31st July, 2014 Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

Daily Rice E-Newsletter by Rice Plus Magazine www.ricepluss.
com
News and R&D Section mujajhid.riceplus@gmail.com Cell # 92 321 369 2874

31
st
July, 2014

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

Japan Rice Sold for Animal Feed Eats Into Surplus
By Aya Takada Jul 31, 2014 12:17 PM GMT+0500
Rice stockpiles in Japan declined from an 11-year high after an industry group bought some of the
countrys surplus to sell as livestock feed, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said
today.Inventories of Japanese food rice held by local producers and distributors fell to 2.22 million
metric tons as of June 30 from 2.24 million tons a year earlier, the ministry said in a report. Volume is
expected to drop further to 2.09 million tons at the end of June 2015, the lowest level in three years,
according to the report.
Rice Stable Supply Support Mechanism, a group of rice producers and distributors, bought 350,000
tons of the grain for sales to feed makers or processed-food producers, the ministry said. Consumption
is forecast to drop 0.9 percent to 7.78 million tons for the year through June 30.Wholesale prices of
Japanese food rice averaged 14,328 yen ($139) a bag in June, down 12 percent from a year ago because
of the glut, according to the ministry. One bag contains 60 kilograms.Japan grows enough rice to feed
itself as the government maintains high import tariffs and subsidizes production.The government
lowered its production target for food rice to 7.65 million tons this year, compared with last years
harvest of 8.18 million tons, as it tries to reduce its surplus and support prices.
To contact the reporter on this story: Aya Takada in Tokyo at atakada2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.netJarrett
Banks
Rice Rally Seen Cooling by Vietnam as Thailand to India Sell
By Diep Ngoc Pham Jul 31, 2014 4:54 PM GMT+0500
The advance in rice prices is set to cool as India and Thailand increase sales from stockpiles, boosting global
supplies, according to the Deputy Trade Minister of Vietnam, the worlds third-largest exporter.Expanding

Daily Rice E-Newsletter by Rice Plus Magazine www.ricepluss.com

harvests in other major producers will also keep prices stable, Tran Tuan Anh said in an interview in Hanoi on
July 29. Prices climbed 5.9 percent this month and reached the highest since March as Thailands military junta
halted sales to inspect grain stockpiled under a state purchase program.
World inventories will climb to the most in nine years in 2014 as production increases, the United Nations
Food & Agriculture Organization estimates. Stockpiles in Thailand, the biggest shipper afterIndia, are poised to
expand to a record 18.5 million metric tons, more than double the average from 2010 to 2012, it says. Rising
supplies have helped cut global food costs, which fell for a third month in June.Both Thailand and India will
have to continue selling from their reserves, so we expect supply will become more abundant, Anh said. In
addition, rice harvests in producing countries will further reduce pressure on supply, so prices will probably
stabilize.Rates for Thai 5 percent broken white rice, a regional benchmark, surged 13 percent in less than two
months to reach $433 a ton on July 23, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said. Prices are 4 percent lower
this year, extending a 23 percent slump last year.

Thai Inspection

Thailands National Council for Peace and Order began this month an inspection of the quality and quantity of
the state reserves accumulated under a program started in 2011 by former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The country plans to sell 18 million tons from the stockpiles over three years, General Prayuth Chan-Ocha,
leader of the junta said on July 25.Shipments from Vietnam in 2014 will be similar to last year, Anh said. The
country exported 6.6 million tons in 2013, General Statistics Office data show.
Sales will reach 7 million tons and output will increase by 1.5 percent to a record 29.7 million tons, the Rome-
based FAO said in its July report.The nation will set a very high priority to preserve and further develop its
market share in thePhilippines and Indonesia, Southeast Asias biggest buyers, Anh said.The Philippines will
boost imports from Vietnam to a total of 1 million tons this year, Francis Pangilinan, Secretary for Food
Security, said in a statement last month.

Import Demand

Indonesias Bulog is considering imports of 250,000 tons to 500,000 tons of rice, Sutarto Alimoeso, president
director at the state food company, said July 3. Imports will depend on the condition of domestic production and
prices, he said.Exports from India will be 10 million tons and from Thailand 9 million tons in 2014, the FAO
estimates. Production declines in both countries because of drier weather may prompt them to draw down
inventories, which are estimated at 23 million tons in India, the report said.
While global stockpiles are set to expand 3.4 percent to the highest in nine years, they may drop 0.9 percent in
2015, shrinking for the first time in a decade, the FAO said.Production in Thailand will probably decline 10
percent to about 34 million tons in 2014-2015, a five-year low, as drought hurts yields and farmers curb
planting after the end of the subsidy program, the Thai Rice Packers Association said on July 21. India will
produce 105 million tons on a milled basis in 2014, 1 percent below the record in 2013, the FAO estimates.
To contact the reporter on this story: Diep Ngoc Pham in Hanoi at dpham5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net Ovais


IRRI: PH has highest rice yield in ASEAN region
by Philippines News Agency
July 31, 2014 (updated)
The Philippines has posted the highest rice yield for the last three to four years in the entire Association of
South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) region, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Deputy Director
General Bruce Tolentino revealed.The Philippines is the fastest growing country in terms of yields over the
last three to four years. A real record faster than any ASEAN country, Tolentino said during the IRRIs &
Scidev.nets Policy Forum on Rice at the Ascott Hotel in Makati City late Wednesday.In 2010, the Philippines
is the 8th largest rice producer in the world, accounting for 2.8 percent of global rice production.As of 2013, the
Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said the average yield was from 3 metric tons (MT) to 4 MT per
hectare while introduction of new rice varieties capable of yielding from 7 MT to 10 MT each hectare are
expected to boost the countrys drive for rice self-sufficiency.
IRRI has been giving out technology to the Department of Agriculture (DA) and PhilRice to make crops require
less water and fertilizer.We can actually say that the DA and Phil Rice Research Institute are taking every
received high yielding equipment from IRRI and are adamant on giving it to the farmers, Tolentino
added.However, the IRRI representative added that the distribution process takes time to cover all
municipalities and farmers who are very well educated on the application of fertilizer compared to other
countries.

S.Korea buys 94,812 T of rice for Oct-Dec
Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:41am GMT

SEOUL, July 31 (Reuters) - South Korea has bought 94,812
tonnes of non-glutinous China origin rice for arrival between
October and December via tenders closed on July 24, the
state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade said on its website
(www.at.or.kr).
Details of the purchases are as follows:
TONNES SUPPLIER/PRICE($/T) ARRIVAL/PORT
31,230 Daewoo Int'l/$928 Dec. 15/Incheon

24,418 Singsong/$928 Dec. 15/Gunsan
15,580 Singsong/$927 Dec. 15/Gunsan or Busan
15,000 Daewoo Int'l/$1,007 Nov. 30/Pyeongtaek


or Incheon
8,584 Daewoo Int'l/$997 Oct. 31/Incheon

* Note: The agency bought U.S. No. 3 or better rice
products, but U.S. No. 1 for the 15,000 T of rice products.

