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Rice E-Newsletter
May 4 , 2015
V o l u m e 5, Issue I
Page 1
Chan Muyhong
Prime Minister Hun Sen urged provincial governors yesterday to stop government officials from
colluding with traders to fix agricultural commodity prices, giving farmers no choice but to sell their
products at below-market rates. The PMs call comes a day after the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries released an announcement stating that an investigation would be launched into the possible
scheme.Please look into the issue. Do not only wait for the Ministry of Commerce or the Agriculture
Ministry [to take action], he said speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of National Road 55 in
Pursat province.This is a serious case. If found to be the case, officials who are found plotting with
traders will be punished, he added.
The premier went on to say that prices for agricultural products should be determined by free market
mechanisms.Those who offer the highest price will get the products. Let the price be set by the free
market, he said.Chan Sophal, the governor of Battambang province, said there were no such cases of
official involvement in price rigging schemes in his province.He said, however, that he would encourage
rice millers to trade directly with farmers instead of having to go through traders.Now I have talked to
rice millers to be more open to buying paddy from farmers and giving them a good price instead of
buying from traders.
Big traders often block smaller brokers from competing with them, said Kan Vesna, a rice farmers
representative in Battambang province, leaving fewer options to farmers who are often under pressure to
sell because of outstanding loans.It is good that the government is now trying to strengthen the local
authorities capacity to tackle this issue, but we still need to wait and see how effective the
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http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/pm-calls-halt-collusion
The House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Rice Imports Quota and Duty Payments
has said that the minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has no
power to grant duty waivers to rice importers under the current rice policy of the federal
government.The committee chairman and deputy leader of the House, Hon. Leo Ogor, made the
disclosure yesterday during on-going investigative public hearing being conducted by the Adhoc Committee on alleged fraud, abuses and non-payment of import duties by some rice
importers and investors in the country.
The lawmakers also resolved to invite Adesina to appear before the public hearing to tell the
committee what he knows about the flagrant violations of rice import quota and illegal waivers
granted to some importers, who refused to pay import duties on their excess importations.The
committee therefore questioned the powers of the minister to grant such waivers on the basis of
encouraging investment and job creation when in actual sense, the practice is discouraging local
investors who dont even have the capacity to utilise their allotted quotas.The minister lacks this
power, he shouldnt even deceive himself. He need to come and explain to us, Nigerians want to
hear and rice millers want to hear, Ogo said.
Earlier in his welcome address to declare the session open, Ogor stated that the public hearing
was sequel to a resolution of the House. mandating the Ad-hoc Committee to investigate alleged
fraud abuses, evasion of import duties by rice importers in the country.The aim is to uncover
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Rice Millers Association of Telangana that the wholesale price of superfine quality rice in the
State had been hovering around Rs. 30 per kg for the last seven years, its price in the open
market witnessed a constant rise during the period.In the upward supermarkets the retail price of
quality superfine variety rice is ranging from Rs. 47 to Rs. 52 per kg.
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The Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) approved 11 new high-yielding rice
varieties including seven hybrid and four open-pollinated seed for cultivation in various
ecologies.The Variety Evaluation Committee (VEC) on Rice was held here at PARC
headquarters under the Chairmanship of Member Plant Sciences Division Dr Muhammad Shahid
Masood.In total, 19 rice varieties were presented before the VEC including 14 hybrid and five
OP varieties, out of which 11 were approved and eight were rejected due to Bacterial-LeafBlight (BLB) disease susceptibility and poor grain quality performance. The approved varieties
have been recommended to the National Seed Council.
Details show that the hybrid varieties approved by the VEC have yield potential up to 92 mound
per acre whereas the OP rice varieties have potential to produce much yield than the existing
IRRI-6 and KSK-133 varieties.The OP varieties have been developed from the Green Super Rice
(GSR) germ-plasm provided by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Philippines to
PARC and National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE).These OP
varieties have high yield potential and also submergence, salinity and water stress tolerance
characters.With the addition of new recommended hybrids of rice in the national system of the
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Run"
that
raised
an
estimated
$10,000
for
the
community.
