10th november,2017 daily global regional local rice e newsletter

Daily Rice E-Newsletter

Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter November 10, 2017

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Ghana: South Korea invests $9 million in rice farming in Central Region Volume 9 | Issuu Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- November 09, 2017 Market report: Grains ASIA RICE-THAI PRICES SUPPORTED BY GOVERNMENT POLICIES; INDIAN RATES EASE South Korea designates more rice for animal feed Cambodia's rice export to China up 59 pct in 10 months U.S. Rice a Permanent Fixture in ASDA Stores throughout the UK WASDE Report Released Brazilian rice to be on offer in Jeddah fair AKP stage protest for demands’ acceptance Customs siezes 360 bags of rice llegedly belonging to Dangote Group Researchers report findings on the effects of fat on stem cells Gold Nanoshells Ferry Chemo Drugs Into Cancer Cells to Spare Rest of Body Admin to rope in more millers to lift paddy FEC approves N5.6bn for erosion control in 6 states Study details massive haul of ancient primate finger, toe bones from China Promoting rice and surgical goods exports to EU Rice basmati, wheat weaken on sufficient stocks position Indian PM to go to Philippines to attend ASEAN, East Asia summits Why Amazon is investing so heavily in voice Papua New Guinea to train farmers on sustainable rice production Stubble burning blamed for Delhi pollution: Why farmers carry out the exercise Central team to assess crop loss Cambodian rice among the world’s best three Eleven Pakistani companies to participate in Jeddah food exhibition Midnight Rambler Brings Back Greatest Hits Alongside New Fall Favorites IRRI team to be deployed to Papua New Guinea to train farmers on sustainable rice production Customs intercepts 365 bags of smuggled rice in 2 trucks in Sokoto Ration shops accused of forcing consumers to buy grocery items Promoting rice and surgical goods exports to EU Cambodian rice among the world’s best three Cambodia beaten by Thailand in heated annual rice contest Not possible to practice traditional farming in India anymore; here is why Thailand’s fragrant Hom Mali rice voted world’s best It’s official:www.ricepluss.com Thai rice is the world’s best / www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com Thailand's fragrant Hom Mali rice voted world's best Contact Online Advertisement : mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com Cell: 0321 369 2874

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Rice News Detail…

Ghana: South Korea invests $9 million in rice farming in Central Region Wednesday, 08 November 2017 - 16:14 (Ecofin Agency) - South Korea has provided Ghana $9 million to boost rice farming in the Central Region. This was announced by Ghana’s minister of agriculture, Owusu Afriyie Akoto (picture). The official explained the choice of the region by its potentials for the large scale production of the cereal, not only for local consumption but for export as well. Let’s recall that 70% of Ghana’s demand for rice is satisfied with imports. Actually, between 2007 and 2015, rice imports in the country soared from $152 million to $1.2 billion. In Ghana, rice farming is practiced mainly on a semi-intensive basis by small farmers in swamps. http://www.ecofinagency.com/agriculture/0811-37709-ghana-south-korea-invests-9-millionin-rice-farming-in-central-region

GIEWS Country Brief: Haiti 09-November-2017 from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 09 Nov 2017 —View Original 2

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter FOOD SECURITY SNAPSHOT  Uncertain prospects for 2017 cereal production 

Cereal imports forecast at high level for 2017/18 marketing year

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Prices for main staples mixed in September and higher than a year earlier

Uncertain prospects for 2017 cereal production Cereal output for 2017 is uncertain. An abnormal distribution of precipitation levels characterized the 2017 spring season, concluded in August, which accounts for 60 percent of the cereal output. This is the fourth consecutive spring season since 2013, where rainfall levels deviate from their long-term average. The 2017 spring season had both excess rains as well as significant dry periods. Maize production for the 2017 spring season is anticipated at 15 percent below its level from the same season a year earlier. Sorghum output during the spring season is estimated at 18 percent below its 2016 level for the season. In September, Hurricane Irma, a category five event, caused excess precipitation in the Nord, Nord-Ouest, Nord-Est departments. According to official assessments, the area affected by excess precipitation for autumn season maize and rice, which is harvested from late November, ranges between 30 and 40 percent of the area sown. FAO is supporting the Government’s efforts in providing inputs, particularly seed and fertilizers, for replanting crops in the most affected areas.