(Reporting By Kahyun Yang; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

Thailand aims to sell 3-4 mln tonnes of rice stocks in 6 months -
official
Reuters Thu, Jul 31, 2014
* Government eyes sales to China, Malaysia ahead of new crop
* A couple of million tonnes could be sold to China - traders
* Thai rice among cheapest in world - traders (Adds detail, comment and prices)
By Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat
BANGKOK, July 31 (Reuters) - The Thai government is aiming to sell 3-4 million tonnes of rice from state
warehouses in government deals within six months and plans to hold talks with several buyers in Asia, a senior
Commerce Ministry official said on Thursday.Traders said the plan showed Thailand's military junta was taking
aggressive steps to cut the country's huge rice stocks ahead of the arrival of the year's major rice crop, which
will be harvested in November."This is one of our plans to help cut pressure from rising supply at home at a
time when the new crop is coming," said the Commerce Ministry's permanent secretary Chutima
Bunyapraphasara.Thailand is forecast to produce 28.5 million tonnes of paddy in the 2014/15 major crop, up
from 28.0 million tonnes last year.
The Thai government is estimated to hold about 18 million tonnes of milled rice, which it bought from farmers
during a price-support scheme from October 2011 through February 2014.A recent nationwide inspection of the
stockpile found that about 80 percent of the rice was still in good condition.Chutima said the Ministry is
targeting major Asian rice importing countries including China, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.The
Ministry has sent officials to Beijing this week to renegotiate with China on a one-million-tonne deal made


earlier this year and is trying to sell China an additional one million tonnes.The government would also
negotiate with the Malaysian government to buy around 300,000 tonnes of Thai rice this year, Chutima said.
Traders said Thailand should easily be able to offload 3-4 million tonnes given export prices were cheaper than
Vietnam and in line with India."Selling three to four million tonnes in government-to-government deals will not
be an issue as Thai rice is one of cheapest in the world," said a Singapore-based trader with an international
trading company. "A couple of million tonnes can easily go to China."Traders said 5 percent common grade
Thai white rice was being offered at $425 per tonne, well below the same grade of Vietnam of $460-$470 per
tonne.(Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Richard Pullin)

August rains hold key to India's summer crops
BY RATNAJYOTI DUTTA
NEW DELHI Thu Jul 31, 2014 9:02pm IST

A woman carries her child as she wades through a flooded street with others after heavy monsoon rains in Ahmedabad July 30, 2014.
(Reuters) - August rains hold the key to India's major
summer crops such as rice, soybean, cane and cotton,
after a wet end to July failed to make up fully for a
dry start to the four-month monsoon season.The first
month of the June-September season was the driest
in five years, raising fears of the first drought since
2009, when the monsoon was the weakest in nearly
four decades.India's farming sector accounts for
around 14 percent of the economy, but two thirds of
the nation's 1.2 billion people depend on farming for
a livelihood and more than half of its arable land
needs the summer rains.In 2009, the weakest
monsoon since 1972 cut sugar cane output in India,
the world's second-biggest sugar producer after Brazil, and pushed New York sugar price to 30-year highs.By the
end of that year, India's food inflation had reached double digits, with summer harvests including rice also
falling.After one of the slowest starts in a century, this year's monsoon had a poor run until mid-July, leading farmers
to plant less than half of the normal area of most summer crops.A late revival shrank the shortfall in rain to around


10 percent below average in July, the India Meteorological Department's update showed on Thursday, a sharp
improvement from the 43 percent deficit in the first month of the season."Rainfall in August is crucial as
plantings for most of the summer crops have already been delayed due to the poor start of the rain season," said
J.S. Sandhu, India's farm commissioner.Rains were 22 percent below average during the first half of the
monsoon season until July 31."August holds the key as a quarter below average rains would make drought a
reality," said a farm official who did not wish to be identified.Officials forecast rains would improve in the cane
areas of north India and rice areas of the eastern region in the next week.
A likely slowdown in rains over central region would help finish planting of soybean, the main summer oilseed
crop of India, the world's leading importer of vegetable oils.A late arrival of the monsoon on the southern
Kerala coast and subsequent slow progress towards the grain bowl northwest region made the first month of the
rain season the driest in five years."The second half of monsoon is expected to be better than the first half," said
D.S. Pai, lead forecaster of the state-run weather department.India is a major global producer and consumer of
commodities such as rice, corn, sugar, soybean, cooking oils and cotton. The summer crops are planted during
the monsoon season.
STATE SCENE
Farm commissioner Sandhu said a healthy rain spell over rice areas of eastern and north India would improve
the planting prospects for rice, the main summer season food crop."Sowing activities in seven districts have
been badly hit by poor rains while early sown rice varieties have been destroyed," said Bhartuhari Mahtab, a
member of parliament from Odisha, a major rice province of the world's second-biggest producer of the
grain.The poor monsoon has given Thailand scope to reclaim the position as the world's leading rice exporter
from India after a gap of two years.Mahtab said there had been no reports of a drinking water crisis from the
eastern state's thirty districts.Three states - Kerala, Bihar and Punjab - have requested the federal government to
lower prices of diesel for irrigation use.These states have also sought improvements in the supply of seeds for
short-duration crops and alternative varieties to help cope with the shortage of water.
(Editing by Mark Potter)
Nagpur Foodgrain Prices - APMC & Open Market-July 31
Thu Jul 31, 2014 2:29pm IST
Nagpur, July 31 (Reuters) - Gram and tuar prices in Nagpur Agriculture Produce and
Marketing Committee (APMC) showed weak tendency on lack of demand from local miller amid good


arrival from producing belt. Easy condition on NCDEX and downward trend on NCDEX also pulled
down prices, according to sources.

* * * *

FOODGRAINS & PULSES
GRAM
* Gram super best bold and medium best recovered strongly on renewed festival season
demand from local traders amid tight supply from millers.

TUAR
* Tuar black reported higher in open market on good seasonal demand from local traders
amid thin supply from producing regions.

* In Akola, Tuar - 4,200-4,400, Tuar dal - 6,000-6,400, Udid at 7,000-7,200,
Udid Mogar (clean) - 8,000-8,500, Moong - 7,200-7,600, Moong Mogar
(clean) 8,600-9,300, Gram - 2,200-2,600, Gram Super best bold - 3,200-3,400
for 100 kg.

* Wheat, rice and other commodities remained steady in open market
in thin trading activity, according to sources.

Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg

FOODGRAINS Available prices Previous close
Gram Auction 2,400-2,910 2,440-2,970
Gram Pink Auction n.a. 2,100-2,600
Tuar Auction 3,800-4,550 3,800-4,660
Moong Auction n.a. 4,300-4,600
Udid Auction n.a. 4,300-4,500
Masoor Auction n.a. 2,600-2,800
Gram Super Best Bold 3,700-3,900 3,600-3,800
Gram Super Best n.a.
Gram Medium Best 3,200-3,400 3,100-3,300
Gram Dal Medium n.a. n.a.
Gram Mill Quality 3,000-3,100 3,000-3,100
Desi gram Raw 2,600-2,800 2,600-2,800
Gram Filter new 2,700-2,900 2,700-2,900
Gram Kabuli 8,000-9,500 8,000-9,500
Gram Pink 7,200-7,400 7,200-7,400
Tuar Fataka Best 6,800-6,950 6,800-6,950
Tuar Fataka Medium 6,500-6,600 6,500-6,600


Tuar Dal Best Phod 6,100-6,250 6,100-6,250
Tuar Dal Medium phod 5,700-5,950 5,700-5,950
Tuar Gavarani 4,700-4,800 4,700-4,800
Tuar Karnataka 4,650-4,850 4,600-4,800
Tuar Black 8,100-8,400 8,000-8,200
Masoor dal best 6,200-6,450 6,200-6,450
Masoor dal medium 6,000-6,300 6,000-6,300
Masoor n.a. n.a.
Moong Mogar bold 9,600-10,000 9,600-10,000
Moong Mogar Medium best 8,500-8,700 8,400-8,600
Moong dal super best 8,100-8,700 8,000-8,600
Moong dal Chilka 7,900-8,400 7,800-8,300
Moong Mill quality n.a. n.a.
Moong Chamki best 8,000-9,100 8,000-9,100
Udid Mogar Super best (100 INR/KG) 8,300-8,700 8,300-8,700
Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG) 7,400-7,600 7,400-7,600
Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG) 5,800-6,600 5,800-6,600
Batri dal (100 INR/KG) 4,200-5,000 4,200-5,000
Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg) 2,750-2,900 2,750-2,900
Watana Dal (100 INR/KG) 3,100-3,300 3,100-3,300
Watana White (100 INR/KG) 3,500-3,600 3,500-3,600
Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG) 4,800-5,200 4,800-5,200
Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG) 1,200-1,500 1,200-1,500
Wheat Mill quality(100 INR/KG) 1,600-1,850 1,600-1,850
Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG) 1,200-1,400 1,200-1,400
Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG) 1,900-2,200 1,900-2,200
Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG) 1,600-1,800 1,600-1,800
Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG) n.a. n.a.
MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG) 2,600-3,300 2,600-3,300
MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,500 2,100-2,500
Wheat 147 (100 INR/KG) 1,100-1,300 1,100-1,300
Wheat Best (100 INR/KG) 1,500-1,800 1,500-1,800
Rice BPT (100 INR/KG) 2,900-3,200 2,900-3,200
Rice Parmal (100 INR/KG) 1,600-1,800 1,600-1,800
Rice Swarna old (100 INR/KG) 2,700-2,900 2,600-2,800
Rice HMT (100 INR/KG) 4,000-4,200 4,000-4,200
Rice HMT Shriram (100 INR/KG) 4,600-5,100 4,600-5,100
Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG) 10,400-13,000 10,400-13,000
Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG) 7,300-10,000 7,300-10,000
Rice Chinnor (100 INR/KG) 5,200-5,600 5,200-5,600
Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG) 1,300-1,500 1,300-1,500
Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG) 1,600-1,700 1,600-1,700


WEATHER (NAGPUR)
Maximum temp. 32.2 degree Celsius (89.9 degree Fahrenheit), minimum temp.
24.3 degree Celsius (75.7 degree Fahrenheit)
Humidity: Highest - 90 per cent, lowest - 69 per cent.
Rainfall : nil
FORECAST: Generally cloudy sky. Rains or thunder-showers likely. Maximum and Minimum temperature
likely to be around 32 and 24 degree Celsius respectively.
Note: n.a.--not available
(For oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but included in market prices.)
ATTN : Soyabean mandi, wholesale foodgrain market oil market in Vidarbha will be closed
tomorrow, Friday, on the occasion of Nagpanchami.

Commerce ministry to hold new round of rice auction
Thursday, 31 July 2014By NNT

BANGKOK, 30 July 2014 - The Ministry of Commerce
is preparing to distribute rice with the auction method in
August this year. It has confirmed the rice has good
quality and meets standards. Permanent Secretary for
Commerce Chutima Boonyapraphatson said the ministry
would continue with its plan to distribute 200,000-
500,000 tons of rice in government warehouses from
August to September 2014. The rice distribution would
be delayed during the period when the produce was abundant in order to prevent effects on rice prices in the
market, said Ms Chutima. Ms Chutima stated further that she expected that the Department of Foreign Trade
would be able to arrange an action for the rice from the beginning of August to September this year. She also
confirmed the rice had passed quality inspection and forecast that Thailand would be able to export ten million
tons of rice this year.


2 Arrested for rice pledging program fraud
PATUMTHANI, 31 July 2014, (NNT) - Officials have apprehended 2 men
for stealing more than 98,000 sacks of pledged rice. According to Deputy
Commissioner General, Police General Ake Angsananont, Patumthani
police have arrested Mr. Kittipong and Mr. Teerasak Sanwarangkul for the
said offense. The two brothers allegedly leased their warehouse to the
Public Warehouse Organization (PWO) to store rice under the pledging
program. However, they reportedly stole 98,000 sacks of rice, worth 98.4
million baht, from the warehouse. Both men and other accomplices
disappeared before officials discovered their wrongdoings. Both men were among 17 criminals wanted by the
Patumthani Court, Police General Ake said, adding that this group is part of a criminal network which operates
in a systematic manner. He vowed to bring the criminals now at large to justice.

Rice inspection is nearly completed
PICTURE
BANGKOK, 31 July 2014 (NNT) - The Prime Ministers Office stated the inspection of rice stockpiles nationwide is
nearly completed.

According to an online message of Permanent Secretary of
the Prime Ministers Office M.L. Panadda Dissakul, the
inspection process is almost done and officials involved are
compiling the result to be forwarded to the Rice Policy
Committee. He stated the report would focus on the rice
quality and the actual quantity of rice in the warehouses.
Meanwhile, the inspection team in Phichit has reported that
they found 47,000 tons of rice were missing from silos of
KTB Agro Company in Bang Moonnak District. The
officials from the Public Warehouse Organization have
already filed a lawsuit against the company for breaching
of contract.


Hope revives on paddy output
Foodgrain production may drop 5-8 mt compared to 2013, due to a fall in output of pulses & coarse
cereals: Ministry official
Komal Amit Gera & Sanjeeb Mukherjee | Chandigarh/ New Delhi
August 1, 2014 Last Updated at 00:50 IST
Adequate rains in most parts of India and a revival in paddysowing has
sparked hope that the rice crop will be better than estimated
this kharif season.Across the country, the area under paddy is about 44
million hectares, with about 40 million hectares accounted for by kharif
paddy. For 2013-14, the kharif paddy output stood at an estimated 92.78
million tonnes (mt).Trilochan Mahapatra, director, Rice Research
Institute, Cuttack, said the pace of paddy sowing had improved across
Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. He added if the rains
continued to be good, the paddy acreage target would be met.
The monsoon is late; this is July-end. But most farmers had sown seeds in nurseries, and only transplantation
of paddy in fields remains to be carried out.A senior Union food ministry official said foodgrain production
might drop five-eight mt compared to 2013, primarily due to a fall in the output of pulses and coarse cereals. He
added the paddy crop wouldnt be hit much, as in the North, irrigation and pump sets could help make good the
loss. If post-harvest losses were controlled, the impact wouldnt be much, he said.The long-duration paddy
crop (non-basmati varieties) needs 140-150 days. Under the current circumstances, we might see a late harvest,
but the crop size shouldnt be affected.
The situation will be more discernible after two weeks, when the sowing is complete. Any lag in the rainfall
might effect sowing, he said.While paddy fields in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh are primarily
irrigated and, therefore, arent substantially affected by delayed and deficient rains, paddy-growing areas in
other parts of the country are hit by a below-average monsoon.An official said though heavy rains in Saurashtra
in Gujarat might have some adverse impact on the paddy crop, as states in western India didnt contribute
substantially to rice production, the situation wasnt alarming.
Under the Bring Green Revolution to Eastern India initiative, the Centre has made an annual allocation of Rs
1,000 crore to improve paddy production. The scheme covers Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha,
eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.Vijay Tayal, secretary-general, Chhattisgarh Rice Millers Association,


said though paddy sowing in the East had been delayed by a month, the situation had improved. There is no
draught-like situation and paddy transplantation is on in full swing. The production might be close to that
recorded last year if there monsoon rains are sufficient.

