM) to carry a gene or genes that exhibit the desired traits, in this case iron, into its genetic makeup, Dr. Rey explained.The same method, she said, has an added benefit of enhancing the zinc content of the rice grain.“We encourage the rice plant to absorb more minerals from the soil, to take them all up and distribute them evenly to the plant with a concentration of more minerals into the grain so that even after milling, the minerals are retained and not wasted away,” Dr. Rey said.The researchers did this by using a substance called nicotianamine and other iron transporters from rice to enhance the movement of these micronutrients from the plant roots to the grains.Dr. Rey also explained that they use ferritin, an iron-storage protein found in soybean and rice, to boost the rice endosperm’s capacity to store iron.Through genetic modification, IRRI has successfully developed rice with additional 30 percent of the estimated average requirement for iron compared to the non-GM line. This improvement was achieved in their 2012 field trials.Dr. Rey said their research team is still working on further increasing the iron levels in the grain, particularly in the endosperm (the part of the grain that is retained after polishing), to above 13 parts per million, which is the nutritionists’ required level to make a significant impact in reducing iron deficiency.The exciting thing about biofortification, the team said, is that once the preferred gene is in the plant, it remains there forever—a glaring advantage of biofortification over mechanical or commercial fortification.In mechanical fortification, Dr. Rey said, the desired nutrient needs to be added onto the grain each time the rice is processed. This is why biofortification is a more sustainable strategy, she added.
Biofortified rice on the way HOWEVER, consumers still have to wait a few more years before high-iron and high-zinc rice reach their tables.IRRI’s research on high-iron rice variety started in 2009. High-zinc rice, which they started research on way before iron fortification, is already available in Bangladesh.Dr. Rey said they are still in the research phase, and that there are national and international biosafety standards that IRRI still need to strictly comply with as the rice varieties go through the breeding process.Prior to the public release of any GM rice variety, she said, IRRI has to conduct advanced bioavailability studies to verify its effectiveness in reducing iron or zinc deficiency.Such studies will measure how much iron or zinc in the rice is bioavailable to humans or is actually absorbed and used in the human body. This will allow researchers to measure how well the rice can reduce iron or zinc deficiency. Biotechnology for food sustainability
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IN the Philippines strategies to harness biotechnology in crops are advanced by the government through the Department of Agriculture (DA) Biotechnology Program.The program aims to “utilize the tools of biotechnology as an alternative means to improving the productivity of local agriculture toward food security and sustainable development.”Dr. Antonio Alfonso, coordinator of the DA Biotechnology Program and director of the Crop Biotechnology Center of the Philippine Rice Research Institute, said the DA Biotech Program gives support to programs such as food biofortification through field tests and performance validation under field conditions. He said their focus is on further improving the variety by ensuring that it is disease-resistant and that its agronomic traits are what farmers would highly prefer.Dr. Alfonso said the public should be informed that crop biotechnology is a “genetic modification [that] is a tool to produce sufficient, safe and nutritious food amid production constraints and changing climatic patterns that have direct adverse impact in agriculture.”He said, GM crops are the most-studied products before they are allowed for commercial release. This means that breeding processes strictly comply with biosafety regulations, he explained.Scientific interventions, such as the development of healthier rice varieties, he said, are benefits of technology that the public sector can take advantage of.Dr. Alfonso said that with the availability of high-iron and high-zinc rice varieties in the market, rice consumers, such as Recometa’s family, can have healthier rice options and they can then make informed choices for the benefit of their families and the community.Of course, it is still up to the consumers to decide because rice involves both nutrition and culture, Dr. Alfonso said.
In Photo: The International Rice Research Institute confined field trial of high-iron rice lines in 2012. (IRRI)
Rice intensification uplifts Mvomero rice farmers BY GERALD KITABU 1st June 2014
Mvomero farmers participating in a system of rice intensification (SRI) have doubled production from the previous four tones per hectare to nine tones following intensive training by the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA).The project based on participatory validation and upscaling of systems of rice intensification in the district is organized by the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH).Speaking during monitoring and evaluation of different projects in the district, a farmer from Mkindo village, Athumani Kazumba said that the project has proved effective and efficient in seeds and water management in their rice farms.“We started in 2012, and since then days of planting rice seeds have reduced from 21 days to only eight days, reduced amounts of rice seeds and decreased water utilization in our fields,” he said. A peasant, Costa Kongo commended initiatives being taken by the government saying if COSTECH injected more funds into the project to reach many farmers, the district would attain food self-sufficiency. “We have participated in many projects, but many never produced the desired results, but through SRI many farmers see light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.For her part, Stamili Kassimu said urged the government to
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give priority to women especially the elderly so that they benefit from the project.However, the farmers said there was a need to improve the district’s irrigation infrastructure to scale up production, while ensuring reliable markets for the farmers.“We have received education on SRI but due to its importance there should be deliberate efforts to train other farmers so they can raise rice productivity and income.Commenting on the project, Jackson Kimodi from the Mvomero district council said that the farmers should make sure that they comply with rules stipulated by ensuring that their irrigation systems are clean throughout the rice growing season. “What we are doing here is part of Big Results Now (BRN) because through SRI, we have enabled the farmers to increase production from four to nine tons per hectare,” he said.The National Coordinator of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), Tanzania chapter operating under COSTECH, said that there are 56 projects funded by COSTECH through public funds.“These projects are implemented by local scientists using government funds. Many of these projects are doing well. We are also taking it as a positive challenge for some few projects that have not proved successful. For us it is a learning process so that we can improve on the results,” he said.COSTECH is coordinating 56 projects from 30 research institutes and universities countrywide, he added.
