Latest Worldwide News on Rice: http://RiceNews.irri.org Copyright (c) 2005 IRRI. All rights reserved. 7/24/2008 12:00:00 AM Bloomberg: Japan, the world's largest grain importer, plans to boost production of rice for feed and flour, as part of a strategy to reduce corn and wheat imports. The country wants to become less dependent on overseas grain supplies to protect it from soaring international prices and ensure long-term security of supply, Yuji Sawa, vice minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said in an interview. Japan, self-sufficient in rice, imports more than 60 percent of its food requirements, the highest level among developed countries. Reduced overseas purchases of corn and wheat may help damp prices for the grains, which soared to records on rising global demand for food and biofuels. The increases spurred food inflation and caused riots in developing countries. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aHz0fcpbXxSQ&refer=japan Wednesday, July 23, 2008 China View: Gazipur, Bangladesh - Bangladeshi agricultural experts hope to further cooperation on hybrid rice project between Bangladesh and China in order to increase food production and realize food sufficiency in the South-Asian country. A W Julfiquar, director of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute under Agriculture Ministry, told Xinhua Tuesday in an exclusive interview in Bangladesh's Gazipur district, 37 km north of capital Dhaka that the cooperation on hybrid rice project between Bangladesh and China started in 2001. "China sent 5 agricultural scientists in two batches to Bangladesh. They brought hybrid seeds and planted in some test fields, but later they found the seeds were not suitable to grow in Bangladesh," he said. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/22/content_8750026.htm Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Daily Star (Bangladesh): The country's rice and wheat importers have refrained from importing the food grains for the last several months, triggering a shortage in the local market as well as raising their prices, observed traders and officials concerned. The anti-graft drives that sent a chill through the country's business community and the pressure mounted on them by the government to minimise profit level also discouraged many of the importers from doing business this time around, said importers and food ministry officials. Steep rise in the prices of rice on the international markets coupled with India's refusal to export rice to Bangladesh have further inflamed the situation that has also been discouraging for the importers, they added. Food and Disaster Management Adviser AMM Shawkat Ali told The Daily Star last week, "We all should understand that these are significant reasons behind the soaring price of rice in the country." The high time for importing rice is the month of December and the following eight months, when the prices remain low on the international markets including those in India, Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=46856 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Daily Star (Bangladesh): The government has decided to resume Open Market Sale (OMS) from the third week of next month instead of September to keep the rice market stable during Ramadan, said government officials. The government will seek to bring more people under the programme through which 2.5 lakh tonnes of rice would be sold across the country. Rice will be sold for Tk 28-30 in divisional and district headquarters, metropolitan cities, municipalities and upazilas. Under the programme, rice will be sold six days a week and each person will be allowed to buy three kilograms of rice instead of five at 7,100 outlets across the country. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=46911 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Manila Standard Today: Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman has asked the House of Representatives to prioritize the passage of a bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program by five years. Pangandaman said he is working to have President Arroyo endorse the extension when she delivers her State-of-the-Nation Address just after the 14th Congress opens for its second regular session. He reiterated that the program’s three major components—land acquisition and distribution, support service and agrarian justice delivery—continue beyond 2008 and it is the funding that will expire. Agriculture statistics indicate that the country has 4.3 million hectares planted to rice but only 1.4 million hectares are irrigated. Thailand and Vietnam benefitted from the training of their technical personnel at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna. http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=politics3_july22_2008 Tuesday, July 22, 2008 GMA News: Manila, Philippines — The Philippines joined calls for the United Nations General Assembly to endorse a comprehensive action framework to deal with the global food and energy crisis. A statement in the mission’s website quoted Philippine representative Hilario Davide Jr. saying the General Assembly can make a world of difference in this crisis. "By endorsing this Comprehensive Framework for Action and implementing the proposals contained therein, the General Assembly, as the largest legislative body in the world, will be able to provide a coherent and coordinated response to the immediate needs of the many millions adversely affected by high food and energy prices," Davide said at the Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Global Food and Energy Crisis held last Friday. The Philippines has also embarked on a biofuels program using non-food sources and has called for increased funding for global research and development, particularly for the International Rice Research Institute, he said. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/108417/RP-endorses-UN-action-plan-on-global-food-energy-crises Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Delta Farm Press: My telephone load normally begins to wind down about the middle of July. This year I have the feeling it will stay active for several more weeks. Much of the rice crop is a month behind in some areas of Arkansas and the soybean crop in general has a long way to go. A lot of areas in the state got a desperately needed July 4 rain. This has been the most difficult year for farmers to get things done that I can remember. We went through a prolonged wet period that delayed planting of all crops a month or more in some areas. http://deltafarmpress.com/rice/baldwin-column-0721/ Monday, July 21, 2008 Globe and Mail: The Green Revolution that began in 1945 transformed farming and fed millions in developing countries. But its methods over the long run are proving to be stunningly destructive. The idea was to reduce hunger through the magic of economies of scale. The plan was to implement a new approach to farming across the developing world. And so, starting in 1945, the U.S.-backed Green Revolution did to farming what the Model T did to auto production. It subsidized peasants in developing countries to abandon centuries-old, small-scale farming techniques that used diverse, locally adapted crops and instead plant vast fields of single crops specially bred for high yields. And, since the new monocrops were often less suited to local conditions, farmers were also encouraged to use plenty of pesticides and fertilizers to improve harvests. Playing a major role in the Green Revolution was the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), set up in the Philippines in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations with the collaboration of the Philippine government. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080719.RICE19/TPStory/Environment Saturday, July 19, 2008 Cornell Chronicle: With food prices soaring, productivity stagnating and investments in public agricultural research declining, countries around the world desperately need more agricultural scientists. Thousands of students show interest in such fields as molecular biology, plant breeding, genetics, evolutionary biology and plant pathology but have no experience with the problems of poor farmers eking out a living in Africa, Asia or Latin America. A Cornell-initiated course at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, the world's leading rice research and training center, seeks to encourage some of the world's brightest young scientists to consider careers bridging research with applications in developing nations. The three-week course, Rice: Research to Production, which recently concluded its second year, is featured in the July 18 issue of the journal Science. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July08/rice.course.sl.html Thursday, July 17, 2008 The Irrawaddy: Some 70,000 people in Chin State are facing severe food shortages after a plague of rats destroyed their entire rice crop earlier this year, according to sources from the Chin community in India and Thailand. Sui Khar, the joint-secretary of the Chin National Font (CNF) and an international fundraiser, said that UN agencies must respond to the crisis. “Our Chin community and UN agencies have been providing relief and assistance, but the number of people affected is so great that it cannot cover all their needs,” he said. “We have tried our best to solve the problem, but there is a still a big gap between what we can give and what they require.” The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said that the infestation of rats spread over the border areas of Bangladesh and Burma earlier this year and is now “increasing fears of widespread food shortages.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article1.php?art_id=13366 Wednesday, July 16, 2008 The Irrawaddy: In Singapore, where almost 100 percent of foodstuff is imported, the government has allowed private importers to increase buffer stocks. The Philippines, the world’s largest importer of rice, has been busy shopping for the grain from producers such as China and Pakistan. Whether producer or importer, countries in Asia—a region that produces and consumes the most quantities of the staple—continue to feel the pinch of the rise in rice prices amid inflation that has been climbing in many countries over the last four months. The average export price of rice has nearly doubled to 585 US dollars per tonne today, compared to 326 dollars in 2007, according to the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The export price of rice from Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, more than doubled from 376 dollars a tonne in January 2008 to 907 per tonne in May. http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=13355 Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Inquirer.net: Manila, Philippines— Good weather conditions will most likely mean better-than-expected rice production in the Philippines of about 7.3 million tons in the first half of the year, according to a senior agriculture official. “Higher rainfall this year allowed farmers to plant in wider areas, unlike last year when there was a drought,” Romeo Recide, director of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, told Reuters. Production of unmilled rice is estimated to have reached 7.3 million tons in January to June, higher than a government target of 7.1 million and the 6.7 million tons produced in the same period of 2007, the agriculture department said in a statement. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080716-148672/Higher-rainfall-boosts-rice-output Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Express India.com: Hisar - The Haryana Agriculture University has added one more feather in its cap by introducing paddy transplanter under zero tillage thereby giving more profit in their yields with comparatively little investment. Varsity officials claim a total of 15 demonstrations conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Yamunanagar district in 2007 showed a grain yield range of 74 to 83 quintals per hectare. More than 150 exhibition plots of one acre each have been transplanted with this technique in Yamunagar district of Haryana in the current year. This project is funded by the Australian Center of International Agriculture Research and International Rice Research Institute, he added. He said the farmers use approximately 20-25 litre diesel for field preparation before and during puddling whereas, only 1-1.25 litre diesel is required for mechanical transplanting under zero tillage. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/More-profit-less-investment-with-HAUs-new-paddy-transplanter/336006/ Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Relief Web.com: Rome – When one imagines an African landscape, wherever it may be, images of rice paddies are not normally the typical scenery one conjures up. But understanding the role of rice in the recent displays of public unrest in some of the continent’s poorest countries is key to developing a sustainable, long-term solution to the crisis of high food prices on a global scale. ‘FAO’s Initiative on soaring food prices initially concentrated on those countries where people were demonstrating over the cost of not just any food, but the price of rice,’ said Robert Guei, Agricultural Officer with the FAO’s Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service...WARDA is FAO’s main partner in the ongoing work, but others working jointly on the project for sustainable revitalization of the sector include the International Center for Soil Fertility (IFDC), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Rice Research Institute, Banque ouest-africaine de développement (BOAD), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and local farmers organizations and NGOs. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EGUA-7GKN3M?OpenDocument Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA): Bangkok - When world rice prices hit 1,000 dollars per ton in May, more than doubling over five months, Asian governments were forced to do something they haven't done for decades: take a serious look at their neglected agriculture sectors. Before the Asian economic miracle of the 1980s and '90s, there was the green revolution of the 1960s. Asia's green revolution combined the introduction of high-yield seeds for staple crops such as maize, wheat and rice with massive public expenditures on rural infrastructure. Productivity soared and famine became a thing of the past. Taxes on agriculture, mainly on exports, helped finance a shift in development strategies in the 1980s toward industry and services, building modern economies on the shoulders of the poor farmers. In virtually every country, there's a recognition that they've got to increase investments in agriculture," said Robert Zeigler, director general of the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute, which helped launch the green revolution. One good place for governments to start is in agricultural research and development. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/KKAA-7GK9MV?OpenDocument Tuesday, July 15, 2008 The prospect of a meager rice crop threatens to add to Myanmar's travails from May's cyclone that left tens of thousands dead. Much of the country's rice fields are in the now-swamped Irrawaddy delta. When Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, also known as Burma, on May 2 and 3, a 12-foot wall of saltwater and heavy rains soaked the low-lying delta region, which produces about a third of the country's rice, and wiped out many other rice fields and food stores. In addition to the devastating human death toll, which surpassed 84,000 by official government count, was the loss of about 100,000 cattle and water buffalo used to plow rice fields. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/asia/july-dec08/myanmar_07-15.html Tuesday, July 15, 2008 INQUIRER.net blogs (Philippines): Rainy season is here again. The crops, trees, and plants would gladly bathe under the showers of rain. However, when typhoons strike and floods flow like a river, the trees would sway and dance in a fast forward rhythm and plants may drown and die. But among the plants, one variety of rice can survive flooding. This rice variety is named sub1 or submergence1, according to Dr. Dave Mackill, head of the plant breeding, genetics and biotechnology division of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Mackill and other researchers from IRRI and the University of California in Riverside and in Davis campuses have discovered from an Indian rice variety FR13A a gene that can withstand flooding of up to 17 days. http://blogs.inquirer.net/insidescience/2008/07/15/waterproof-rice-survives-flooding/ Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Inquirer.net: Manila, Philippines -- Even as rice prices spike all over the world, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the Philippines continues to sell the cheapest rice in the Southeast Asian region. Before diplomatic officials and tourism directors of the US and Canada who visited Malacañang Monday, Arroyo also said the country has an adequate supply of rice a "solid plan" to achieve self-sufficiency in five years. "All over the world, food prices have spiked. In Thailand, [from which] we buy rice, rice is P56 pesos per kilo; in Vietnam, P67. So when we have commercial rice at P35, that's a blessing," she said. http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/view.php?db=1&article=20080714-148403 Monday, July 14, 2008 Yehey.com: An official of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) urged the government to focus on increasing rice production to augment the huge demand of the bloating population in the Philippines growing at an average 2 percent every year. Dr. William Padolina, IRRI deputy director general, said that for additional 1 million mouths to feed, the country’s production of milled rice must increase by 134,000 metric tons (MT) of rice every year. He said the Philippines’ present population of 88.5 million demands for a total of 11.8 million MT of rice. http://www.yehey.com/finance/level3.aspx?id=220046 Monday, July 14, 2008 Christian Science Monitor: Sukabumi, Indonesia - With a milling plant and a hectare of rice paddy, Aan Suharlan is fully invested in Asia's favorite food staple. Rice put his two grown-up children through school and has given him status in his village. But when he sees other farmers plow over their rice fields, he knows why they're giving up on the grain. "It's expensive to plant rice because of high production and labor costs. It's difficult to find laborers here – everyone wants to work in the factories," he says...This should mean a shift in budgets after decades of underinvestment in food crops, says Mahyuddin Syam, country director for the International Rice Research Institute based in Manila. "Now the government is willing to pay attention to rice. There is a commitment to rehabilitating irrigation channels, to provide funds for extension services and to open new land outside Java," he says. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0715/p07s01-wosc.html Monday, July 14, 2008 Vietnam News: Hanoi— The agriculture sector will put in maximum efforts to increase the area of hybrid rice to 70 per cent of the country’s total rice area by 2010, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bui Ba Bong in a meeting of the ministry on Wednesday held to discuss the result of the winter-spring rice harvest. In order to meet this goal, he suggested mobilising large enterprises to get involved in the production of hybrid rice seeds so as to reduce the import volume of hybrid rice every year, which stands at about 13,000 tonnes at the moment. http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01AGR120708 Sunday, July 13, 2008 Forbes: Thailand is the world’s biggest rice exporter, shipping 9 million tons of rice per year, and one of the most likely beneficiaries of soaring rice prices, up more than twofold in the past year to $860 per ton and up almost fivefold since 2001. But so far there is scant evidence of people getting wealthy off the bud. Nishita Shah’s family got its start in rice but nowadays makes its money in shipping. Dhanin Chearavanont’s CP Intertrade is one of the country’s biggest rice exporters though it barely registers a blip in terms of his fortune. Niti Osathanugrah has a 2.5% stake worth just $1 million in President Rice. The only other publicly traded Thai rice company, Patum Rice Mill & Granary Public Co. Limited, has a market cap of merely $89 million and no individual shareholders who qualified for Thailand’s Top 40. http://www.forbes.com/execpicks/global/2008/0721/063a.html Saturday, July 12, 2008 GMA News: Manila, Philippines — Former President Fidel V. Ramos on Friday blamed President Arroyo’s flip-flopping population policy and "unwarranted subservience" to the Roman Catholic Church for the country’s swelling population and worsening poverty. Speaking on the occasion of World Population Day at the EDSA-Shangrila in Mandaluyong, Ramos said Arroyo’s flip-flopping and subservience are unfortunate because the Philippine population growth rate is among the highest in the world, “translating to three babies being born every minute - unintended, even unwanted." ...Dr. William Padolina, deputy director general of the International Rice Research Institute, meantime said that for additional one million mouths to feed, the country's production of milled rice must increase by 134,000 metric tons of rice every year. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/106456/FVR-blames-Arroyo-for-population-poverty-woes Friday, July 11, 2008 Financial Times: So widely are genetically modified crops now grown around the world, for use in animal feed and as processed food ingredients, that feed importers in Europe and Asia are finding it difficult to supply customers who want non-GM soya or maize. “You have to pay 10-15 per cent more for non-GM corn – if you can get it at all,” says Ross Korves, a leading US agricultural economist. As world food prices surge and shortages loom, genetically modified crops look increasingly tempting as a way to raise agricultural yields without using more energy or chemicals. Even in Europe, where GM crops have faced the strongest public resistance, more politicians, experts and farmers’ leaders are speaking out in their favour. Sir David King, the UK government’s former chief scientist (pictured below), is one who says GM is the only technology available to solve the world food price crisis. “The most important event in the next five years is the expected approval of biotech rice,” says Isaaa’s Mr James. Extensive field trials of Bt rice are taking place in China, India and other Asian countries. In addition, “golden rice”, which has added genes to produce yellow beta-carotene in its grains, promises to relieve vitamin A deficiency in poor countries. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f8b45556-4e97-11dd-ba7c-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 Thursday, July 10, 2008 AFP: A million people in northeastern India face famine after rats destroyed most of the rice crop in their state, the International Rice Research Institute has said. The 2007 infestation spread over to the border areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar in early 2008, "increasing fears of widespread food shortages," the Philippines-based institute said. It left the Indian state of Mizoram, home to about a million people, with just one-fifth of its monthly rice requirement. "Aid agencies have reported that many people have been forced onto a diet of wild roots, yam and sweet potatoes," the institute said in its quarterly magazine "Rice Today". http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hkikTUAQ8cNvvgqbmU4eVtGTG0Yw Thursday, July 10, 2008 Reuters: Beijing - China's cabinet has approved a huge budget for research of genetically modified crops amid growing concerns over food security, a move scientists say may speed up commercial production of GMO rice or corn. The State Council, or cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, gave the green light on Wednesday to a program aimed at promoting indigenous genetically modified crops (GMO), Xinhua news agency said. Although the Xinhua report gave few details of the program, Chinese scientists said it included a large increase for GMO research, including a big portion to develop safety measures for GMO crops until the year 2020. "There is significant growth in budget at between 4 to 5 billion Yuan ($584- 730 million) in the coming years," Lu Barong, a professor with Fusan University and also a member of the country's biosafety committee with the agriculture ministry, told Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK11727520080710 Thursday, July 10, 2008 Reuters: Thai rice prices rose 0.7 percent in the week to Wednesday, breaking a five-week losing streak, as prices neared the level at which Bangkok has promised to buy paddy from farmers and on demand from Nigeria, exporters said. In Vietnam, traders said a 4 percent drop in the floor price on Tuesday was not enough to attract foreign buyers who planned to wait until new supply hit the market in July. http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINSP26797020080709 Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Philippine Information Agency: The Department of Agriculture (DA) last week has started distributing fertilizer discount coupons to help Siquijor rice farmers achieve higher rice yields. The move was in response to President Arroyo's released order to the department to help farmers restore their farmlands through the use of good quality rice seeds and monetization for fertilizers through the internal revenue allotment from 2002-2004 arrears of local government units. "Fertilizers are expensive so we have to subsidize," the President said. http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&fi=p080709.htm&no=21 Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Newsbreak: An emerging science considered as one of the windows to a new green revolution, called metabolomics, along with mitigating the environmental impact of aquaculture are at the forefront of joint European Commission and Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s research efforts to address the worsening food crisis. IRRI Director General Robert Zeigler said that this program, called Metabolomics for Plants, Health and Outreach (META-PHOR), aims to explore metabolomics, a new, rising science that focuses on small molecules, to improve breeding, storage and processing strategies of rice, melon and broccoli. He added that metabolomics will be developed further to determine the “taste, fragrance and nutritional value” of rice, particularly which are most suited for quality development as consumers demand healthy products. http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5063&Itemid=88889051 Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Philippine Informatin Agency: San Fernando City, La Union - "We will flood the market with more rice to further stabilize and eventually pull down prices of the staple, especially for the benefit of our low-income consumers," NFA Administrator Jesus Navarro said during their Management Meeting with DA Secretary Arthur Yap. Navarro added that since they've implemented the selective bombardment strategy as ordered by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, rice prices in Metro Manila have stabilized while those in other regions already went down to as low as P2.00 per kilo since last week. http://www.pia.gov.ph/default.asp?m=12&fi=p080709.htm&no=53 Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Delta Farm Press: Crop varieties can be improved through the study of genomics without creating genetically transformed varieties. That is the mission of a multi-state research project led by the University of Arkansas’ Division of Agriculture. RiceCAP (or the Rice Coordinated Agricultural Project) is funded by a $5 million grant from the USDA. Jim Correll, a Division of Agriculture professor of plant pathology, coordinates projects by 25 principal investigators in 12 states, the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Columbia. “Genomics is the study of the coded information about an organism stored in its DNA,” Correll says. “The RiceCAP project is conducting genomics research to develop news tools for conventional plant breeders.” http://deltafarmpress.com/rice/genomics-research-0709/ Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Commodity Online: New Delhi - India’s cereal crisis may soon blow over with the country is set to produce a record crop in the coming year. According to reports received from various parts of the country, India will produce over 3 million tonnes more rice in the next crop season following a huge increase in acreage. The reason fro acreage is the high price realisation the farmers received in this year. In the crop year that just ended in June 2008, India has produced an all-time high of 95.68 million tonnes of rice. To add to the favourable situation is the weather forecast by the Met department which said the country will get normal rains this year. Again, yield per hectare is also expected to be better. http://www.commodityonline.com/news/End-of-food-crisis-Rice-production-set-to-go-up-10305-3-1.html Wednesday, July 09, 2008 CO2 Science: Cheng et al studied well watered (flooded) and fertilized rice (Oryza sativa L.) plants that they fumigated with air containing either 380 or 680 ppm CO2 from the panicle formation stage at 59 days after transplanting (DAT, from seedling trays into pots) within controlled-environment chambers maintained at either high (32°C) or low (22°C) night temperatures, with day temperature held constant at 32°C, until either 107 or 114 DAT. During this latter period, they measured the flux of methane (CH4) between the pots and the atmosphere each day at 10:00 and 22:00 hours; and at the conclusion of the experiment they determined the dry weight of each organ of all of the plants employed in the study. They report that the extra 300 ppm of CO2 increased CH4 emissions by 32.2% in the low night temperature treatment, but by only 3.5% in the high night temperature treatment. Likewise, they found that the elevated CO2 increased the dry weight gained by the plants in the low night temperature treatment by 38.4%, but by a smaller 12.7% in the high night temperature treatment. http://www.co2science.org/articles/V11/N28/B2.php Wednesday, July 09, 2008 GMA News: Manila, Philippines – East Asians, including Filipinos, need not worry about a rice shortage in the region, according to Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The soaring prices of rice is caused by speculation and fear among traders – not a regional rice shortage. "East Asia has a rice stock led by Japan, and there is enough rice stock to take care of the region and to also share with the world in times of need,” Surin said at a press conference on Tuesday. Surin, a veteran politician from Thailand, is in the Philippines to attend the 5th Informal ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105785/No-rice-shortage-in-East-Asia-high-prices-due-to-panic-& Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer: The prices of commercial rice have started to drop by up to P2 per kilo, amid the onset of the traditional lean months, due largely to the government’s aggressive infusion of rice into the public markets. Normally, prices of the staple rise during the months of July, August and September when farmers begin planting for the next season, thus, palay harvests are usually minimal, if at all. "The price drop is significant because it is happening when retail prices are supposed to be on the upswing during the traditional three-month lean period,” said Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap. http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/view.php?db=1&article=20080708-147090 Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Wall Street Journal: New Delhi - In the world of rice, India's basmati has always stood alone. Only a handful of species grown in specific areas can claim the basmati name. Its fans claim it is the only rice you can taste. Now it has another distinction. Amid soaring prices for rice the world over, basmati has seen some of the biggest increases. In some Indian markets its price has risen about 200% since September 2006, while other kinds of rice cost 70% more here, and benchmark prices in Thailand have seen a roughly 100% increase. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121548069816234515.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Inquirer.net: Manila, Philippines - Rice-unfriendly landscapes, typhoons and high population growth keep the Philippines from being rice self-sufficient, the chief of the International Rice Research Institute said Tuesday. "This is not a new phenomenon. The Philippines has for the most part been a rice importer," said IRRI director general Robert Zeigler at the sidelines of the ongoing 5th ASEAN informal meeting on science and technology in Manila. The Philippines, one of the world's largest rice importers, has a population growth rate of 2.04 percent. About 20 typhoons visit the country each year. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/topstories/topstories/view/20080708-147206/Population-typhoons-keep-RP-from-being-rice-self-sufficient Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Wall Street Journal: Leaders of the G-8 nations are gathered this week in Toyako, Japan, to root out the culprits in a food crisis that has moved hundreds of millions from subsistence to starvation. They need look no further than an old group photo. The G-8 countries' interventions have distorted global agricultural markets to the paralysis point. Politicians legislate price supports to enrich farm voters. Lobbies extort tariffs to block cheap food imports and subsidies to underwrite food exports at prices that destroy competitors in poor countries. Conservationists have agitated to set aside productive land and pay farmers not to grow. And now green energy advocates push ethanol quotas and tax credits that divert food into fuel. The new famine is not about a crisis in global supply. Markets are full of food that developing-nation consumers cannot afford to buy. Prices for rice, corn, wheat and soy beans, the staple crops for world sustenance, have doubled in a single year. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121547397953534035.html?mod=todays_us_opinion Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Economic Times: Dubai - UAE and other Gulf countries are facing a surge in the prices of rice due to a supply shortage owing to India's ban on export of non-basmati rice varieties in March this year. The shortage of rice has led to a food crisis in the UAE, where inflation has climbed above 11 per cent, media reports said here. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/Indian_rice_export_ban_causes_food_crisis/articleshow/3211123.cms Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Voice of America: Supporters say the System of Rice Intensification can double productivity of irrigated rice. But others say there is no proof that S.R.I. is better than the best of conventional methods. Some farmers of irrigated rice in Asia, Africa and the Americas are using a production method called S.R.I. S.R.I. is short for the System of Rice Intensification. It does not require new seeds. It only requires changes in the ways that rice farmers manage plants, soil, water and nutrients. Kenneth Cassman is an agricultural expert at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. In his words, "There is no strong evidence that the S.R.I. is more effective than the best of conventional rice-growing methods." http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2008-07-07-voa3.cfm Monday, July 07, 2008 Topnews.in: Los Baños(Philippines), July 7 : A unique course designed to inspire young scientists will develop the research leaders who can help prevent food crises such as that seen around the world in 2008, and which is a key topic being discussed by world leaders at the G -8 summit in Japan this week. The "Rice: research to production" course, held for the second time on 19 May-6 June at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), brought together 29 participants from 13 countries across the developed and developing world. http://www.topnews.in/scientists-learn-about-rice-and-how-help-fight-poverty-251388 Monday, July 07, 2008 Bangkok Post: The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC) plans to expand its crop insurance scheme to cover rice next year. BAAC president Teerapong Tungteerasunun said yesterday that the state-owned bank may provide an insurance programme for rice farmers to guard against natural disasters. A study on the feasibility of the plan will be conducted between July and September. The insurance would first cover key rice production areas such as Phetchaburi, Phitsanulok, Sukhothai and other central provinces. http://www.bangkokpost.com/050708_Business/05Jul2008_biz40.php Saturday, July 05, 2008 VietNamNet Bridge: In just a year Vietnamese farmers managed to help Sierra Leone double annual rice crops to two and quadruple per-ha rice yield to four tonnes, an unbelievable success that international experts had for long dreamt at. The success has been made by a group of experienced farmers led by Prof. Dr. Vo Tong Xuan, who went to Sierra Leone from the second half of 2007 to provide farmers there with rice farming expertise under a project on “Exporting Mekong Delta farmers to Sierra Leone”. The biggest achievement gained in the project is to help local farmers overcome the shortage of machinery and a poor irrigation system as well as to reserve 3 tonnes of rice seeds for a large scaled farming in the upcoming crop. It is a dream that has never come true to international experts despite their huge investments. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2008/07/792133/ Saturday, July 05, 2008 Inquirer.net: Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines - The government will step up its infusion of assistance to rice farms hit by Typhoon Frank to ensure that Western Visayas hits its 2.1 million metric tons production target of the staple this year, according to a regional agriculture official. Manuel Olanday, the regional rice program coordinator of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Western Visayas, gave this assurance on Thursday at a briefing on the provincial rice sufficiency plan at the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City attended by Governor Isidro Zayco and the mayors of Negros Occidental. Typhoon Frank hit 14,000 hectares of rice lands in Western Visayas causing the loss of 33,000 MT of the staple. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080705-146661/Govt-to-step-up-aid-to-Visayas-rice-farms-hit-by-Frank Saturday, July 05, 2008 Relief Web: At least 70 percent of farmland in the Irrawaddy delta remains uncultivated, as an inadequate supply of suitable rice seeds and power tillers continues to beset efforts to plant before the beginning of the rainy season, according to local sources. Farmers are in a race against time, as they say it will be impossible to plant after the middle of July, when the summer monsoon begins and fields fill with water. The planting season traditionally ends before the full-moon day of the lunar-calendar month of Waso, which marks the beginning of the Buddhist lent. This year, the day falls on July 17. Two months after Cyclone Nargis, and with just two weeks to go before the end of the planting season, many farmers say they are still struggling with the loss of rice seeds and buffaloes. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7G98U5?OpenDocument Friday, July 04, 2008 GMA News: Manila Philippines - A rice farming system developed in Madagascar backed by US experts but sharply criticized by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) may yet provide the answer to the country’s long-term quest for rice sufficiency. Called the system for rice intensification (SRI), the method lays emphasis on plant quality rather than quantity and espouses early planting of seeds and end the flooding of fields. Under this system, water and seed costs are reduced substantially since it allows better root and leaf growth. The principal result of this type of cultivation is the doubling of harvests, with at least one million farmers from Madagascar, India and Laos reporting harvests as high as eight tons per hectare, nearly double the current Philippine average of 4.2 tons per hectare. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105182/Test-new-rice-farming-method-Agriculture-dept-urged Friday, July 04, 2008 Reuters: Maputo - Mozambique will import 1.2 million tonnes of rice from Vietnam over the next three years to curb food shortages, a top government official said on Thursday. Industry and Trade Minister Antonio Fernando told reporters Mozambique would import 400,000 tonnes of rice a year for the next three years, at a price to be negotiated between Mozambican importing companies and Vietnamese authorities. "Vietnam has pledged to continue exporting rice to Mozambique, and we managed to persuade them to grant 1.2 million tonnes for the next three years," Fernando said. http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN355098.html Thursday, July 03, 2008 Commodity Online: Haiti has fallen. Food riots have occurred in 22 countries, including Egypt, Yemen, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Madagascar, Mozambique, Philippines and Senegal. In North Korea, where food shortages and famine have been endemic for years, the average adolescent is 18 cm shorter than his counter part in South Korea. According to International Rice Research Institute, Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh are loosing tens of thousands of hectares of prime land every year to urban and industrial sprawl. In Malaysia, the government has promoted export driven palm-oil plantations. http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/Food-for-thought-What-fuels-hunger-10169-3.html Thursday, July 03, 2008 The Island (Sri Lanka): Experts worry that while influential countries are able to secure food supplies, low-income and less influential countries are left with no food to import. A week after Cyclone Nargis struck Burma in May, Ma Mya Ayes was queuing for food in Labutta. Ma Ayes and a small group of villagers waited for two days in their village for government relief and rescue teams to arrive but they never came. The group decided to walk for a day to the Labutta in the Ayeyarwady division to get help. But it was never easy to get a single grain of rice. Duncan Macintosh, IRRI’s development director, noted that much of Asia’s economic growth has been driven by the rice sector. Rice farming is a major source of employment and income for rural households and rice is a staple food for the region’s 2.6 billion population. http://www.island.lk/2008/07/03/features3.html Wednesday, July 02, 2008 Manila Times: The need for a second Asian Green Revolution amid a growing world food and rice crisis became a dominant theme at the Asian-European Editors Forum recently in Bangkok, Thailand. The forum gathered journalists and rice experts from Asia and Europe in a discussion of policy issues on the world food crisis, its effects on Asia, along with the search for solutions to a global problem. Two experts, current and past, from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, spoke at the forum. Duncan Macintosh, development director and spokesperson, IRRI, led the discussions on the rice crisis as a way to another Green Revolution. Dr. Kwanchai Gomez, executive director, the Asia Rice Foundation in Los Baños, discussed an Asia minus rice (“it isn’t Asia anymore”). She worked with IRRI from 1967 to 1996. http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/july/02/yehey/opinion/20080702opi1.html Wednesday, July 02, 2008 University of Arkansas Daily: Fayetteville, Ark. – Crop varieties can be improved through the study of genomics without creating genetically transformed varieties. That is the mission of a multistate research project led by the University of Arkansas System’s Division of Agriculture. RiceCAP, or Rice Coordinated Agricultural Project, is funded by a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jim Correll, a Division of Agriculture professor of plant pathology, coordinates projects by 25 principal investigators in 12 states, the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia. http://dailyheadlines.uark.edu/13139.htm Tuesday, July 01, 2008 HANOI (The Economic Times, India): Vietnamese farmers are expanding the southern planting area of the summer-autumn rice crop to catch up with high prices, with acreage up 4.4 per cent from last year at 1.81 million hectares, the government said on Tuesday. Prospects of a larger harvest this year prompted the government to lift a ban on rice exports last month and set a target to ship 4.5 million tonnes in the whole of 2008, similar to 2007. "The planting area under the summer-autumn rice crop in southern provinces this year is larger than last year's summer-autumn crop as food prices are at high levels, triggering farmers to expand the acreage," the General Statistics Office said in a report. It gave no output forecasts for the crop, the second-highest yielding in Vietnam after the winter-spring crop, which the report said has produced 18.03 million tonnes of paddy, up 5.9 per cent from last year's crop. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Agriculture/Vietnam_grows_larger_summer_rice_crop/articleshow/3183664.cms Tuesday, July 01, 2008 KARAWANG, Indonesia (USA Today) — In this Indonesian city, what used to be 100 acres of rice paddy is a maze of row houses and pastel-colored storefronts: a motorcycle garage, a printer, a medical clinic and a noodle shop. Until recently, this would have been just another green patch gone in a country where 100,000 acres of farmland vanish every year because of breakneck economic growth. That may be changing. The global food crisis means that countries across Asia are making agriculture a higher priority and taking steps to grow more crops within their own borders. "People suddenly care about agriculture" says Neil McCulloch, director for economics programs at the Asia Foundation office in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. "It takes a crisis to make everyone wake up and realize agriculture has been neglected." http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-30-asiafood_N.htm Tuesday, July 01, 2008 BANGKOK (Reuters) - Asian rice prices have tumbled even faster than they surged to record highs earlier this year, but the nearly 30 percent slide will soon end as a Thai government price-support scheme is about to kick in. Even bumper crops in leading producers and renewed exports from Vietnam and Cambodia are unlikely to force benchmark Thai rice prices much below $700 a tonne, the price at which Bangkok has agreed to buy supplies from farmers. That's down from a record $1,080 in April, but still double its $383 in January. After six months of exceptional volatility, a return to the price stability that characterized the thinly traded rice market for most of the past three decades would be a relief to policy makers and governments fighting food inflation worldwide, and anxious about the security of supplies. http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSBKK12624120080701?sp=true Tuesday, July 01, 2008 Bloomberg -- Sri Lanka said the army cut a main supply route for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam when soldiers captured Mannar's rice-producing area in the latest blow to rebels holding onto their last bases in the north. "Advancing security forces took control over the entire Mannar 'rice bowl' area" yesterday, the Defense Ministry said in a statement early today. Soldiers captured 120 square kilometers (46 square miles) that "mainly consists of the island's most fertile paddy fields." Soldiers seized 12 kilometers of the main A-32 road in Mannar district, one of the LTTE's main supply routes, the ministry cited Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a spokesman, as saying. The LTTE hasn't commented on the fighting. The LTTE lost the eastern region to the army a year ago in its worst defeat in its 25-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka's north and east. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqoAuFPYlVdA&refer=home Monday, June 30, 2008 June 30 (Bloomberg) -- India's monsoon rains will be normal next month, boosting the prospects for rice, lentils and soybeans and easing food prices that have helped drive inflation to the highest in 13 years. Rains in July, which account for a third of the four-month monsoon showers, will be 98 percent of the average of 293 millimeters (11.5 inches), said M. Rajeevan, deputy director general of the India Meteorological Department, in a telephone interview from New Delhi. The forecast allows for an error margin of 9 percentage points. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government is counting on increased food production to rein in an inflation rate that's doubled this year. A normal monsoon will also help the country's 234 million farmers benefit from record prices of commodities. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aaiG7A6IE_LI&refer=india Monday, June 30, 2008 Toronto Star: Manila - A spike in rice prices means increased hardship for millions of Filipinos living on less than $2 a day ... In the Philippines the impact of recent increases in the price of food has been profound: 35 million of its 88 million citizens are as poor as the people of Smokey Mountain, surviving on less than $2 per day. Six months ago, a kilogram of rice in Manila cost just 18 Filipino pesos (about 41 cents). Today, international rice shortages have driven that price to 34 pesos per kilo (76 cents) ... But it's not as though the world wasn't warned about the onset of the current food crisis and the impact it would have on these poorest of the poor. Robert Zeigler, executive director of the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) warned the world as early as June 9, 2005, in a speech in Ottawa to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/451592 Monday, June 30, 2008 New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday upheld the ban on export of non-Basmati rice imposed by the central government earlier this year due to the fears of an impending food crisis in the country. Endorsing the ban, a vacation bench of Justice Altmas Kabir and Justice G.S. Singhvi suspended an Andhra Pradesh High Court order, waiving the ban for some state-based rice exporting firms and permitting them to continue exports. It also ordered suspension of all proposed rice shipments abroad by various firms. The bench’s ruling came on a lawsuit by the central government. Additional Solicitor General P.P Malhotra, appearing for the government, pleaded that the country faces the danger of an impending food crisis and the ban was imposed to avert this crisis. The government had also sought the apex court direction to transfer to itself at least 38 lawsuits pending in various high courts seeking permission to waive the ban. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/supreme-court-endorses-ban-on-non-basmati-rice-exports_10066230.html Monday, June 30, 2008 Toronto Star: If you were trying to develop a less effective means of kicking the gasoline habit and coping with climate change you'd be challenged to improve on North America's misguided biofuels policy, which is centred on corn-based ethanol and is contributing to the global food crisis. The need for higher-yielding, disease- and pest-resistant crops as global food demand explodes. A change in North American diets. Architects of such a blueprint would, as an early step, redeploy some of the investment in the false promise of corn-based ethanol into the food-research centres in the developing world that were making significant progress until their budgets were slashed by national governments. These include the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and Mexico's International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/451291 Sunday, June 29, 2008 Southcoasttoday.com (USA): Science has provided the souped-up seeds to feed the world, through biotechnology and old-fashioned crossbreeding. Now the problem is the dirt they're planted in. Fixing soil just isn't "sexy" enough to interest governments or charities, said Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute in Manila. Philippines. Zeigler's center this sprimg planted its 133rd crop of rice in the same land since 1963, trying to pinpoint the right combination of nitrogen and fertilizer. Better seeds worked wonders. But finding money for soil health is difficult and because of that, less work is accomplished, he said. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/NEWS/806290313 Sunday, June 29, 2008 Toronto Star: A single grain of rice symbolizes the breakdown of the global food system. In recent months, prices of staples have jumped and millions have joined the ranks of the marginally fed. Hungry people desperate for bread or corn or rice, the staples of simple diets. But a shortfall in supplies has doubled and tripled the prices of these basics, shoving them far out of reach of the poorest people on Earth, the one billion who live on less than $1 a day. The crisis was a shock, but not actually a surprise. Josette Sheeran, head of the World Food Program, likened it to a "silent tsunami" that had taken years to build. http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/451023 Saturday, June 28, 2008 Mysinchew.com: Experts worry that while influential countries are able to secure food supplies, low-income and less influential countries are left with no food to import. A week after Cyclone Nargis struck Burma in May, Ma Mya Ayes was queuing for food in Labutta. Ma Ayes and a small group of villagers waited for two days in their village for government relief and rescue teams to arrive but they never came. The group decided to walk for a day to the Labutta in the Ayeyarwady division to get help. But it was never easy to get a single grain of rice. The cyclone—on top of a restrictive military regime—has made matters worse in the region’s former rice leader. But not only Burma has been facing a rice crisis. The Philippines, where the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is based, has been the biggest hit turning from rice producer to the world’s top importer. In the 1970s, IRRI taught farmers from Thailand and Viet Nam how to plant rice, but land conversion and lack of support to the agriculture sector have marginalised Filipino farmers. Duncan Macintosh, IRRI’s development director, noted that much of Asia’s economic growth has been driven by the rice sector. Rice farming is a major source of employment and income for rural households and rice is a staple food for the region’s 2.6 billion population. http://www.mysinchew.com/node/13187?tid=37 Saturday, June 28, 2008 ISLAMABAD (Daily Times): WFP report says 50% rice consumers have switched to wheat. The unprecedented increase in the price of rice has worsened the wheat crisis in the country as 50 percent of rice consumers have switched to wheat, increasing its demand by another 1.25 million tonnes and pressing for further increase in wheat prices, says a World Food Program (WFP) report, yet to be released. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C06%5C27%5Cstory_27-6-2008_pg7_6 Friday, June 27, 2008 HO CHI MINH City, June 27 (Bernama) -- A 66-year-old retired Vietnamese scientist has sold the rights to a high yielding hybrid-rice variety she developed in the late 1990s to a private company for 10 billion VND (US$500,000), Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. Associate professor Nguyen Thi Tram, Ph.D., a former lecturer at the Hanoi-based Agricultural University No. 1, transferred the rights to rice strain TH3-3 to Doan Van Sau, director of Cuong Tan Company Ltd, in Nam Dinh province. In 2005, the long-grained, fragrant variety was recognised as a national rice variety and given a license two years later. The rice has a growth period of only 105-125 days, is able to survive harsh weather, resists common pests and diseases, and yields 6-8 tonnes per hectare, one to two tonnes more than other local rice strains. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_world.php?id=342345 Friday, June 27, 2008 MANILA, Philippines (INQUIRER.net)-- The National Food Authority (NFA) will give rebates to rice traders whose shipments of imported rice will arrive on or before August 15, a National Food Authority official said on Friday. Deputy Administrator Conrado Ibañez said the NFA council has agreed to refund P1.75 per kilo of rice to traders whose shipments would arrive on or before July 31, and P1.50 for traders whose shipments would arrive between August 1 and 15. The refund was based on the P2 per kilo service fee traders initially paid the agency to purchase imported rice. Ibañez said the NFA council agreed to provide the rebate because of the "leveled prices of rice in the world market, high fuel costs resulting to higher freight rates, depreciation of the peso, and damages caused by typhoon "Frank" (international codename: Fengshen)." http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/view.php?db=1&article=20080627-145081 Friday, June 27, 2008 The Straits Times (Singapore): THE price of rice coming into Singapore is likely to fall in the next several months, say importers, who predict the drop will spell some relief for consumers battered by record-high prices. Buoyed by a surge in supply - based in part on an expected bumper crop from Thailand - the price of fragrant rice could tumble to US$1,000 (S$1,370) a tonne by year-end, importers forecast. That is 18 per cent lower than its peak last month. http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_251740.html Thursday, June 26, 2008 The two southeast Asian countries have lowered the minimum export price for the grain: larger harvests and increased supplies induce optimism among experts in the sector. The former kingdom, meanwhile, risks hunger among 50% of the population. http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=12613&size=A# Thursday, June 26, 2008 Bangkok Post: Rice prices are expected to fall next month as the second June-July crops from Thailand and Vietnam are har_dhvested and brought to market, warn traders. Baht weakness could also add pressure to prices, said Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Rice Exporters Association. The Thai government is predicting a harvest of 7.6 million tonnes of paddy rice from the June-July crop this year, compared with only four million tonnes last year. Vietnam is also looking at higher-than-expected output this year, allowing it to export as much as 4.5 million tonnes, in line with its shipments in 2007. With such a large flood of rice expected next month and demand drying up, traders expect prices of the staple could fall to $700 a tonne in Thailand, the level at which the government has pledged to step in and buy from farmers. Rather than sell at a loss, Thai exporters or the government are likely to build up massive stockpiles of milled rice, which can last in silos for up to five years, experts say. http://www.bangkokpost.com/260608_Business/26Jun2008_biz49.php Thursday, June 26, 2008 Western Farm press: Near panic ensued for almost two weeks as intense media attention about a global rice shortage and the decision by some Sam’s Club and Costco stores to limit rice purchases for their customers caused shoppers in some areas in the United States to clear the shelves of rice. American consumers have no cause for alarm. Unlike many nations that import the majority of their rice, U.S. rice farmers grow nearly 90 percent of the rice consumed by Americans each year. They do that with half their crop and export the other half to consumers around the world. Media attention was driven by news of increasingly tight supplies and rapidly escalating prices in many rice-producing countries, particularly in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The price increases began in the fall of 2007 following several years of strong global demand. Rising fuel and fertilizer costs and recent full or partial export bans by major export markets prompted a one-two-punch of high costs and reduced supplies. Despite the media coverage and high prices, global supplies are adequate. http://westernfarmpress.com/rice/rice-supply-0625/ Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Wall Street Journal (subscription required): NIIGATA, Japan -- For decades, Yasuji Tsukada has meticulously tended his terraced rice paddies to grow top-quality rice for Japan's demanding consumers. Now the 60-year-old farmer faces a new challenge: Grow a new type of rice but spend as little money and labor as possible and ignore its taste and appearance. Mr. Tsukada is among the 360 farmers in this renowned rice-growing region in central Japan who are on the forefront of an effort to develop a new type of biofuel. A group of Japanese farmer cooperatives, with some government funding, started a project last year to turn rice into ... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121435999640402271.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer: TAGUM CITY – Prospects turned bleak for the rice harvest in a town in Davao del Norte and the province of Sarangani as a result of damages wrought by floods brought by Typhoon "Frank." Sen. Mar Roxas said the losses in rice production as a result of the typhoon could aggravate a crisis in rice prices and supply. Rice production in Aklan, which supplies 10 percent of the country’s rice consumption, was all but wiped out and supply could plunge unless the government acted quickly, he said. Mayor Lolita Moral of the rice-producing town of Braulio Dujali in Davao del Norte said at least 200 hectares of rice lands were flooded after a dike along the Tuganay River was breached. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080625-144569/Prospects-bleak-for-rice-harvest-in-typhoon-affected-areas Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Associated Press: Rice futures declined Wednesday amid falling prices in Asia and speculation that U.S. growers will increase planting of the staple food consumed by almost half the world's population. U.S. rough rice futures fell 41 cents, or 2.06 percent to settle at $19.46 per 100 pounds on the ICE Futures U.S., formerly known as the New York Board of Trade. Jack Scoville, a rice analyst with Price Futures Group in Chicago, said the market appeared to be reacting to falling rice prices in No. 1 producer Thailand and No. 3 producer Vietnam. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/25/ap5154617.html Wednesday, June 25, 2008 International Herald Tribune (Associated Press): KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia's sole rice importer will wait until prices drop below US$600 per metric ton before buying more shipments of the grain, a company official said Tuesday, confirming media reports. Padiberas Nasional Bhd, or Bernas, expects rice prices to drop further from the current US$720 per ton for benchmark Thai white rice because exporters such as Thailand, Vietnam and India anticipate bumper harvests in August and September, the New Straits Times and The Star said. "We think the price of rice will soften and are cautious about the government entering the market now to buy a big block," The Star quoted Bernas managing director Bakry Hamzah as saying. "It's not a matter of time but price ... At high prices, Bernas will make a loss," he said. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/24/business/AS-FIN-Malaysia-Rice.php Tuesday, June 24, 2008 DEDAYE, Myanmar: Rice farmers in cyclone-shattered parts of the Irrawaddy Delta have come up against yet another problem as they try to rebound from the storm - donated oxen and water buffaloes are refusing to work because they are stressed, and planting must be done soon to take advantage of the next crop cycle. "Thanks to donors and arrangements by the government, we are getting buffaloes and oxen, and in some cases small tractors and tillers, almost free of charge," said Ko Hla Soe, a farmer in Dedaye, 50 kilometers, or 30 miles, southwest of the city of Yangon. "Now, to our surprise, the problem is that most of the buffaloes and oxen will not work hard. They cannot immediately be used effectively." Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar on the night of May 2, killed around 200,000 farm animals, 120,000 of which were used by farmers to plow fields in the delta, the country's fertile and economically vital rice-growing area. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/23/asia/oxen.php Monday, June 23, 2008 KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 (Reuters) - Malaysia has put on hold talks with Thailand to buy 300,000 tonnes of rice after stocks doubled to 180,000 tonnes and prices fell, Agriculture Minister Mustapa Mohamad said on Monday. "Prices are coming down to $800 from $1,100 about a month ago. That is because harvests have returned to normal and Vietnam lifted its export controls," he said. "But hopefully we aim to complete the purchase (of 300,000 tonnes of rice) by the end of this year," he added. State rice monopoly Padiberas Nasional Berhad, also known as Bernas, said earlier on Monday the government should not enter bearish global rice markets now to stock up on supplies as large orders risk sustaining or boosting prices. http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUKL2350187220080623?sp=true Monday, June 23, 2008 (INQUIRER.net) FRESNO, California--President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has asked Filipino lawmakers, who accompanied her to the United States, to pass a bill that would make rice hoarding and profiteering as offenses equally punishable as economic sabotage, and another measure that would impose a price ceiling on rice during a state of calamity. Arroyo issued the statement during her speech before members of the Filipino community here at the Fresno Convention Center. "I'd like to ask our congressmen here with us if they can file a bill to make rice hoarding and profiteering economic sabotage, with disaster as aggravating circumstance," she said. She also asked the Filipino legislators to initiate a bill imposing a "maximum price of rice" when there is a state of calamity. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080623-144234/Arroyo-seeks-bills-regulating-rice-supply-during-disasters Monday, June 23, 2008 (Bloomberg) -- India, the world's second-biggest producer of wheat and rice, may consider easing a ban on exports of the grains as early as September after the nation harvests record crops, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said. Wheat production in the South Asian nation may reach 78 million metric tons in the year to June 30, exceeding the 76.8 million tons estimated in February, the minister told reporters in New Delhi today. Rice production may reach 95.7 million tons, the farm ministry said April 22. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government banned rice exports in April and wheat shipments in 2006 to safeguard supplies and slow food-price escalation. The government has bought 22.2 million tons of wheat from farmers and may sell the grain in the open market to cool prices, Pawar said. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aN2DYz3O570U&refer=india Monday, June 23, 2008 MANILA, Philippines (Philippine Daily Inquirer) -- Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap has directed the National Food Authority (NFA) to immediately double its rice distribution in areas hardest hit by typhoon "Frank." In a statement Monday, Yap said these areas include Iloilo, Cebu and certain provinces in the Bicol region and Mindanao, where heavy rains have caused neck-deep floodwaters, isolated families and forced thousand others to flee their homes. The agriculture chief said he had instructed the NFA to work "double time" and have the round-the-clock operations to source rice from neighboring provinces and deliver these immediately to typhoon-battered areas to ensure a steady supply of the staple, especially for the poor and calamity-stricken residents. Because of its sufficient inventories arising from the bumper summer harvests and rice imports, the NFA can engage in a "selective bombardment" of rice stocks anywhere at any given time, to stabilize prices and ensure a steady supply. http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/view.php?db=1&article=20080623-144320 Monday, June 23, 2008 (NaturalNews) The rice bran ingredient manufacturer NutraCea has entered an agreement with HerbalScience Singapore to create two joint ventures to expand research, development and marketing of products based on stabilized rice bran. The two companies are forming a third company, Rice Science, to develop stabilized rice bran extracts for use as a nutraceutical ingredient in foods and beverages. Rice Science will be 80 percent owned by NutraCea. http://www.naturalnews.com/023487.html Sunday, June 22, 2008 BANGKOK, June 18 (Reuters) - The price of Thai 100 percent B grade white rice RI-THWHB-P1 fell 3 percent on Wednesday from last week, a further decline from April's record highs, exporters said. The median price quoted by Bangkok traders was $795 per tonne, down from last week's $820 per tonne, due to thin demand. At its peak on April 24, the benchmark grade from the world's biggest exporter was quoted at $1,080 per tonne. http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINBKK4831220080618 Wednesday, June 18, 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Port-au-Prince, Haiti — Port-au-Prince, Haiti — Georges Jean Wesner gets up at 4 a.m. each day to walk two hours to a charity food kitchen where he fills two small pails with rice and beans, the only food his six children have gotten for weeks. "I'm 52 years old, I have lots of energy and I want to work," said Wesner, a strain of desperation in his voice. "But I can't work because there is no work. Food is so expensive now we can't even buy it." The food crisis that has triggered protests and violence around the world in the past few months has devastated impoverished Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/06/16/haiti_food_crisis.html Tuesday, June 17, 2008 (Bloomberg) -- India, the world's biggest rice producer after China, will review a ban on export of the grain only after assessing the crop prospects for next year, Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government banned exports in April to safeguard supplies and slow food-price inflation after rice prices reached a record. Farmers have begun sowing paddy after monsoon rains covered most parts of the nation almost a month ahead of schedule. The monsoon accounts for four-fifths of India's annual rainfall and a normal season may lift output of crops including rice and oilseeds and help cool seven-year high inflation. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=ar_Pyv_EaQpg&refer=india Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Viet Nam News: Nguyen Tri Ngoc, Director General of the Department of Culture spoke to the Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam newspaper (Vietnam Economic Times) about how the country plans to ensure supplies. http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01COM170608 Tuesday, June 17, 2008 KYUNG GWIN, Myanmar (Associated Press) — Farmer Zaw Naing was puzzled as he stared at the brand new, unassembled tilling machine _ equipment not seen in most of Myanmar's rice belt before the deadly cyclone. Thousands of the tillers, donated by international and private aid donors, have been brought in to replace the water buffalo that once plowed the rice paddies but were killed by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3. The plan is for farmers in the devastated Irrawaddy delta to rebuild their livelihoods and begin producing the rice that feeds this impoverished country. But time is running out. http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jun16/0,4670,Myanmar,00.html Monday, June 16, 2008 World Radio Switzerland: Soaring prices for foodstuffs such as rice, corn and wheat, have dominated the headlines in recent weeks. The price of rice, for example, a staple in the diets of nearly half the world’s population, has doubled on international markets. Besides the immediate humanitarian needs, the international community is having to rethink its development priorities to help farmers in developing countries meet the world‘s growing food demand. WRS’s Vincent Landon has been in Laos where 85 per cent of the population are reckoned to be subsistence rice farmers and has this report. http://www.worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switzerland/rice-farmers-battle-to-sustain-yields.shtml?10998 Monday, June 16, 2008 Manila Times: Ifugao: Aside from so-called heirloom rice, tourists will now also find dojo or weather loach in the paddies of the world-famous rice terraces of Ifugao province. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and Gov. Teddy Baguilat of Ifugao on Saturday released a total of 20,000 dojo fingerlings into the rice terraces in Banaue town. Baguilat said dojo is a delicacy in China, Japan and South Korea. He added that the provincial government is helping farmers obtain the Haggiyo label for the weather loach. The Haggiyo label is the quality seal of the province. At present, four products bear the label: natural taro products such as cookies, biscuits and polvoron; smoked tilapia; tinawon rice; and Terraces Brew, a mixture of Arabica and Robusta coffee beans produced locally. With the introduction of dojo, Baguilat said, local farmers will tend and protect the Ifugao terraces more. http://www.yehey.com/news/Article.aspx?id=217584 Sunday, June 15, 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer: Manila - The Department of Agriculture has committed to allocate P1.16 billion over the next two years for agricultural research and development. This commitment forms part of the Rice Self-Sufficiency Plan 2009-2010, which aims to increase the country's rice output to 19.8 million metric tons by 2010. At least P30 billion will be needed to fully implement the programs detailed under the plan..."We're now paying the price for decades of neglect of agricultural research," IRRI director general Robert Zeigler had said. IRRI added that the current surge in the prices of the staple is set against a background of "ever increasing population sizes and stagnating yield growth." http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view/20080615-142869/DA-commits-P116B-for-agri-research Sunday, June 15, 2008 Philippine Star via Yahoo: Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said the Philippines will continue to negotiate for additional rice stocks from other countries, refuting claims the country is depending on Vietnam alone for rice. He clarified that during the government-to-government negotiations held Friday at the Board of Investments (BOI) in Makati, it was only Vietnam which made the initial offer. A total of eight nations were invited by the Philippines to suppy the country with rice. While only Vietnam submitted an offer, Yap said the government is still studying and hoping to improve the terms of the offer in further negotiations. He noted that the assurance of the Thai government that it would supply the Philippines is still "good." http://beta.ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20080615/tbs-rice-countries-yap-0ec9746.html Sunday, June 15, 2008 Landline (Australia): Riots in recent weeks have focused international attention on the shortages and skyrocketing prices that have created a global food crisis. The United Nations wants major agricultural producers to re-double efforts to increase food supplies over the next two decades. And Australian researchers are at the forefront of that work. Dr. Beth Woods, International Rice Research Institute: Well, basically, we've been eating more than we've been producing for quite a few years now and we've got to the point where the supplies, the stores of world food staples have been depleted and we're now in a just-in-time supply-demand situation. http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s2274290.htm Sunday, June 15, 2008 Asian Tribune: As information reveals of permanent damage to rice production in Burma, international aid agencies expressed their concerns that that there could be shortages of food in the cyclone-hit country in the years to come. On the contrary, Burma has enough rice to feed its people, National Planning Minister Soe Tha of the ruling junta said on 10 June, 2008, accusing foreign aid agencies of miscalculating the devastation in the Irrawaddy delta or Burma’s rice bowl. In remarks reported by official media, National Planning Minister Soe Tha rejected warnings that Burma's food security could be "jeopardized" if delta farmers cannot plant a new rice crop by the end of July. http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/11788 Sunday, June 15, 2008 The Star Online (Malaysia): Countries should make agriculture a political priority. They should also re-look the biofuel trend as cereals should not be used to feed machines but people...The Thai Rice Exporters Association president said hoarding and panic buying could lead to a periodic price increase but it could also mean lower demand. But it’s not all bad news. International Rice Research Institute development director Duncan Macintosh said new hybrids for unfavourable environments had been successfully tested, with vast improvement in biotech for breeding efficiency. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/15/focus/21558823&sec=focus Sunday, June 15, 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer: The Department of Agriculture is set to infuse six to eight million 50-kilogram bags of rice monthly in the domestic market during the lean months to stabilize the prices of commercial grains at P35 a kilo to P37 a kilo. Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said the National Food Authority was ready to flood the market with 300,000 metric tons of rice this June, and would continue injecting this volume for the next three to four months for the benefit of poor consumers. NFA’s plan of massive injection of stocks will complement a renewed commitment by rice millers belonging to the Philippine Confederation of Grains Associations (Philcongrains) to saturate the domestic market with commercial rice priced between P35 and P37. http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/view.php?db=1&article=20080614-142591 Saturday, June 14, 2008 Manila Standard via Yehey: The government has ordered the release of more than a third of its rice stockpile to flood the market and curb prices that have gained 39 percent in the past year. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap approved the release of 300,000 metric tons of rice, National Food Authority spokesman Rex Estoperez said yesterday, without giving a timeframe. He wants to flood the market to bring down prices, he said. In the face of the rising prices of food and fuel, inflation has jumped to the highest in more than nine years, pushing the administration of President Arroyo to boost spending to help the poor cope. http://www.yehey.com/news/Article.aspx?id=217570 Saturday, June 14, 2008 Bangkok Post: Another 288 tonnes of paddy from government warehouses have gone missing, according to Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan. The missing paddy comes on top of 13,000 tonnes of milled rice estimated to be missing from the 2.1 million tonnes of official stockpiles. Mr Mingkwan acknowledged yesterday that high rice prices had led to increased theft from government warehouses and fraud by millers seeking to turn rapid profits. Paddy prices have averaged around 11,000 baht per tonne this year, compared with 5,000 to 6,000 baht last year. http://www.bangkokpost.com/140608_Business/14Jun2008_biz24.php Saturday, June 14, 2008 Bernama: The Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry is confident that the rice supply crisis can be overcome with the implementation of the National Rice Production Enhancement Plan. Its minister Mustapa Mohamed said the plan would enable the government to take short-term and long-term measures to increase rice production throughout the country. "Since early this year, the price of food like rice, wheat and corn in the global market has increased suddenly, due to the fuel price hike, climate change and natural disasters like droughts, floods and earthquakes, among the factors. "World rice production had only increased by one percent in 2007, which was 650 million tonnes compared to the population increase of 1.5 percent. The rising demand for rice has resulted in stiff competition in getting supplies, causing the major producers like India, Vietnam and Cambodia to stop exporting rice." http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=4747 Saturday, June 14, 2008 M&C: Singapore - Research giant Bayer has opened a lab aiming to create higher-yielding varieties of rice to help Asian countries cope with shortage and skyrocketing prices. The 10-million-Singapore-dollar (7.4-million-US-dollar) facility will focus on creating strains that are 30 per cent more productive than current varieties and disease resistant, said spokesman Damien Plan. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1411174.php/Research_giant_Bayer_to_create_higher-yielding_rice_varieties Saturday, June 14, 2008 Reuters: The monsoon season, a lifeline of India's trillion-dollar economy, has progressed well, cheering farmers hoping for a good rice crop while giving the government an opportunity to ease restrictions on exports. Farmers sow rice, soybean and groundnut in June during the monsoon, which lasts until September. The monsoon usually envelopes the entire country by July and provides the main source of water for agriculture that contributes about 17 percent to India's gross domestic product. "News that monsoon is making good progress will help farmers sow more," said Anil K. Mittal, chairman and managing director of KRBL Ltd, a leading rice exporter. http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-34048320080613 Friday, June 13, 2008 Economic Times: Bangkok - Myanmar's farmers urgently need one million gallons (4.5 million litres) of diesel fuel to plough their rice paddies and help feed cyclone victims in coming months, the United Nations said on Friday. Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of the UN Asian economic body ESCAP, called on neighbouring countries, donors and oil suppliers to help as the rising price of oil affects fuel supplies to the impoverished nation. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Diesel_urgently_needed_for_Myanmar_farmers_to_plant_rice_UN/articleshow/3126370.cms Friday, June 13, 2008 World Tribune: The military officers who have run the Burmese (Myanmar) economy for the past half century has little to show for their efforts. Endowed with vast raw materials and agricultural resources — the latter made Burma in colonial times the world’s No. 1 rice exporter — the economy has fallen to almost subsistence levels. The effects of Cyclone Nargis in early May have not only added new misery for the country’s 50 million people but have negated rice exports needed by neighboring countries and contributing to the global food crisis. The storm hit hardest in Burma’s main rice-growing region in the isolated Irrawaddy Delta, where some 2 million people were driven from their homes and farmland. http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/ea_burma0239_06_13.asp Friday, June 13, 2008 Xinhua: The Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said recently that it seeks to deepen collaboration with China to help developing nations boost rice production. "Given the current world rice situation, with high prices and an urgent need to boost productivity, the IRRI-China relationship will only become more important in the coming years," said IRRI Director General Robert Zeigler in an e-mail interview with Xinhua. IRRI has just received one of China's most prestigious scientific awards, the international science and technology cooperation award, for its contribution to accelerate China's rice science development by imparting rice technologies to China and training Chinese scientists. IRRI is the first international organization to receive the award, which has been only granted to foreign individuals in the past. Zeigler said the China-IRRI partnership will continue to grow from strength to strength, with China's experience and funding support becoming more important to developing nations faced with a rice supply shortage. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/13/content_8360979.htm Friday, June 13, 2008 USA Today via Associated Press: Tokyo — First, the commotion was about high-tech swimsuits and the latest Speedo. Now, as the Olympics approach, it's about the shoes. Japanese marathoner Mizuki Noguchi won the Olympic gold medal four years ago in Athens. She credits her victory to a rigorous training regimen, single-minded dedication and a staple that has less to do with track and field and more to do with agriculture: rice. The state-of-the-art track shoes derive their superior absorption and traction not from the latest combination of fabrics and synthetics but from the lowly husk of rice. With the Summer Games less than two months away, she and the rest of Japan's marathon squad are ready to turn their rice-clad feet loose on Beijing. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2008-06-13-3745623419_x.htm Friday, June 13, 2008 Jakarta Post: At the recent UN food conference in Rome, there was much talk about biofuels, the need to increase food production, reducing tariffs, the increase of food aid, countering the spiraling price of oil -- not to mention the inevitable political squabbling. But there is a glaringly obvious way in which many poor countries could increase their food supply overnight simply by not throwing a large amount of their food away. A huge proportion of the world's poor rely on white rice. In some countries, the word to "eat" means "to eat rice". Huge amounts of land and labor, especially in Asia, are devoted to its production. Yet by eating brown rice instead of processed white rice they could dramatically increase their nutritional and fiber intake as well as reducing the production time and cost in refining brown rice. http://old.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20080613.F05&irec=4 Friday, June 13, 2008 Manila Bulletin: The Senate has passed more than 30 measures, including eight which have been outlined by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Consultative Council (LEDAC) as priority bills, Senate President Manuel B. Villar Jr. said yesterday just before its adjournment sine die. Bills passed by the Senate included: the resolution concurring in the ratification of the Headquarters Agreement between RP and the International Rice Research Institute. http://www.mb.com.ph/MAIN20080612127080.html Thursday, June 12, 2008 The Hindu: Beijing - The last bastion of China’s famous “iron rice bowl” system of lifetime employment — the civil service — has been breached. State media announced that the first batch of six government workers hired under a new system designed to eventually transform the civil service into an incentive-oriented, performance-driven career, will soon begin work in the Pudong special economic zone of Shanghai. For decades, China’s Communist system and the “tie guofan” or iron rice-bowl were almost synonymous; the state guarantying workers cradle-to-grave employment and basic welfare provisions. Though this system gradually began to be dismantled in the 1980s with state-owned enterprises furloughing surplus labour and hiring workers on time-specific contracts, the civil service has thus far remained largely sheltered from the sweeping economic reforms affecting other public sector enterprises. http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/12/stories/2008061254591600.htm Thursday, June 12, 2008 Food Navigator: As food prices and demand continue to dominate global politics, Dr. Achim Dobermann, newly appointed deputy director general for research at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), talked to FoodNavigator about the science and future of rice. Although prices vary on exporter and rice type, IRRI gives monthly exporter figures for Thai rice 5 per cent unbroken as a guide. Between April 2007 and April 2008, the price of this commodity has rise from US$317 per tonne to a staggering $907. "We think that even with the present varieties and with the knowledge and technology of good crop management, we could improve yields by about one to two tons per hectare," said Dr. Dobermann. http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?n=85860 Thursday, June 12, 2008 ABS-CBN: General Santos City, Philippines - Even councilors and government employees want to join the long queues in National Food Authority (NFA) distribution outlets as rice prices continue to jump up in the provinces. Antonio de la Cruz, NFA regional manager, said the middle class in the city have started lining up for cheap rice, competing with the poorest of the poor residents of the city. Mary Tutor, supervising administrative officer of the city government's legislative section, said she and other city employees are requesting the NFA to allot cheap rice for them since they cannot join the queues because they are pinned to their 8-5 jobs. "Employees like us have to be in the office at 8 a.m. We don't have time to fall in line," Tutor said. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=121565 Thursday, June 12, 2008 AFP via Africasia.com: A Nigerian-based regional agricultural research outfit has come up with a new yield-enhancing system of rice production to help the continent battle rising food shortages and prices, an official told AFP. The new system developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and aimed at increasing yields per unit area, is based on the Asian way of paddle-field rice planting. It is to be adapted to conditions in rain-fed wetlands of west Africa. The system could see rice production rise three-fold with food import bills slashed by more than 75 percent and possibly turn some of the countries into net rice exporters in the long term, according to Oluwaritimi Fashola, an agronomist with IITA. http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa&item=080612123304.2z1tx3n0.php Thursday, June 12, 2008 Western Farm Press: “We’re also urging countries to remove barriers to advanced crops developed through biotechnology. These crops are safe, they’re resistant to drought and disease, and they hold the promise of producing more food for more people.” Surprisingly, those words aren’t from one of the numerous scientists or humanitarians who have endorsed the continued expansion of biotechnology as a means for boosting world food production — they’re from none other than anti-science poster child George W. Bush. In an address on skyrocketing food prices and the potential for worldwide shortages, the president also called on Congress to increase funding for U.S. aid programs and for agricultural development programs to help farmers in developing nations, urged governments in G8 nations to make similar commitments and to lift restrictions on agricultural exports, and urged the completion of the Doha agreement to reduce and eliminate tariffs, along with market-distorting subsidies for agricultural goods. “We’re sending a clear message to the world — that America will lead the fight against hunger for years to come,” Mr. Bush said. http://westernfarmpress.com/news/brandon-column-0612/ Thursday, June 12, 2008 Economic Times: The government has raised the minimum support price (MSP) or the price it pays local rice paddy farmers for their grain to Rs 850 per 100 kg from Rs 745 last year, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters on Thursday. He said this was an ad-hoc price fixed by the federal government after various state governments had given conflicting recommendations on the price to be paid to farmers. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Agriculture/Govt_raises_MSP_for_rice_paddy_to_Rs_850_a_quintal/articleshow/3123063.cms Thursday, June 12, 2008 The Irrawaddy: High-quality rice has nearly doubled in price in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, according to merchants and businessmen at the Bayintnaung Wholesale Centre, Burma’s largest commodity wholesaler, in western Rangoon. A representative from Champion rice warehouses told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Pawsan Mwe, Burma’s highest quality long-grain rice, had shot up in price since the May 2-3 disaster. “We used to sell a 38-kilogram bag of Pawsan Mwe rice for about 23,000 kyat (US $20),” he said. “Since the cyclone, the price has increased to 39,800 kyat ($35).” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article3.php?art_id=12664 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 New York Times: Olympic marathon runners are no less obsessed about shoes than the gal pals in “Sex and the City.” Later this month, Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor of the United States plan to begin testing the latest design from the distance-running equivalent of Manolo Blahnik. Their shoemaker is a Japanese master craftsman whose soles are renowned not for space-age gels or air bladders but for the gripping properties of rice husks. The husks, which are ground and imbedded in the rubber soles of racing flats, are designed to absorb water and to provide up to 10 percent better traction along the 26.2-mile marathon course at the Beijing Olympics in August. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/sports/olympics/11shoes.html?ex=1213848000&en=850315fa3f42f9f8&ei=5070&emc=eta1 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 New Scientist via Waccobb.net: What do a student in New York, a farmer near Mexico City, a family in London and a nurse in Bangkok have in common? Increasing trouble paying their grocery bill. Since 2000, the average price of food around the world has nearly doubled. In the UK, food prices are rising at three times the rate of inflation. In the US, the price of eggs has risen by 40 per cent in the past year alone, while rice in Thailand and tortillas in Mexico have shot up in price, in some places trebling. This year the soaring cost of food has triggered street demonstrations in 30 countries, some of which tipped over into riots..."In 1992 we told an external review panel that we were starting to see slower growth in rice yield," says Bob Zeigler, head of CGIAR's International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. "We said 10 years and $50 million would fix it, that it was critically important." They didn't get the money. http://www.waccobb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=37497 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Reuters: Cyclone-hit Myanmar has enough rice to feed its people, the ruling junta said on Wednesday, accusing foreign aid agencies of presenting a false picture of the devastation in the Irrawaddy delta rice bowl. In remarks reported by official media, National Planning Minister Soe Tha rejected warnings that the former Burma's food security could be "jeopardised" if delta farmers cannot plant a new rice crop by the end of July. "Some organisations were spreading groundless information such as there is or will be a shortage of rice in Myanmar," Soe Tha was quoted as saying at a meeting with international relief agencies on Tuesday. http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSBKK234510._CH_.2400 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Forbes: Much has been said about the developing world's outsize demand for resources such as oil, wheat and rice. Water could well be the most important commodity of them all, but, surprisingly, the way to play it might be through agriculture. http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/06/11/water-fisher-investing-markets-equity-cz_sk_0610markets48.html Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Chinaview.cn: Manila - The Philippines will meet its palay (unhusked rice) production target this year as current yields this summer had already hit the original target of 7.1 million metric tons, the country's agriculture agency said on Wednesday. About 10 percent of total farm lands still have crops yet to be harvested, the agency said in a statement. Some 7.12 million metric tons of palay have been harvested thus far from 1.77 million hectares of palay fields nationwide, or 91 percent of total acreage planted to the grain in the past dry cropping season, Philippine TV GMA News reported, citing Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/11/content_8348874.htm Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Inquirer.net: Manila, Philippines - International donors and financial institutions should increase funding support for agricultural productivity research to address the global food crisis, the government's representative to the United Nations has said. Ambassador Hilario Davide Jr., Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, made the call before a recent Special Meeting on the Food Crisis convened by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Davide batted for increased funding from donor institutions and countries for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). "The call of the hour includes the immediate positive/affirmative response from all concerned, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Internal Fund for Agricultural Development and development partners to the most basic need of the IRRI -- funds for research," Davide said. http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/view.php?db=1&article=20080611-142025 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Chinaview.cn: Lanzhou - Chinese farmers in areas battered by the May 12 earthquake have returned to their fields to harvest grain and sow for the next season. In Zhangjiaheba Village in the northwestern Gansu province, farmers sought a small section of open grounds occupied by tents to thresh wheat and collect the grains for processing at granaries. Wang Rangqin, a 42-year-old farmer, said his father died after being hit by flying rocks in the quake, but he had no time to grieve. The earthquake did little damage to the cropland but buried large quantities of grains the farmers kept in stock under the rubble. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/11/content_8348685.htm Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Delta Farm Press (USA): I talk to more and more farmers who admit they sometimes wish the farm bill could somehow just go away. Not because they don’t deserve a subsidy program, but because they’re sick and tired of the political football that the farm bill has become. Most farmers aren’t netting those lofty futures prices — We hear about the high prices for corn, wheat, rice, cotton and soybeans, but a widening basis and difficulties with forward contracting erode that price. http://deltafarmpress.com/farmbill/robinson-column-0611/ Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Kyodo: Tokyo - Finance ministers from the Group of Eight major nations will examine factors behind the current rise in oil prices to record-high levels and study long-term policy responses to the hikes during their meeting beginning Friday, a senior Finance Ministry official said Wednesday. ''Oil prices have been soaring at a fast pace since the beginning of this year. I expect some countries will start discussions on the role of financial markets'' in the phenomena, the official said on condition of anonymity. Crude oil prices have more than doubled since the start of 2007 and recently soared close to $140 a barrel in New York. Measures on food will include raising productivity and boosting research and development at agricultural bodies such as the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. http://web5.bernama.com/oana/news.open.php?open=1&nid=417618 Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Business Week: Food price increases hurt consumers in poor countries most, but provide a bonanza for investors starved of other rewarding opportunities by Rupert Walker. "The widespread and rapid rise in food price inflation in Asia has caught analysts and policy makers by surprise," writes Peter Morgan, an economist at HSBC, in a report published in the middle of April. It's hard to see why. For several years, pundits, such as the commodity market guru Jim Rogers, have been spelling out the case for buying precious metals as a store of value against a debased US dollar; for base metals because of China's march towards industrialisation; and, for at least the past two years, soft commodities because of supply blockages and a secular shift in demand patterns. Recent price movements and dramatic newspaper headlines certainly seem to have vindicated the commodity bulls. During the last three months, the agricultural staples of wheat, corn, soybeans, rice and oats have hit all-time highs. In the past year, the price of rice has risen by 118%, wheat by 95%, soybeans by 88%, corn by 66% and cotton and oats by just under 50%. http://www.businessweek.com/print/globalbiz/content/jun2008/gb20080611_412415.htm Wednesday, June 11, 2008 IRIN: Jakarta - Indonesia's Java island is so lush with rice paddies it is hard to believe the threat of a shortage could exist here. Yet the island nation of 235 million people has taken drastic steps to avert a crisis amid soaring global prices of the staple crop. In a bid to become self-sufficient in rice production, the government in 2006 launched a programme, Ketahanan Pagan, to plant 10,000 sqkm of additional paddy. Under the scheme, farmers received incentives to expand and improve planting areas, especially in eastern Indonesia...The ability to boost rice production will depend on finding available land on Java, home to half the vast archipelago's population. Success will "really depend on where the government wants to create rice fields", said Mahyuddin Syam, country head of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). "Land outside Java is less fertile and it is not so easy to open up land." For a time in the 1980s, during the Suharto government, large subsidies were provided for farming that enabled Indonesia to become self-sufficient in rice. But a loss of income from oil and gas production made it impossible to maintain those expensive policies. In 2007, Indonesia was one of the top 10 global rice importers, according to the IRRI. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78658 Tuesday, June 10, 2008 SciDevNet: Chinese scientists have developed a new method that dramatically increases the yield of a clean biogas fuel from rice straw. China is the world's largest rice producer and the industry results in 230 million tonnes a year of surplus rice 'straw' — the stem and leaves left behind after harvesting. Farmers often burn the straw, increasing pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. Until now, using the straw to produce ethanol or biogas — a mix of methane and carbon dioxide — by anaerobic digestion with microorganisms has been disappointing. The complex structures of the straw's cellulose and lignin components make it hard for the microorganisms to break them down. Author Li Xiujin, an environmental engineering professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, explains that researchers soak the straws in alkali to kick-start the breakdown process. But that method means recycling chemicals, disposing of waste solutions and heating to a high temperature — involving high facility investment and treatment costs, and a risk of environmental pollution, he says. Rather than soaking the rice straw, Li's team treated it with a small amount of alkaline solution containing six per cent sodium hydroxide. They found that this significantly increased straw biodegradation, and improved biogas output by 64.5 per cent. Li told SciDev.Net that farmers could make 20 yuan (US$3) additional profit from producing biogas by this method, which would encourage its uptake. http://bioenergy.checkbiotech.org/news/2008-06-10/Researchers_boost_yields_of_rice-waste_biofuel/ Tuesday, June 10, 2008 World Socialist Web Site: The current food crisis reflects not only financial events of recent years, but longer-term policies of world imperialism. Instead of allowing for a planned improvement of infrastructure and farming techniques, globalization on a capitalist basis has resulted in a restriction in many parts of the world of farm production. This has been carried out in order to lessen competition and prevent market gluts from harming the profit interests of the major powers...Nor are infrastructure difficulties limited to Africa. In Asia, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) noted reduced research investment, the lack of new irrigation projects, and “inadequate maintenance” of existing irrigation infrastructure as major problems. It added that an “unexploited yield gap of 1-2 tons per hectare currently exists in most farmers’ fields in rice-growing areas of Asia,” citing lack of proper irrigation and fertilizer, pest and disease control, post-harvest storage and transport facilities http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/food-j10.shtml Tuesday, June 10, 2008 New Straits Times: Kuching - One item on Sarawak's wish list for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when he arrives today for a one-day working visit is funds for the rice-growing programme in the state. Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said the money would be for infrastructure and to reward the farmers. Speaking after declaring open the 22nd session of the Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics (Apcas) here yesterday, Dr Chan did not disclose the amount needed. "It is expensive to build roads, canals and and irrigation network and we cannot leave that to farmers or entrepreneurs who want to go into rice-growing," said Dr Chan, also the state's minister for modernisation of agriculture. http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/National/2263187/Article/index_html Tuesday, June 10, 2008 Chinaview.cn: Hanoi - Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development says the country should maintain rice acreage at 3.9 million hectares upwards from now to 2020 to ensure national food security, Vietnam News Agency reported Tuesday. Although Vietnam's paddy rice productivity increased by an average 2.06 percent or 77,000 tons a year in the 1997-2006 period, the country's annual paddy rice output remained at approximately 36 million tons due to shrinking rice-growing areas as a result of the establishment of industrial zones and urban areas nationwide, especially in the Red River and Mekong deltas, its biggest rice baskets. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/10/content_8340989.htm Tuesday, June 10, 2008 New York Times: In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster...United States soybean plantings are running 16 percent behind last year. Rice is tardy in Arkansas, which