Farmers affected by climate change could be helped by new resilient rice
Thursday, July 31st, 2014 By Jemma Collins

Erratic weather such as droughts and flash floods is affecting
agriculture in south Asia, but livelihoods of farmers could be
improved with the introduction of new rice seeds that are resilient to
changing weather patterns.Climate change is increasingly making
farmers think about their future. Changing weather patterns in
Nepalare particularly creating problems with rice crops and the
problem is expected to continue.
Farmers in Nepal are finding that traditional rice varieties are not sustaining the current climate. Meteorologists
in the area say droughts are occurring more often and the monsoon is arriving later and getting shorter, which
means less water for crops, while there are often flash floods when it finally arrives.With rice planted on more
than half of the arable land in Nepal and agriculture providing jobs for 66% of the population, support is needed
to ensure food security.The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) developed new rice seeds with the aim
to protect the livelihoods of farmers.
The new rice seeds can withstand the impact of severe droughts and flash floods and were approved by the
Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC).These new varieties can really change the future of the


countrys farmers, said Dr Dil Bahadur Gurung, NARCs executive director.The new rice can, in most cases,
beat the effects of droughts and floods.The IRRI developed a project in 2007 to help develop stress-tolerant
rice for countries with difficult environments this has helped many with May seeing 10 million farmers in
New Delhi given access to climate resilient rice.Under the past phases of the project, 16 climate-smart rice
varieties tolerant of flood, drought, and salinity were released in various countries in South Asia; about 14 such
varieties were released in sub-Saharan Africa. Several more are in the process of being released, said
Abdelbagi Ismail, an IRRI scientist.
Farmers in Nepal are being encouraged to move away from traditional rice varieties and the new seeds also
come with a 30% discount.However, uptake hasnt been as good as expected, with the National Seed Company
blamed for not reaching farmers in remote villages.Climate change is also expected to affect the drinks
industry. Coffee production is expected to be impacted this decade and projects are being set up in Kenya to
help farmers with the challenges climate change brings to the tea industry.

Generating a Genome to Feed the World: UA-Led Team Decodes
African Rice
Posted by Marc Mcilhone

Hawa Sanneh holding freshly harvested African rice in Casamance, Senegal, in October 1987. (Image
copyright: Judith Carney)
An international team of researchers led by the University of Arizona has sequenced the
complete genome of African rice.The genetic information will enhance scientists and
agriculturalists understanding of the growing patterns of African rice, as well as enable the
development of new rice varieties that are better able to cope with increasing environmental
stressors to help solve global hunger challenges.The paper, The genome sequence of
African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and evidence for independent domestication, was
published online in Nature Genetics on Sunday.
The effort to sequence the African rice genome was led by Rod A. Wing, director of the Arizona Genomics
Institute at the UA and the Bud Antle Endowed Chair in the School of Plant Sciences in the UA College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences, with a joint appointment in the UA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology.Rice feeds half the world, making it the most important food crop, Wing said. Rice will play a key
role in helping to solve what we call the 9 billion-people question.The 9 billion-people question refers to


predictions that the worlds population will increase to more than 9 billion people many of whom will live in
areas where access to food is extremely scarce by the year 2050.
The question lies in how to grow enough food to feed the worlds population and prevent the host of health,
economic and social problems associated with hunger and malnutrition.Now, with the completely sequenced
African rice genome, scientists and agriculturalists can search for ways to cross Asian and African species to
develop new varieties of rice with the high-yield traits of Asian rice and the hardiness of African rice.African
rice is once more at the forefront of cultivation strategies that aim to confront climate change and food
availability challenges, said Judith Carney, a professor of geography at the Institute of the Environment
and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Black Rice.
The book describes the historical importance of African rice, which was brought to the United States during
the period of transatlantic slavery.Carney is also a co-author on the Nature Genetics paper, and her book served
as one of the inspirations behind sequencing the African rice genome.Were merging disciplines to solve the 9
billion-people question, Wing said.Although it is currently cultivated in only a handful of locations around the
world, African rice is hardier and more resistant to environmental stress in West African environments than
Asian varieties, Wing said.African rice already has been crossed with Asian rice to produce new varieties under
a group known as NERICA, which stands for New Rice for Africa.
The African rice genome is especially important because many of the genes code for traits that make African
rice resistant to environmental stress, such as long periods of drought, high salinity in the soils and
flooding.Now that we have a precise knowledge of the genome we can identify these traits more easily and
move genes more rapidly through conventional breeding methods, or through genetic modification techniques,
noted Wing, who is also a member of the UAs BIO5 Institute and holds the Axa Endowed Chair of Genome
Biology and Evolutionary Genomics at the International Rice Research Institute. The idea is to create a
super-rice that will be higher yielding but will have less of an environmental impact such as varieties that
require less water, fertilizer and pesticides.Hardy, high-yield crops will become increasingly vital for human
survival as the world faces the environmental effects of climate change and an ever-growing global population,
he added.Wings research group specializes in developing what geneticists call physical maps, a tool that
enables scientists to understand the structure of the genome.
His group developed the physical maps for Asian rice and donated it to the Rice Genome Project, making
sequencing of that complete genome possible.Much of the evolutionary analysis of the genome was performed
by Muhua Wang, a UA plant sciences doctoral candidate, and by Carlos Machado of the University of
Maryland. Yeisoo Yu, a research associate professor in Wings research group at the Arizona Genomics
Institute, led the sequencing effort.In analyzing the 33,000 genes that make up the African rice genome, the
researchers discovered that during the process of domestication, Africans and Asians independently selected for
many of the same genetic traits in the two species, such as higher nutrition and traits that make harvesting the
crop easier.Additionally, the sequenced genome helps resolve questions about whether African rice originally
was domesticated in one region or in several locations across Africa.