FAO anticipates that 2017 maize and sorghum output may decline by 13 and 17 percent, respectively, compared to 2016. By contrast, 2017 rice output is expected to increase by about 10 percent as the spring crop is estimated at above last year’s level and the autumn crop, impacted

by Hurricane Irma, represents less than 10 percent of the annual output. If output is close to 2016’s levels for the remaining seasons, the aggregate 2017 cereal output is anticipated to reach

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter 430 000 tonnes, about 4 percent below the 2016 levels, but still above the average of the last five years that were significantly affected by the El NiĂąo phenomena.

Cereal imports forecast at high levels for 2017/18 marketing year Cereal import requirements for the 2017/18 marketing year (July/June), which include both commercial imports and food aid, are anticipated at 705 000 tonnes, slightly below their record levels in the previous marketing year, but still well above average. This forecast mainly reflects the moderate declines in maize and wheat imports. Imports of rice, which represent some twothirds of domestic utilization, are also anticipated to remain high during the marketing year. for main staples mixed in September and higher than a year earlier Despite the impact of Hurricane Irma, prices of maize meal in September remained relatively stable, with the notable exception of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where they increased sharply.

Prices of imported rice followed a similar trend, relatively stable in most markets and sharply increasing in the capital. By contrast, prices of beans followed mixed trends, with those of red beans increasing due to a reduced spring harvest and strong demand for seeds. In general, prices for all staples remained above their year-earlier levels reflecting the reduced 2017 spring production and some uncertainties for crops to be harvested during the rest of the year. https://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/giews-country-brief-haiti-09-november-2017

GIEWS Country Brief: Guinea-Bissau 08-November-2017 REPORT from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Published on 08 Nov 2017 —View Original 4

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter FOOD SECURITY SNAPSHOT  Abundant but poorly-distributed rainfall adversely impact cereal crop production 

Cereal imports forecast to increase to offset reduction in total cereal production

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Increased cashew revenue offsets impact higher international rice prices

Poorly-distributed rainfall to adversely impact rice production Harvesting of millet, sorghum and maize was completed in October, while that of rice, the major crop produced in the country, is underway and will be completed by the end of January 2018. Late arrival of rains in May and June delayed plantings, while abundant but poorly-distributed rainfall in July and August affected crop development in the main producing zones of the country’s marshy areas.

Flooding in the shallows of freshwater rice and in mangroves impacted a number of agriculturally important regions, including Bafata, Gabu and Oio. The presence of local grasshoppers, nymphula moths and Fall Armyworms has also been reported throughout the country, but millet, sorghum and other cereal grain production is expected to be similar to, and above, last year’s levels. The aggregate 2017 production is estimated at 210 000 tonnes, about 7 percent lower than last year’s bumper level and 5 percent below the five-year average.

Import requirements to increase to offset slight decrease in production Imports account for over 45 percent of the national cereal requirements in the country, with rice accounting for close to 82 percent of these import requirements, followed by wheat, which accounts for about 15 percent.

In response to growing domestic demand and a slight decline in total production compared to the previous year, import requirements for 2017 are expected to increase by 8 percent compared to 2016, reaching 134 000 tonnes.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Increased cashew revenue offset impact of higher international rice prices The country is the second largest exporter of raw cashew nuts, which accounts for more than 90 percent of its export revenue.

For most poor rural households, cashew nuts are an important source of income and are often bartered for imported rice supplied by cashew traders. Cashew farmers often sell excess rice bartered from cashew nuts on the local markets, earning the income necessary to purchase other goods. In 2017, the Government set the farmgate price of cashew nuts at XOF 1 000 (USD 1.77) per kg, a substantial increase compared to XOF 350 in the previous year. As of early November, 165 000 tonnes of cashew nuts, out of the 175 000 forecasted, were already exported.

