28th October , 2013
TOP Contents - Tailored for YOU Latest News Headlines‌ Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry request on rice mill owners GM rice passes safety tests in China Rice waste costs PH $223-M annually, says Marcos Makam' rice ideal to replace 'Jyoti', say ICAR scientists Rice millers' refusal to lift paddy sends farmers, agencies in tizzy Pakistan to oppose Indian move in WTO
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Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry request on rice mill owners Rohith B R, TNN Oct 26, 2013, 06.51PM IST BANGALORE: Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) has demanded the government of Karnataka for the withdrawal of the rice levy order, which allows the government to collect the levy rice quantum from the millers and as a part of the Annabhagya Scheme which supplies the rice at The mill owners would incur a huge loss of in hulling the paddy if they were to give levy as per the new Government order and the total loss likely to be incurred would be up to Rs 500 crore. If the Government was committed to providing subsidized rice to poor people, the Government should procure rice at a reasonable price and fulfill its promise rather than harassing mill owners, he added.
GM rice passes safety tests in China 10-27-2013 10:04 BJT
had any health affects.News that Chinese scientists were testing genetically modified rice on animals has drawn widespread attention.Professor Huang Kunlun from China’s Agricultural University is in charge of the research. He says guinea pigs and monkeys were used in the testing because they have strong similarities to human digestive systems and how they process nutrition.Established in 2012, the research team carried out studies on the animals’ metabolism, immunity, and reproductive systems. Researchers spent 90 days on the testing work. During this period, there were no reports of deaths or toxication. All the animals tested were found to be healthy.According to China’s Ministry of Agriculture, a number of countries have tested GM foods on animals. Countries like the US and Germany have used GM corn or beans on cows, chicken and fish.All those tests found no abnormalities.Experts say a standardized testing procedure will be set up to ensure tests are reliable and accurate. Testing periods currently are 42, 45 and 90 days, depending on the type of animal.
Rice waste costs PH $223-M annually, says Marcos By: Ernie Reyes, InterAksyon.com October 27, 2013 3:35 PM
Researchers at China’s Agricultural University have concluded that testing on transgenic rice has so far brought no abnormalities. The results came after 90 days’ of tests to see if the genetically modified food
MANILA, Philippines – With 94 million Filipinos eating rice, a whopping 308,000 tons of the commodity are wasted
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annually, translating into $223 million in annual import cost, Senator Ferdinand Marcos said on Sunday.The amount is sufficient ―to feed 4.3 million people,‖ Marcos said.With this, Marcos filed Senate Bill 1863 or the Anti-Rice Waste Act of 2013. The measure penalizes hotels, restaurants and food chains and eateries if they refuse to serve a half-rice order.
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Makam' rice ideal to replace 'Jyoti', say ICAR scientists TNN Oct 27, 2013, 07.12AM IST
―This bill seeks to penalize the practice of some restaurant, hotels, inns, canteens, steakhouses, eateries and the like of refusing to serve an order of rice from a customer if it be less than one cup,‖ Marcos said.The bill imposes these penalties on violators: P20,000 for first offense, P50,000 for second offense, and P100,000 for third offense and so on and so forth.Records from the Food and Nutrition Research Institute showed that every Filipino wastes at least 3 teaspoons or 9 grams of rice daily, equivalent to 3.3 kilos every year.According to the International Rice Research Institute, with 94 million Filipinos and 9 grams of wasted rice per day, the total wastage is 308,000 tons, which is 36 percent of 2011 rice imports.Marcos's measure is seen to considerably reduce rice wastage in establishments by forcing them to allow customers "to order just the right amount of rice that they can consume.‖Ironically, while the Philippines is an agricultural country, it is the world’s biggest importer of rice for several years even while it is implementing various programs to attain rice self-sufficiency, which remains an elusive goal. Proclamation 494, series of 2012, which declares 2013 as the national year of rice, underscores that "a sustained and nationwide campaign to boost farmers’ morale and motivate them to adopt technologies to further improve farm productivity and encourage the general public to be responsible rice consumers are necessary to complement the
Tags:Prabhudesai subject matter specialist|Makam|Gaonkar programme coordinator|director ICAR Old Goa