By comparing the genome with what is known about the genetic structure of wild varieties, Wing and his team
found that its most similar to a population of wild rice species found in one location along the Niger River in
Mali. Our data supports the hypothesis that the domestication of African rice was centric in this region of
Africa, Wing said.From 1998 to 2005, Wing led the U.S. effort to help sequence the genome of Asian rice,
which is the only other domesticated rice species. Those results were published in the journal Nature in 2005,
and have since enabled the discovery of hundreds of agriculturally important genes, including genes that code
for faster breeding cycles and the ability for the plant to survive for up to two weeks underwater during periods
of flooding.Wings research group is now focusing on sequencing and analyzing the genomes of the wild
relatives of African and Asian rice.
By understanding the entire genus at a genome level we have a whole new pool of genetic variation that can be
used to combat pests and plant pathogens, Wing explained.One example, he said, would be adding disease
resistance genes from all of the wild rice varieties to a species of cultivated rice, creating a new super-crop that
is resistant to diseases and pests.Wing is also working with Quifa Zhang from Huazhong Agricultural
University in Wuhan, China, to create a set of super-crop science and technology centers around the world,
where focused and coordinated efforts could help solve the 9 billion-people question. We really only have
about 25 years to solve this problem, and if were always competing with each other its not going to work, he
said.After decades of promoting high-yielding Asian varieties, the emphasis now is on developing types that
combine the formers higher yields with glaberrimas tolerance of environmental stress, Carney noted.In
November, Wing and his collaborators will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the completion of the Asian rice
genome and the new completion of the African rice genome at the 12th International Symposium on Rice
Functional Genomics, a conference that will be held in Tucson, Arizona.
Sequencing of the African rice genome was made possible by National Science Foundation grants # 0321678, #0638541, #0822284
and #1026200 to the Oryza Map Alignment and Oryza Genome Evolution Projects.

140 House Members Signal Deep Concern to President about TPP
Negotiations
Congressman Devin Nunes
The Chairman expects more
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A bipartisan group of nearly one third of House Members sent a letter to President
Obama late yesterday stating their concern over Japan's market access offer for U.S. agricultural exports in the
Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Devin Nunes
(R-CA) and Ranking Member Charles Rangel (D-NY) were joined by other Members of the Ways and Means
and Agriculture Committees in highlighting the significant gap between Japan's commitment to providing
market access when the country became a TPP partner in 2011, and Japan's lack of progress on this
commitment in the current negotiations.Japan is seeking to exempt large sections of agricultural imports from
tariff liberalization, including rice and several other sensitive commodity groups.


"If accepted, this unprecedented and objectionable offer would significantly limit access for U.S. farmers and
ranchers to the Japanese market, and most likely, to other TPP countries as well," reads the letter. The letter
concludes with a call for the President to pursue the TPP negotiations without countries that are unwilling to
open markets in accordance with the high standards set when the original TPP countries launched
negotiations."USA Rice appreciates and applauds the wide support in Congress for U.S. agriculture in TPP,"
said USA Rice COO Bob Cummings. "The U.S. rice industry recognizes that rice is politically sensitive in
Japan, but Japan's reported offer for U.S. rice fails to meet our pragmatic goal of a significant improvement in
the quantity and quality of access for U.S. rice.

More work needs to be done and our hope is that this letter will help to focus the attention of
negotiators."Many rice-state Members are signatories including Rick Crawford and Tim Griffin from Arkansas;
Devin Nunes, Mike Thompson, John Garamendi, and Doug LaMalfa from California; William Enyart of
Illinois; Charles Boustany of Louisiana; Alan Nunnelee of Mississippi; Sam Graves, Vicky Hartzler, Jason
Smith, and Ann Wagner from Missouri; and Texans Blake Farenthold, Randy Neugebauer, Ted Poe, and Henry
Cuellar.Japan is the second largest export destination for U.S. rice. Exports in 2013 were just under 295,000
metric tons, valued at $204.2 million. Japan traditionally imports medium and short grain varieties from
California.

Fluctuating U.S. Rice Prices Frustrating Foodservice in Ghana
When prices are stable, put U.S.-grown rice on the table.TAKORADI, GHANA -- Price volatility for U.S.-
grown rice dominated discussions at a USA Rice Federation foodservice seminar here last week. More than
two hundred participants, drawn from major towns in the western and central regions of the country, took part
in the one-day seminar to learn about the unique attributes of U.S.-grown rice as tasty, healthy, and nutritious,
and were urged to use U.S. rice for their businesses.
Foodservice in Ghana accounts for approximately 64 percent of all rice use in the country and the commercial
cooks attested to the uniqueness of U.S.-grown rice, however, many raised concerns about the daily increase in
the price of the commodity. They said rice from other sources has comparatively stable pricing, whereas U.S.
rice is suffering from unprecedented price hikes on the Ghanaian market, thus compelling them to purchase rice
from other origins.
Olam Ghana Limited, local importers of U.S. rice, partnered with USA Rice to organize the seminar and
donated rice samples for the event, and assured participants that price cutbacks will occur as soon as Ghana's
economic outlook changed for the better."Ghana is going through economic difficulties which have been
aggravated by the removal of government subsidies on utilities, high tariffs on imports, escalating fuel costs,
and a weakening local currency (cedi)," said USA Rice Regional Director Hartwig Schmidt.


"The cedi to U.S. dollar ratio now stands at nearly 4:1, making imports from the U.S. very expensive.
Inflation currently is at a ten-year high, about 15 percent. At the same time last year, inflation was in the single
digits, around 8.5 percent."There have been virtual no sales of U.S. rice into Ghana in the first half of calendar
year 2014 because of the price disparity. Between 2010 and 2013, on average, Ghana imported a little less than
102,000 MT per year of U.S. rice valued at $58 million per year. Schmidt is hopeful he will see sales resume in
the second half of 2014 in conjunction with stabilizing prices and promotional activities being undertaken,
including the foodservice seminar.

Contact: Jim Guinn, (703) 236-1474
Weekly Rice Sales, Exports Reported
WASHINGTON, DC -- Net sales of 19,100 MT for 2013/2014 were up noticeably from the previous week, but
down 52 percent from the prior 4-week average, according to today's Export Sales Highlights report. Increases
were reported for Haiti (15,000 MT), unknown destination (2,000 MT), Honduras (1,600 MT), Canada (800
MT), and Mexico (500 MT). Decreases were reported for Guatemala (1,100 MT) and Jordan (500 MT). Net
sales of 41,100 MT for 2014/2015 were reported for Venezuela (30,000 MT), Mexico (5,600 MT), Honduras
(1,800 MT), and El Salvador (1,300 MT).
Exports of 44,100 MT were up 13 percent from the previous week, but down 8 percent from the prior 4-week
average. The primary destinations were Mexico (26,500 MT), El Salvador (5,200 MT), Guatemala (3,600 MT),
Jordan (2,800 MT), and Canada (2,000 MT).
This summary is based on reports from exporters from the period July 18-24.

Generating A Genome To Feed The World
July 30, 2014

By Shelley Littin, University of Arizona
An international team of scientists led by the UA has sequenced
the genome of African rice.The genetic information will enhance
scientists and agriculturalists understanding of the growing
patterns of African rice, as well as enable the development of new
rice varieties that are better able to cope with increasing
environmental stressors to help solve global hunger


challenges.The paper, The genome sequence of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and evidence for independent
domestication, was published online in Nature Genetics on Sunday.