USA Rice used the new Think Rice logo on t-shirts all the runners received. In addition, staff was onhand to pass out Think Rice-branded rice marshmallow treats to the finishers. "Not only was this a fun
event on a beautiful spring day, but we literally reminded runners that they should 'Think Rice' -- it's a
complex carbohydrate that helps fuel the body and is a great food for athletes," said Katie Maher, USA
Rice's manager of domestic promotion who also ran the race.
Contact: Michael Klein (703) 236-1458
State
May
3, 2014
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2015
Page 9
May 3,
2015
2010-2014
average
Percent
Arkansas
62
37
64
68
California
11
38
15
Louisiana
92
85
88
93
Mississippi
47
49
66
62
Missouri
54
37
63
Texas
84
64
65
91
Six States
55
39
61
62
Month
Price
Net Change
May 2015
$9.850
- $0.100
July 2015
$10.105
- $0.100
September 2015
$10.375
- $0.100
November 2015
$10.625
- $0.100
January 2016
$10.875
- $0.100
March 2016
$10.925
- $0.100
May 2016
$10.925
- $0.100
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Greg Cole makes no secret of the fact he believes farmers, particularly those in the Mid-South,
would have been better off from a safety net point of view if Congress had kept direct payments
in the Agricultural Act of 2014.Cole, president and CEO of AgHeritage Farm Credit Services,
has told several audiences the loss of direct payments in the new farm bill will have a greater
impact on farmers in the Mid-South than in any other part of the country, a comment he
repeated at the Mid-South Agricultural and Environmental Law Conference in Memphis,
Tenn.You only get help when things are not so good, said Cole, who spoke on his impressions
of the signup for the new farm bill. So if you trigger a payment, more than likely youre already
losing money on an overall basis. So thats a fundamental shift.
The new law ended direct payments, which Cole said creates a different dynamic in
farm country. Obviously, we liked direct payments. Producers liked them. They were easy to
quantify; you knew how much they were. You knew when you were going to get them. And for
lenders, it was easy to make that link. Cole says it appears most farmers in the area served by
AgHeritage selected the Agricultural Risk Coverage or ARC program for corn and soybeans.
Most rice producers chose Price Loss Coverage or the PLC program for their crop.With the
rapid decline in rice prices, it looks like if they did get signed up, there will be a pretty good
payment for the 2014 crop, said Cole. Obviously, we want receive that until later at the end of
the fall.Those who follow rice know it has joined other markets as a crop with an excess of
supply and a rapid decline in price to about $4.50 per bushel after selling for $6 to $7 per bushel
during the 2013-14 marketing year.
The new farm bill, on the other hand, offers a $6.30 per bushel reference price for PLC
calculations for rice (minus any discounts and multiplying it by 85 percent of a growers base
acres. But some observers may not have considered all the dynamics of the situation.You may
think that if I sell my rice for $4.50 per bushel, Im going to get $6.30 because of the reference
price, says Cole. But if the price of rice rises for the remainder of the year, you may not get a
payment. So you basically just sold your rice for $4.50. He suggested growers try to hedge
against such developments by using co-op pools.Cole said he was somewhat surprised to see that
sales of federal crop insurance coverage, which was supposed to be the underpinning of the new
farm programs, did not increase in the Mid-South for the 2015 crop year.In the Mid-South, we
havent used crop insurance to the same level they have in the Midwest, he said. But I thought
we have a lot more producers buying crop insurance. But in our area, in our part of the
Mississippi Delta we havent seen that. Actually the sales are flat or down where I thought they
would skyrocket.
To read more about the Agricultural Act of 2014,
visithttp://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=farmbill
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There is one occasion that Brazilian farmer Geovano Parcianello never misses. Every year, he
travels 503 kilometers from his farm in the municipality of Alegrete to the city of Cachoeirinha,
where the most important rice experiment station in the state of Rio Grande do Sul is located.
Being there with a thousand other rice growers gives Mr. Parcianello an opportunity to find out
about new varieties, disease control measures, and options for crop rotationknowledge he can
apply on his own 900 hectares of rice.