Investment to support the Philippines’ drive for rice self-sufficiency GROWING rice consumption in the Philippines has created a host of challenges and opportunities for stakeholders, as an ongoing lack of mechanization and post-harvest inefficiencies have prevented the government from meeting its goal of achieving rice self-sufficiency.Although palay (unhusked rice) production has made steady gains in recent years, farmers continue to face high costs due to the lack of technological uptake. This has led to heavy importation, with the current administration recently awarding two high-value contracts to foreign firms for buffer stock supply. echanization, most likely to be achieved through private sector investment, represents a promising means of increasing rice production in the future.Composed primarily of coconut, sugarcane and rice crops, in addition to an expanding livestock segment, the agricultural sector in the Philippines showed slow growth in 2013, expanding by 1.15% to reach P1.5 trillion ($35.3 billion) for the year. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) — Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, crop production, which makes up 51% of total agricultural production, expanded by 0.09%. Rice production outperformed the crop sector average to grow by 2.26% in 2013, reaching a record 18.44 million metric tons (MT). AN APPETITE FOR IMPORTS However, consumption has been rising faster than production, growing from 116 kilograms per capita in 2004 to 128 kg in 2008, before dropping back to 117 kg in 2012, and necessitating regular imports, which have grown from 707,000 MT in 2011 to more than 1 million MT in 2012, according to the PSA. Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture estimated that the Philippines would import around 2 million MT of rice in 2013 and 2014, including 500,000 MT of smuggled rice imports, while the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization expects the country to import 1.2 million MT of rice in 2014.Consequently, the country’s National Food Authority (NFA) has allocated P17.18 billion ($398.6 million) for the importation of 800,000 MT of rice in 2014.
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State-owned Vietnam Southern Food Corp. (Vinafood 2) won a contract to supply 600,000 MT, while the remaining 200,000 MT will be supplied by the Vietnam Northern Food Corp. (Vinafood 1). Vinafood 2 agreed pricing per MT of $436.50, $437.75 and $439.25 for three lots of 200,000 MT each, while Vinafood 1 agreed pricing per MT of $436 and $439 for two lots of 100,000 MT each. The two companies beat bids from a host of interested traders, including Louis Dreyfus Commodities, Thai Hua and Singsong Hongkong.The nation’s Food Staples Sufficiency Programme (FSSP) 2011-16 aims to increase efficiency in food production, with rice selfsufficiency identified as a key target. The country’s failure to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2013 has prompted the government to encourage greater private investment in the sector. In April 2014, Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Proceso J. Alcala, told local media that rice farmers needed more government help to reduce the cost of paddy production and boost competitiveness relative to Thailand and Vietnam.Mr. Alcala said rice farmers were not prepared for the anticipated economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2015, as a result of their high production costs stemming from the lack of mechanization and post-harvest inefficiencies. For instance, 16.5% of harvested rice is lost due to a lack of adequate drying facilities alone. The government has increased its efforts to tackle production challenges in recent years, launching large, wellfunded projects aimed at improving irrigation and mechanization. The National Irrigation Administration received its largest-ever budget of P25 billion ($592.5 million) in 2012, double its 2011 funding, which allowed a DA program to increase the number of annual rice harvests from four to five.At the same time, the government has worked to create larger and more efficient land blocks from small adjoining plots, while simultaneously increasing the use of less expensive organic and hybrid fertilizers, under the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010. CATCHING UP WITH THE NEIGHBORS Nevertheless, rice production remains expensive, presenting new opportunities for private sector investment.According to PhilRice, the cost of paddy production in the Philippines is about $222/MT, compared with just $111/MT in Vietnam and $178/MT in Thailand. PhilRice reports that labor comprises about 50% of production costs in the Philippines, with access to machinery, adequate post-harvest facilities, and nonrestrictive loans identified as potential solutions to this cost challenge.Several nations have taken note, including most recently in April 2014 when Wu Zhengping, the Chinese economic and commercial counsellor to the Philippines, told the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry that Chinese investors were keen to expand their activities in rice paddy mechanization.
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At the same time, successful new mechanization programmes for other crops, such as the corn mill prototype launched in May 2014 by the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (Philmech), have raised hopes that future mechanization efforts can be applied to the rice sub-sector. Author Name: BlackSeaGrain Date:30-May-2014
Parboiled rice price to be 15 per cent cheaper than white rice Published on Sunday, 01 June 2014 18:02 A parboiled rice grinding machine in Yangon Region (Photo/EMG)
The distribution and sale of parboiled rice will be launched costing 15 per cent less than that of white rice per sack, said Thaung Win, secretary of Myanmar Rice Millers Association.“Relevant authorities, including Myanmar Rice Millers Association and the Ministry of Health, have jointly certified that parboiled rice is suitable for consumption. It is nutritious and has vitamin C. It will be cheaper than white rice and packaged in small sack for the convenience of consumers,” said Thaung Win. The mill construction to house 10 imported parboiled rice machines is 90 per cent complete and the production at full capacity can reach 300,000 tons, according to Ye Min Aung, board director of Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation. “We have been trying to distribute parboiled rice for local consumption. It would be nice if the local market for it becomes bigger. Parboiled rice is produced by steaming and drying the rice before it is crushed. So without any content of broken rice when eaten, it yields full nutrition. As for the ordinary rice, when it is rinsed, vitamin B1 is reduced. But this does not apply to parboiled rice,”saidDr.SoeHtun of Myanmar Rice Millers Association.Japanese company Mitsui and Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation are cooperating to establish four integrated Rice Complex Projects (IRCP) including mills for parboiled rice, white rice husking, rice bran oil and rice noodle located in industrial estates for processing rice and rice products for value-added exports. The mills will be in Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon Region, Bago Region and Ayeyawady Region.
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