The effort to sequence the African rice genome was led by Rod A. Wing, director of the Arizona Genomics
Institute at the UA and the Bud Antle Endowed Chair in the School of Plant Sciences in the UA College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences, with a joint appointment in the UA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology.Rice feeds half the world, making it the most important food crop, Wing said. Rice will play a key
role in helping to solve what we call the 9 billion-people question.

The 9 billion-people question refers to predictions that the worlds population will increase to more than 9
billion people many of whom will live in areas where access to food is extremely scarce by the year 2050.
The question lies in how to grow enough food to feed the worlds population and prevent the host of health,
economic and social problems associated with hunger and malnutrition.Now, with the completely sequenced
African rice genome, scientists and agriculturalists can search for ways to cross Asian and African species to
develop new varieties of rice with the high-yield traits of Asian rice and the hardiness of African rice.African
rice is once more at the forefront of cultivation strategies that aim to confront climate change and food
availability challenges, said Judith Carney, a professor in the Department of Geography and the Institute of the
Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Black Rice. The
book describes the historical importance of African rice, which was brought to the United States during the
period of transatlantic slavery.

Carney is also a co-author on the Nature Genetics paper, and her book served as one of the inspirations behind
sequencing the African rice genome.Were merging disciplines to solve the 9 billion-people question, Wing
said.Although it is currently cultivated in only a handful of locations around the world, African rice is hardier
and more resistant to environmental stress in West African environments than Asian varieties, Wing
said.African rice already has been crossed with Asian rice to produce new varieties under a group known as
NERICA, which stands for New Rice for Africa.The African rice genome is especially important because many
of the genes code for traits that make African rice resistant to environmental stress, such as long periods of
drought, high salinity in the soils and flooding.Now that we have a precise knowledge of the genome we can
identify these traits more easily and move genes more rapidly through conventional breeding methods, or
through genetic modification techniques, noted Wing, who is also a member of the UAs BIO5 Institute and
holds the Axa Endowed Chair of Genome Biology and Evolutionary Genomics at the International Rice
Research Institute. The idea is to create a super-rice that will be higher yielding but will have less of an
environmental impact such as varieties that require less water, fertilizer and pesticides.

Hardy, high-yield crops will become increasingly vital for human survival as the world faces the environmental
effects of climate change and an ever-growing global population, he added.Wings research group specializes in
developing what geneticists call physical maps, a tool that enables scientists to understand the structure of the
genome. His group developed the physical maps for Asian rice and donated it to the Rice Genome Project,
making sequencing of that complete genome possible.Much of the evolutionary analysis of the genome was
performed by Muhua Wang, a UA plant sciences doctoral candidate, and by Carlos Machado of the University


of Maryland. Yeisoo Yu, a research associate professor in Wings research group at the Arizona Genomics
Institute, led the sequencing effort.
In analyzing the 33,000 genes that make up the African rice genome, the researchers discovered that during the
process of domestication, Africans and Asians independently selected for many of the same genetic traits in the
two species, such as higher nutrition and traits that make harvesting the crop easier.Additionally, the sequenced
genome helps resolve questions about whether African rice originally was domesticated in one region or in
several locations across Africa. By comparing the genome with what is known about the genetic structure of
wild varieties, Wing and his team found that its most similar to a population of wild rice species found in one
location along the Niger River in Mali. Our data supports the hypothesis that the domestication of African rice
was centric in this region of Africa, Wing said.From 1998 to 2005, Wing led the US effort to help sequence the
genome of Asian rice, which is the only other domesticated rice species.
Those results were published in the journal Nature in 2005, and have since enabled the discovery of hundreds
of agriculturally important genes, including genes that code for faster breeding cycles and the ability for the
plant to survive for up to two weeks underwater during periods of flooding.Wings research group is now
focusing on sequencing and analyzing the genomes of the wild relatives of African and Asian rice. By
understanding the entire genus at a genome level we have a whole new pool of genetic variation that can be
used to combat pests and plant pathogens, Wing explained.One example, he said, would be adding disease
resistance genes from all of the wild rice varieties to a species of cultivated rice, creating a new super-crop that
is resistant to diseases and pests.
Wing is also working with Quifa Zhang from Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China, to create a
set of super-crop science and technology centers around the world, where focused and coordinated efforts could
help solve the 9 billion-people question. We really only have about 25 years to solve this problem, and if were
always competing with each other its not going to work, he said.After decades of promoting high-yielding
Asian varieties, the emphasis now is on developing types that combine the formers higher yields with
glaberrimas tolerance of environmental stress, Carney noted.In November, Wing and his collaborators will
celebrate the 10th anniversary of the completion of the Asian rice genome and the new completion of the
African rice genome at the 12th International Symposium on Rice Functional Genomics, a conference that will
be held in Tucson, Arizona.
Sequencing of the African rice genome was made possible by National Science Foundation grants # 0321678,
#0638541, #0822284 and #1026200 to the Oryza Map Alignment and Oryza Genome Evolution Projects.
Source: By Shelley Littin, University of Arizona
Topics: Environment, Bioinformatics, Genetics, Biology, Botany, New Rice for Africa, Oryza sativa, Genome, Plant breeding, Tropical
agriculture, Rice, Molecular biology, genomics, Rod A. Wing
Image Caption: Understanding the complete genome of African rice will enable researchers and
agriculturalists to develop new varieties of rice with African rice's hardiness, making them better able to adapt
to conditions of a changing climate. Credit: International Rice Research Institute


Zimbabwe: Realising Zimbabwe's Rice Promise

Zimbabwe is set to embark on an ambitious programme to boost the country's rice output after the country
signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese rice research centre recently. Businessman and farmer,
Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa, struck a deal with renowned Chinese agricultural scientist Professor
Yuan Longpin's National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha in Hunan Province to
start a pilot hybrid rice production exercise that could easily transform Zimbabwe into a major rice growing hub
in the Sadc region using varieties suitable to local conditions."After I met Professor Yuan Longpin - revered as
the 'Father of Hybrid Rice' Yuan expressed his desire to support the pilot project to enhance the country's rice
output and reduce hunger and poverty," said Ambassador Mutsvangwa who is also Foreign Affairs Deputy
Minister.
He signed an MOU on behalf of his firm, Moncris Private Limited while Prof Longpin signed for the National
Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center, under a deal which was approved by Agriculture,
Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made."Prof Longpin pledged to put capital into the
rice project to make Zimbabwe the rice breeding pad of southern Africa," Ambassador Mutsvangwa said."The
Ministry of Agriculture is part of this project and a team of technical experts is coming in the third week of July
to start making preparations for the implementation of the rice project at my farm in Norton."Prof Longpin also
expressed his desire to meet the President (Mugabe) during the upcoming summits"Under the agreement, the
Chinese rice development centre will provide rice hybrid varieties for on-farm trials by Moncris on
Zimbabwean soil."On completion of this initial seed trial both parties will evaluate the results and make
necessary recommendations for further progress.
"Moncris will provide the land, labour, logistical support and finally seek the necessary Government approval to
ensure smooth progress of all commercial activities carried out by all parties partaking in this agreement," read
the MOU.All sides committed themselves to subsequently set a formal agreement, form a joint venture
company to cooperate and implement large scale hybrid rice production.The key objective of the deal supported
by both the Chinese and Zimbabwean governments is to enhance the country's long term food security position
and food production strategies.Agricultural experts say rice is rapidly growing in importance in Zimbabwe and
most other African countries.They say it is now the leading provider of food calories in West Africa and
Madagascar and it is now the second largest source of food energy in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.
"Wheat as a winter crop is facing serious challenges," said Ambassador Mutsvangwa."We cannot compete with
countries such as Argentina and others that produce the crop at lower cost. So it is imperative to seek strategies
to boost the production of crops such as rice to fight against hunger."He said the growing demand for rice
provides a strong impetus to explore ways to improve growth and efficiency of local rice production as well as
developing policies to control large imports that can impede the development of the domestic rice sector.