PANAJI: 'Makam', a new red kernel rice variety, is an ideal replacement for age-old traditional 'Jyoti' due to certain traits, especially as it is nonshattering and has better nutritive value and marketability.Indian council of agricultural research's (ICAR) agro scientists point out various advantages of 'Makam', which is now being grown by farmers in Chorao, Amona, Dhulapi, and Bhironda in North Goa and other places.ICAR's Krish Vigayan Kendra celebrated 'Field Day' at Quitula, Aldona, to demonstrate to farmers the advantages of growing 'Makam' using the SRI system of planting of 10-12 day old seedlings. "Two separate areas in a square metre each of the field grown with 'Makam' and 'Jyoti' were framed with bamboos. The number of seedlings and the number of stalks or tillers on each one, the length of the panicle, the number of grains per panicle were counted and the weight of the grain measured," H R Prabhudesai, subject matter specialist (agronomy) KVK said. Similarly, the yield in the patch grown with 'Makam' was found to be 7.8 tonnes per hectare as compared to hardly 3 to 4 tonnes per hectare of 'Jyoti'. A total of 14 farmers had grown 'Makam' in their fields, but other farmers were unwilling to try
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the new variety. "There is lot of resistance among farmers to try new varieties. 'Makam' variety has superior traits as it is non-shattering while 30% of the 'Jyoti' grain is lost in the field before harvesting," Prabhudesai said.The other farmers in Aldona were shown the advantages of growing 'Makam'. Farmers all over the state have become traditional growers of 'Jyoti' variety to its taste. Jyoti also has good nutritive value like 'Makam', but it is vulnerable to pests and diseases unlike the latter. 'Makam' also has better marketability unlike white kernel rice like Karjat-3. Farmers using SRI method of cultivation can transplant the seedlings without uprooting them after just 12 days instead of more than 20 days. The seedlings are equally spaced while planting in 25cm by 25cm per seedling instead of two or three seedlings clusters. Inaugurating the 'Field Day' on October 2, 2013, N P Singh, director, ICAR, Old Goa, highlighted the concept of rice-based cropping system [RBFS] homestead farming, integrated farming system [IFS] which seeks to integrate crop and animal component to produce not only vegetable, fruit, and pulse but also animal product like milk and eggs by integrating poultry component as a backyard. The Aldona sarpanch appealed to farmers to take advantage of the latest technology for better production. At the outset, V Y Gaonkar, programme coordinator [i/c] KVK briefly mentioned the KVK mandate. The stakeholders namely, Prema Naik, Laxmi Sawant, Chandrasekhar Kandolkar, Vishnu Matondker and Isaac Fernandes shared their experience of growing 'Makam' with SRI technology.
Rice millers' refusal to lift paddy sends farmers, agencies in tizzy HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times Patiala, October 26, 2013 First Published: 18:00 IST(26/10/2013) | Last Updated: 21:45 IST(26/10/2013)
With rice millers across Patiala district decided not to lift the procured paddy from various grain markets and to get it stored in their godowns Friday onwards, both procuring agencies and farmers are sent in tizzy over the prospect of further procurement in the absence of space at grain markets to off load fresh paddy stocks brought in there by farmers.The rice millers' decision came in the wake of denial by a central team from New Delhi to visit Patiala and its neighbouring districts to assess paddy damage.In their two-day visit - the team comprising deputy director of food, union government, and AK Sinha, general manager, Food Corporation of India (FCI) - visited grain markets of Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib to assess the damage caused to paddy harvest by unfavourable weather conditions.Gurdeep Singh Cheema, president of Patiala district Rice Millers' Association, said the decision was taken after serious contemplation after refusal by the central team to visit Patiala and other districts, including Sangrur and Bathinda, which were facing the problem of discoloration of grains owing to increased moisture content. "Apart from lifting the procured crop, we will not even store a single gunny bag in our mills unless and until the central team visits here. Moreover, the damage to paddy can be assessed from the fact that we are getting only 55 kg rice instead of the normal 67 kg after milling a quintal paddy,"he said.The decision of the rice millers at the peak of paddy procurement have left both farmers and officials of
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procuring agencies in a sticky situation with possible glut of both procured and fresh stock of paddy at various grain markets across the district.According to information, around 7.4 lakh metric tonne paddy have off loaded at different purchasing centers so far, of which around 7.24 lakh MT has been procured by various procuring agencies.However, 2.7 lakh MT of the total procured paddy is yet to be lifted from grain markets.District controller of food and civil supplies (DCFCS) Ajayveer Sarao said: "Rice millers have been behaving in an arbitrary manner, as boycotting lifting of the procured paddy from grain markets is not a solution. They can approach the district administration officials to sort out the issue."
stalled talks on Doha Development Agenda, a source told Dawn.Pakistan is in the middle ground with China and Indonesia, which are in favour of enlarging the green box subsidies — non-prohibited subsidies — but no exemption to trade distorting support like the one India is lobbying for.