An international technology festival
This year, the technology festival organized by the Rice Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (IRGA)
had an extra dimension. Not only did participants come from places such as Alegrete, Santiago,
San Antonio, and Itaqui but they also came from 33 countries of Latin America and the
Caribbean (LAC), Europe, and Asia, making the field day international. The foreign guests were
among 460 participants at the XII International Conference on Rice in Latin America and the
Caribbean, which took place in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, on 23-26 February 2015.
Listening to presentations on topics such as genetics, crop improvement, agronomy, and climate
change, and visiting the field plots opened our minds to whats happening in the rice sector, not
only in the region but in the whole world, said Elicer Araya, president of Costa Ricas National
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A world-stage performance
High productivity (with some countries obtaining yield as high as 16 tons per hectare), extensive
mechanization, the use of direct seeding, and excellent grain quality are among the key features
of LACs production that are attracting world attention.Latin America has enormous land
resources and abundant water, and its rice production is technically advanced, said Robert
Zeigler, IRRI director general. The challenge for this region is to analyze global markets
carefully and design strategies that will enable production to meet demand.
Joe Tohme, director of CIATs Agrobiodiversity Research Area, stressed the importance of
regional integration through networks such as FLAR and the Consortium on Hybrid Rice for
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Unreliable weather can make or break rice farmers that rely on rainfall for water. Climate change
makes it even harder to predict weather conditions, thus lowering the chances of recovering
farmers investments in mitigating the impact of erratic rainfall patterns on their crops. To help
solve this problem, a prototype weather rice-nutrient integrated decision support system
(WeRise) came about. WeRise is a web application tool that integrates rice nutrients with
weather data to provide farmers with weather and crop advisories.
Rice roulette
Growing rice in rainfed environments is like gambling. It is difficult for farmers to decide when
to sow or transplant rice because they cannot predict the arrival of the monsoon. They also
cannot foresee whether the seasons rainfall will be enough to sustain their crops. Even with
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A user-friendly tool
WeRise is designed for agricultural extension agents and farmers who can access the Internet
through smartphones or computers. Local millers and retailers of agricultural inputs are potential
users who can be sources of information for farmers with no Internet access. WeRise is now
available in English, Bahasa, and Lao, making information dissemination even simpler for smallscale rice farmers who are not tech-savvy.
The feedback from 53 research and extension workers in Indonesia, Lao PDR, and the
Philippines has been positive. They found WeRise easy to use and understand. They also said
that explaining the advisory to farmers was easy.The information is more complete and it has
graphs, said Beby Noviani, an extension worker from Indonesia.Muhammad Jono, another
Indonesian extension worker, summed up his experience with WeRise in one word: simple.
Raising farmers odds
With WeRise, rice farmers will be able to use their resources efficiently by choosing a suitable
variety, avoiding a failure in crop establishment, and using an efficient fertilizer application. This
can help reduce their risks and make rainfed rice farming better and more stable. By providing
farmers with timely, accurate information, farmers can enjoy better harvests, which translate into
higher earnings and more reliable profitability. Thus, WeRise could make rainfed rice farming
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BANGKOK, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Thailand is looking to release millions of tons of rice to China
and a few Southeast Asian nations throughout the latter part of this year.According to Duangporn
Rodphayathi, Thai Foreign Trade Department director general, a quantity of 900,000 tons of rice
is yet to be delivered to China under a government-to-government dealing by which China had
earlier agreed to buy a total of one million tons of Thai rice.However, a single volume of
100,000 tons has been delivered to China so far while the relatively huge volume of 900,000 tons
is yet to follow under the bilateral rice dealing, the department chief said.A delegation of the
department is scheduled to visit China on Thursday to negotiate the balance of the rice supply
with COFCO Limited, a Chinese state firm, she added.