SONA Fact Check: Gov't efforts hurting rice hoarders
President Aquino says in his SONA that steps have been taken to achieve enough rice supply. This way,
hoarders who cause prices to increase are frustrated
Manila, Philippines In his 5th State of the Nation Address (SONA),
President Benigno Aquino III warned unnamed government officials that
they would end up in prison once evidence against them are completed. And
he wasn't talking to anybody involved in diverting or pocketing some
discretionary fund.He was talking to officials who are being investigated for
allegedly conniving with rice hoarders and smugglers.
Rice hoarding is blamed for the insufficient supply and rising prices of rice, which the President said the
government is addressing. Efforts are undertaken too to help farmers become more productive, he said.Rappler
checked Aquino's statements against other sources and found that, with rice sufficiency level at 96%,
government efforts have started to hurt rice hoarders.In his SONA, the President said the following rice
importations had been made or approved since November:
500,000 metric tons of rice to supplement decreased supply due to the typhoons; approved in November;
complete supply arrived last March
800,000 metric tons, in fulfillment of our buffer stocking requirement; approved in Febuary; 360,750
MT arrived in July
500,000 metric tons, to be done through open bidding; approved in July
"The NFA also has the standby authority to import an additional 500,000 metric tons to prepare for the effects
of calamities on harvests and rice prices," the President said.
Near-100% rice sufficiency
The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Food Security and Agricultural Modernization confirmed the
additional importation of 800,000 metric tons of rice, approved last February, and importation of another


500,000 metric tons approved last July 22.The entire 800,000 MT of rice will have arrived in the Philippines by
the end of August, according to Secretary Francis Pangilinan.Pangilinan also confirmed that the National Food
Authority (NFA) is on standby to import yet another 500,000 MT.These importations are to drive down prices
of rice and, as Aquino mentioned in his SONA, to outwit rice hoarders and smugglers who are counting on a
dearth of rice in the market to drive up prices.
But in a radio interview, Senator Grace Poe said importing rice should not be the government's sole course of
action in ensuring there is enough rice for the country."The focus has been to import as opposed to helping our
own farmers attain higher yield from their fields," she said in a Bomba Radyo Cebu radio interview.The
President said in his SONA: "We are providing our farmers with modern equipment to ensure the efficiency of
planting and harvest.
From 2011 to May 2014, we have already turned over 4,628 units of production machinery, 11,362 units of
post-production machinery, and 105 rice mills to a number of farmers associations."PhilMech Director Rex
Bingabing confirms the accuracy of these numbers, but pointed out that some of the rice mills are still under
construction. Beneficiary farmer associations have already been identified for these mills. (READ: Machines on
PH farms: Catching up with ASEAN integration)
According to the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Philippines is currently 96% self-sufficient in rice. The
agency set a 100% self-sufficiency target for 2013 but it was not met because of the disasters that damaged
many rice fields.
Officials probed
"Apart from investigating those who have allegedly hoarded NFA rice, we are also probing all those in
concerned agencies who may have conspired with these hoarders," Aquino said in his speech. "Employees
suspected of wrongdoing are already under scrutiny, so that we may file charges, and eventually, imprison those
who must be held to account."DA Secretary Proceso Alcala earlier told Rappler of his suspicions that people in
government had been working with rice hoarders and smugglers. He said complaints have been filed against
some government employees, with further investigation underway. Rappler.com
Filipino farmer image via Shutterstock


UA effort leads to unlocking of rices secrets
Rod Wing and fellow researchers at the Arizona Genomics Institute led an international effort to complete a
genomic road map for African rice that should lead to greater productivity for the worlds most important
grain.It also fills in details of a cultivation story that stretches from West Africa to the slave plantations of the
Carolinas.Africans in the Niger Valley first cultivated wild strains of rice into an important commodity more
than 3,000 years ago, according to the international groups paper, published this week in Nature Genetics.

Portuguese traders then transported the rice and the knowledge needed to grow it in slave ships to the New
World, according to one of the papers co-authors, Judith Carney, a geographer and environmental scientist at
UCLA.Carney has spent decades researching the story of African rice, seeking to show that the agricultural
economy of the Southern states, in particular the Carolinas, benefited not just from the labor of slaves but from
their knowledge of agricultural techniques.Wing said Carneys 2001 book, Black Rice was an inspiration for
his genomic study.We wanted to tell a story along with the genome work, Wing said.
Wing, whose team previously helped map the genome of Asian rice, or Oryza sativa, said the genetic detective
work done on both species demonstrates clearly that they were individually cultivated, with the Asian variety
coming first some 10,000 years ago.The African rice, Oryza glaberrima, produced a thriving agricultural
economy in the New World, particularly in South Carolina, said Carney.Growers adopted techniques developed
in Africa to grow rice under varying conditions.Rice cultivation had a central role in building strong,
knowledgeable and vibrant agrarian cultures in West Africa, according to the Nature Genetics paper, whose 31
authors come from four continents and represent universities, research institutes and seed companies.
Rice continues to be an important crop in West Africa, where it is grown in a variety of ecological niches
from riverine mangrove swamp to drier upland areas.Many African farmers switched to Asian varieties over the
years because of its higher yields, but growing it demanded fertilizers, pesticides and more water, said
Carney.The African rices are hardier, more salt-tolerant, drought-tolerant and disease-resistant than the more
widely cultivated strains, said Wing.An effort known as Nerica or New Rice for Africa has already blended
those qualities into the higher yield Asian rice, Wing said.The genome structure his team created will allow rice
to be grown even more efficiently in less-than-ideal conditions.
Wing said his overall goal is to tackle the 9 billion problem the question of where food will come from
when the worlds population balloons to 9 billion people by 2050.Georgia Eizenga, a research geneticist with
the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Arkansas, said the genetic framework done by Wing and