ISLAMABAD, Oct 26: Pakistan will oppose an Indian move to get legal cover for subsidy on rice exports to the world market in the next WTO ministerial conference.
The source further said Islamabad is left with no option, but to play a pro-active role in seeking support from other rice producing countries like Thailand and Vietnam to block Indian move of having a peace clause to shield its subsidies for rice.India is providing these subsidies through administered prices; these prices are announced before the sowing season and provide an incentive to producers to grow more.G-33 proposal led by India is demanding exemption from domestic support (aggregate measurement of support) on this assumption that it is minimally trade distorting and it is linked with food security of the country.The objective of stock holding programmes is to ensure food security of your own population.
The WTO conference is scheduled to be held in the first week of December 2013 in Bali, Indonesia.A source in the commerce ministry told Dawn that India is lobbying for getting legal shelter for subsidy on rice exports, a move which is likely to affect Pakistan’s rice exports. WTO allows required stockpiling for ensuring food security, but discourages its misuse.Senior officials from 159 members of the WTO will attend the event to revive
India has recently passed an ordinance on food security which is nothing short of a government takeover of the two major commodities, ie wheat and rice.All developing countries can provide 10pc of their total value of agriculture production as non-product specific subsidy and can also provide 10pc of the value of production of a specific product as subsidy.Among BRIC countries, China and Brazil have established
Pakistan to oppose Indian move in WTO MUBARAK ZEB KHAN Published 2013-10-27 07:09:03
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a positive forward looking approach by submitting up-to-date regular notifications to the committee. This transparency requirement helps understand the policy of all the developing countries which have money to spend. India’s performance on this front has been abysmal.As a result of trade distorting subsidies in India, Pakistan has already lost its market share in rice exports to India in the last couple of years owing to subsidised Indian exports to the world market. Pakistan lost its position because of aggressive exports from the stocks maintained by Food Corporation of India, a state-owned organisation.Pakistan’s rice exports not only stagnated around $2 billion in the last few years but also witnessed a downturn. However, India took over as number one position in exports by releasing stocks which are highly subsidised.For India, it is an issue of election victory while for millions of rice and wheat growers of smaller developing countries, including Pakistan, it is a matter of livelihood and survival. Gone are the days when Indian farmers were facing these issues. Pakistan government came out of rice export business two decades ago and rice exports have become a steady source of foreign exchange for the country and the whole business is conducted by the private sector.Islamabad should uphold WTO disciplines to protect Pakistan’s rice exports
worth $2bn and invest in research, pest eradication, storage, improvement in yield and develop varieties which consume less water.The existing level of market price support (MPS) to rice in India is $7bn. Indian government will be going to the Bali conference for exemption of subsidies which are disciplined under the agreement on agriculture.It is a reflection of Indian policy of protectionism which is resulting in high applied (31.8pc) and bound tariffs (113.1pc).Indian Prices Commission’s report released in March 2013 has criticised Indian policy of high tariffs on agriculture products. ―This defies any economic rationality that world’s biggest exporter of rice has an import duty of 70-80pc, which in fact are totally unnecessary. It will be only in the fitness of trade realities that these import duties are slashed to 5-10pc.―India is a new emerging global power in the world and such an irresponsible behaviour is an indication that now WTO Committee on Agriculture probably needs to focus on Indian subsidies instead of US and EU subsidies.―There has been a lot of pressure on developed countries for reform of trade distorting support, especially export subsidies due to its negative effect on developing countries farmers.This
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constant monitoring has resulted in minimising this expenditure while EU and the US have policy space to provide export subsidies, but US does not provide any export subsidy. However, export credits are still provided with longer repayment periods. EU has reduced its export subsidies expenditure on dairy and there is almost none to cereals.
for policy space to ensure food security through production and trade distorting support.This G-33 demand for shielding subsidies which is mainly led by India is an indication of the fact that developing countries may end up hurting each other because of higher level of subsidies shielded in the name of food security.
However, new emerging developing countries are flexing muscles and are asking
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