Meanwhile, Thailand will seek an increase in purchase volumes for Thai rice in neighboring
Malaysia preferrably under government- to-government dealings while private Thai rice
exporters will look to expand markets in the Philippines and Indonesia.In addition to the Foreign
Trade Department's rice export plans, the private sector will play a stepped-up role in the
expanding of Thai rice markets throughout the rest of this year, according to the department
chief.Top Thai ruler Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha earlier instructed Thai authorities to look for ways
and means to release quantities of rice currently stored up at rented warehouses under a rice
subsidy program earlier implemented by a previous Yingluck Shinawatra government.He chaired
a meeting of the Rice Administrative Policy Committee on Monday in a bid to streamline a
substantial release of the rice to the world markets.
An average of 500 U.S. dollars had been offered for a ton of rice to farmers nationwide under the
populist rice program only to see millions of tons stored up at warehouses without signs of being
released in substantial volume.The previous government had rented more than 1,700 privatelyowned warehouses in all parts of the country for the rice purchased from farmers since last year's
harvest season.Former ministers under the Yingluck cabinet had earlier maintained that the Thai
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http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/rice-importers-take-on-customs-over-n20bn-import-dutypayment/208438/
Sittichai: Seeking to meet growing demand from the Middle East for healthy rice with halal
certification. PICTURE: Arno Maierbrugger
By Arno Maierbrugger
Gulf Times Correspondent ,Bangkok
In a bid to diversify away from mass rice production and get better access to the lucrative market
for organic food products, Thailand has set up a six-year strategy for organic agricultural
production that includes penetration of international markets including the Middle East.
Especially smaller and family farms are encouraged to grow and sell organic rice, as well as
vegetables and fruits on their own and seek new market channels for it.Acknowledging that
demand for organic rice is especially growing in Muslim countries where it is appreciated as
healthy food with low sugar content that goes nice with Arab dishes organic farmers are
increasingly seeking halal certification for their rice to get access to those markets.
One of these farmers is Sittichai Ruenpakdan, who runs the Family Hydro Farm in Thailands
central Chai Nat province, an area where 90% of locals are engaged in agriculture and, in the
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Our target is to sell more of the organic rice to the Middle East, as well as to the Muslim South
of Thailand, he added.According to Anupa Panyadilok, head of the Learning and Development
Center for the New Generation of Farmers in Chai Nat, around 60% of farmers in the area have
already turned to organic farming.This province has the aim to become Thailands largest
organic rice-producing area, she said. Organic rice in Thailand is grown and processed without
the use of any synthetic chemicals as found, for example, in fertilisers, insecticides,
preservatives, seed treatment or hormones. Currently, only specially selected high-quality
jasmine rice is planted organically although other types of rice are also looked at as the number
of health-conscious consumers is growing rapidly.
To that end, the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has worked out the National
Organic Agriculture Strategies 2015-2021 to make Thai organic agriculture products better
known in both local and international markets. The strategies aim at spreading knowledge and
innovation in organic agriculture, developing organic agricultural production throughout the
supply chain, expanding marketing and improving the standards of Thai agricultural products.
Sales partnerships are also welcomed and could include foreign partners, namely for the Middle
East markets.Such sales partnerships will be essential for the success of Thai organic rice as most
farmers are struggling to find channels to sell the rice. In Sittichais case, he is relying on social
networks, but will have to forge a sales partnership for the Middle East market.
In fact, organic agriculture has become a major policy theme in Thailand since 2001 when the
administration of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra started agricultural development
programmes to improve living conditions for the rural population. Organic farming was enlisted
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SEOUL, May 3 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government said Sunday it will buy 77,000 tons
of locally produced rice to help stabilize local prices.With the latest purchase plan, the amount of
fresh crop acquired by the government will reach 240,000 tons, equivalent to last year's excess
rice harvests compared with demand, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural
Affairs.
The government decided to liberalize the rice market for the first time in its history in
2014.Apart from preventing an inflow of cheap rice imports, keeping the price of locally
produced grain from falling has been a part of government efforts to protect local farmers.Last
year, the government purchased 370,000 tons of the grain, with plans to buy 30,000 tons more,
as part of plans to control prices.
yjkim8826@yna.co.kr
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2015/05/03/25/0501000000AEN20150503002500320F.html
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