his colleagues should prove useful in Africa and other areas with similar growing conditions.The types of
things that Rod did are more in-depth, give you more backbone to work with. Is it useful? Yes? Will it be
used? Not all of it.Knowledge of the genetic markers that produce certain traits is one thing, she said. You
still need somebody to grow it and to test it.
Wing will be pursuing development of better strains as the AXA Endowed Chair of Genome Biology and
Evolutionary Genomics at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, where he expects to
spend about 25 percent of his time in the coming years.Im really excited about it, said Wing. Its a chance to
translate this genome biology into practical solutions.Wing is director of the Arizona Genomics Institute, a
member of the UAs Bio5 Institute and a professor in the School of Plant Sciences and the department of
ecology and evolutionary biology.
Contact reporter Tom Beal at tbeal@tucson.com or 573-4158.
Searca, IRRI: Global warming to decrease PHL rice production
Category: Agri-Commodities
30 Jul 2014Written by Alladin S. Diega | Correspondent
LATEST crop-simulation modeling and analyses showed that temperature increase is likely to result in rice-yield
reduction, a joint statement by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Southeast Asian Regional
Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) said on Wednesday.Global warming is likely to lead to
drier conditions, which will result to a decrease in area planted, hence, affecting rice overall production in the
Philippines, according to the study titled Impact on Climate Change on the Philippine Rice Sector: Supply/Demand
Projections and Policy.
The study, a collaboration between Searca and the IRRI, concludes the impact of climate change on rice farming in the
Philippines, explaining that crop yields were estimated and compared for different possible climate scenarios, which
included incremental increases in temperature change in rainfall volume and distribution, and increase in atmospheric
carbon dioxide concentration.Adaptive measures, however, were in place and is already showing positive reports, the
study said. The model in climate changes effect in rice production was successful in establishing data on the sensitivity
of rice yield to weather variables, analyzed the risks associated with climate-related hazards, and assessed the availability
of and access to coping measures in the major rice-growing areas and the level of adaptive capacity of the rice-production


systems, the statement said. The study, the statement said, conducted a survey of key climate-change adaptation
measures and good practices in rice production in the country.
The survey said that despite their vulnerability to climate hazards, the
study areas continue to be the top rice-producing provinces in the
Philippines, indicating a high adaptive capacity.The study sites were
the top rice-producing provinces in the country, including Ilocos Norte,
Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Laguna, Camarines Sur and Iloilo, the
statement said, adding that farmers in these provinces have
successfully put into practice adaptation measures and good
agricultural practices to cope with climate change.
Included in the good practices surveyed were adjusting the crop calendar, updating of weather-based dynamic cropping
calendar based on crop-yield probabilities, planting more resistant or climate stress-tolerant crop varieties, and employing
crop-diversification and crop-livestock integration.To be more adaptive in view of climate change, the study recommends
defining potential climate scenarios to specific provinces, additional study on the interprovincial or regional trading of rice
among areas with surpluses and shortages in the context of food security under a changing climate, and the incorporation
of the available climate-change adaptation measures available in the integrated crop-management strategies in order to
increase adaptive capacity of rice farmers. Searca Director Dr. Gil Saguiguit said the results and findings of the study will
be valuable in helping the government and stakeholders, particularly rice farmers, deal with the effects of climate change
on rice production.
[Rice] is the staple food item in the diet of about 80 percent of the Filipinos, and the value of its annual production is
close to P2 billion, he said.Latest data from the IRRI showed that from the 5.4 million hectares of arable land in the
country, 81 percent, equivalent to 4.4 million hectares, are devoted to rice production.However, the IRRI said, rice
production in the Philippines faces a number of constraints, namely, growing population, declining land area, high cost of
inputs, and poor drainage and inadequate irrigation facilities.Due to the Philippiness location, the rice sector becomes
highly vulnerable to climate change, which severely affects crop production. Successive heavy rains cause severe drainage
problems in paddy fields, thus resulting in a significant reduction in rice yield and quality, the IRRI said.

In Photo: A farmer carries baskets of palay seedlings to a rice farm in La Union, a province north of Manila. (Mau Victa)


Rice bran helps human rotavirus diarrhea
08/01/2014 07:39:00 admin
Friday Aug. 1, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- A study led by scientists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA suggests that dietary rice bran or supplements can protect against
rotavirus diarrhea.The authors of the study report that rice bran contains phytochemicals that are known to
promote gut mucosal immune response against enteric pathogens.The current study was to test the effects of
rice bran on rotavirus induced diarrhea and immunogenicity of an attenuated human rotavirus (HRV) vaccine in
gnotobiotic pigs. For the study, four groups of animals received one of the four treatments, rice bran plus
vaccine, vaccine only, rice bran only, and placebo.
Rice bran was used in a dose of 10% of pigs' total daily calories from milk starting from five days of age until
euthanasia.At the 28th day after the inoculation, a subset of animals from each group were challenged with
virulent human rotavirus and were monitored daily for diarrhea and virus shedding during the first seven days
post-challenge.Supplementation with rice bran was found to significantly protect against diarrhea induced by
the virulent human rotavirus and enhance the protection of the vaccine against the diarrhea.
Biochemically, rice bran supplementation was found to significantly increase IFN- producing CD4+ and CD8+
T-cell responses. It also reduced the numbers of IgM, IgG and IgA cells before challenge.The study concludes
rice bran protect against rotavirus diarrhea and enhance the antiviral effect of the vaccine.
In the United States, rotavirus, the leading cause of severe diarrhea among infants and young children, causes
illnesses that lead to more than 400,000 doctor visits, more than 200,000 emergency room visits, and 55,00 to
70,000 hospitalizations, and 20 to 60 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).The virus infected almost all children by their fifth birthdays before the vaccine was
introduced in 2006. It takes 2 days for the virus infection to cause symptoms including severe watery diarrhea,
often with vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain, according to the CDC. (David Liu)
Yang X, Wen K, Tin C, Li G, Wang H, Kocher J, Pelzer K, Ryan E, Yuan L. Dietary rice bran protects against
rotavirus diarrhea and promotes Th1 type immune responses to human rotavirus vaccine in gnotobiotic pigs.
Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2014 Jul 30.
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Rotten rice may be used for ethanol
Published: 30 Jul 2014 at 18.19
Online news: News
Writer: Online Reporters
The Finance Ministry is looking to sell about 100,000 tonnes of rotten rice in the governments stockpile to
national energy conglomerate PTT Plc for processing into ethanol.

Grain in some sacks stored at a warehouse in Phitsanulok's Wat Bot has decomposed and had turned to powder,
public auditors said. Dead rats and pigeons were also found on site. (Bangkok Post file photo)
Finance permanent secretary Rangsan Sriworasart, chairman of a sub-committee on closing
the rice pledging scheme account, said inspectors had so far found about 100,000 tonnes of
inedible rice which could be processed into something else.PTT had expressed interest in
purchasing the grain for use in the production of ethanol. More discussion was needed on
the amount and the price. Mr Rangsan said he felt that 20% of the pledging price would be
satisfactory.The Yingluck Shinawatra-government's programme allowed farmers to pledge
ordinary white rice to the government at 15,000 baht a tonne, at least 40% above the market price, and 20,000
baht for fragrant rice.After the May 22 coup, the National Council for Peace and Order ordered the inspection of
government rice stocks in 1,800 warehouses to establish the facts behind allegations of corruption and
mismanagement of the scheme.
The fnal result is expected in August.Last week, inspectors checking supplies of rice stockpiled in
Chachoengsao opened a locked warehouse and found only rice dust mixed with insect and rodent waste.There
were also reports of missing rice in some provinces, including Pathum Thani where construction scaffolds were
found in the middle of the stacked rice, boosting the size of the pile.

Compiled & Selected by Riceplus Magazine
www.ricepluss.com

31st July, 2014 Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

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