Although prices of rice imported from the country’s main trading partners in Asia were higher than their year-earlier levels, the favourable cashew campaign has supported the income of producers and rural populations and improved their access to staple foodstuffs. Nevertheless, the number of households requiring humanitarian assistance increased compared to last year.

According to the “Cadre Harmonisé” analysis conducted in spring 2017, about 32 500 people were estimated to be in Phase 3 “Crisis” and above between June and August 2017, compared to the 25 900 people caseload of the previous year. https://reliefweb.int/report/guinea-bissau/giews-country-brief-guinea-bissau-08-november-2017

Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- November 09, 2017 Nagpur Foodgrain Prices – APMC/Open Market-November 9 Nagpur, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Gram prices reported down in Nagpur Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) on poor demand from local millers amid high moisture content arrival.

Releaseof stock from stockists and weak trend in Madhya Pradesh gram prices also affected sentiment,according to sources.

FOODGRAINS & PULSES GRAM * Desi gram raw reported down in open market here in absence of buyers amid good supply from producing regions.

TUAR

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter * Tuar varieties ruled steady in open market here but demand was poor. * Rice Shriram varieties recovered in open market here on good buying support from local traders and weak arrival from producing belts. * In Akola, Tuar New – 4,000-4,100, Tuar dal (clean) – 5,900-6,100, Udid Mogar (clean) – 7,900-8,400, Moong Mogar (clean) 7,000-7,300, Gram – 4,800-4,900, Gram Super best – 7,300-7,500 * Wheat, other varieties of rice and other foodgrain items moved in a narrow range in scattered deals and settled at last levels in weak trading activity.

Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg FOODGRAINS Available prices Previous close Gram Auction 3,600-4,305 3,620-4,400 Gram Pink Auction n.a.

2,100-2,600 Tuar Auction n.a.

3,550-4,110 Moong Auction n.a.

3,900-4,200 Udid Auction n.a.

4,300-4,500 Masoor Auction n.a.

2,600-2,800 Wheat Mill quality Auction 1,600-1,640 1,600-1,650 Gram Super Best Bold 7,500-8,000 7,500-8,000 Gram Super Best n.a. n.a.

Gram Medium Best 6,600-7,000 6,600-7,000 Gram Dal Medium n.a. n.a Gram Mill Quality 3,800-3,900 3,800-3,900 Desi gram Raw 4,700-4,800 4,750-4,850 Gram Kabuli 12,500-13,200 12,500-13,200 Tuar Fataka Best-New 6,200-6,400 6,200-6,400 Tuar Fataka Medium-New 5,800-6,000 5,800-6,000 Tuar Dal Best Phod-New 5,600-5,800 5,600-5,800 Tuar Dal Medium phod-New 5,000-5,300 5,000-5,300 Tuar Gavarani New 3,950-4,100 3,950-4,100 Tuar Karnataka 4,300-4,600 4,300-4,600 Masoor dal best 5,100-5,400 5,100-5,400 Masoor dal medium 4,700-4,900 4,700-4,900 Masoor n.a. n.a.

Moong Mogar bold (New) 7,000-7,500 7,000-7,500 Moong Mogar Medium 6,300-6,600 6,300-6,600 Moong dal Chilka 5,600-6,200 5,600-6,200 Moong Mill quality n.a. n.a.

Moong Chamki best 7,000-7,500 7,000-7,500

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Udid Mogar best (100 INR/KG) (New) 8,000-8,800 8,000-8,800 Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG) 5,500-7,000 5,500-7,000 Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG) 5,100-6,300 5,100-6,300 Batri dal (100 INR/KG) 5,000-5,500 5,000-5,300 Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg) 2,800-3,000 2,800-3,000 Watana Dal (100 INR/KG) 2,900-3,000 2,900-3,000 Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG) 3,400-3,800 3,400-3,800 Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG) 1,900-2,000 1,900-2,000 Wheat Mill quality (100 INR/KG) 1,750-1,900 1,750-1,90 Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,300 2,100-2,300 Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG) 2,200-2,450 2,200-2,400 Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG) 1,900-2,150 1,900-2,100 Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG) n.a. n.a.

MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG) 3,100-3,600 3,100-3,600 MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG) 2,300-2,700 2,300-2,700 Rice BPT best (100 INR/KG) 3,000-3,500 3,000-3,500 Rice BPT medium (100 INR/KG) 2,800-2,900 2,800-2,900 Rice Luchai (100 INR/KG) 2,200-2,400 2,200-2,400 Rice Swarna best (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,600 2,500-2,600 Rice Swarna medium (100 INR/KG) 2,300-2,400 2,300-2,400 Rice HMT best (100 INR/KG) 3,600-4,000 3,600-4,000 Rice HMT medium (100 INR/KG) 3,250-3,600 3,250-3,600 Rice Shriram best(100 INR/KG) 4,800-5,100 4,700-5,000 Rice Shriram med (100 INR/KG) 4,400-4,600 4,300-4,400 Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG) 10,000-14,000 10,000-14,000 Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG) 5,000-7,500 5,000-7,500 Rice Chinnor best 100 INR/KG) 5,000-5,500 5,000-5,500 Rice Chinnor medium (100 INR/KG) 4,700-5,000 4,700-5,000 Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG) 2,000-2,200 2,000-2,100 Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG) 1,800-2,000 1,700-2,000 WEATHER (NAGPUR) Maximum temp. 32.4 degree Celsius, minimum temp. 15.2 degree Celsius Rainfall : Nil FORECAST: Mainly clear sky. Maximum and minimum temperature would be around and 32 and 15 degree Celsius respectively.

Note: n.a.--not available (For oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, butincluded in market prices) https://in.reuters.com/article/india-gst-tax/india-to-cut-tax-burden-on-several-items-toease-pain-for-small-businesses-idINKBN1DA0WQ

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Market report: Grains EMMA FIELD, The Weekly Times August 16, 2017 5:13am

FOLLOWING a stunning 12-week rally in global wheat values that started in April growers are asking if the higher values will hold or a return to low prices is on the cards.

From the end of April until mid-July, old-season wheat and feed barley have both soared almost $80 a tonne.

Both crops had been in the doldrums — last harvest Australian Premium White delivered to Geelong was $210-$226 a tonne while feed barley was $158-$165. That saw many growers sell their high-value crops, such as canola and legumes, and store wheat and feed barley in the hope prices would lift.

Prices rallied after a lift in Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures, which spiked after news the high protein spring wheat crop in North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Montana is suffering.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Reports from the US say only 34 per cent of that country’s spring wheat crop is rated good to excellent.

The Minneapolis Grain Exchange, which trades in hard red spring wheat, went into overdrive and early last month hit its highest level since 2013. CBOT near wheat futures jumped 15 per cent, or $36 a tonne, in the first week of July to hit US555c a bushell, but has since cooled to about 500c/bu or $234/tonne.

The upswing in CBOT futures pushed up old-season wheat values, along with news that parts of the Australian cropping belt are very dry. From lows in early April, old-crop Australian Standard White delivered to Geelong jumped almost $77 a tonne, or 38 per cent, to $278, while APW, which was worth $211 at the end of April, has soared to $280. Feed barley is up 44 per cent from about $160 in April to be about $230-$240.

Analysts say the new-season rally looks dubious and is based on the poor condition of the hard red spring wheat crop, which is a relatively small part of the US crop and minuscule in the global context.

Pearsons Group grain trader Reagan Stroud says the new crop prices will be dictated by coming seasonal conditions. He is surprised by the strength of the CBOT rally. “In the grand scheme of things the spring wheat crop shouldn’t dictate the world price,” he says.

Chicago analyst David Hightower warns the CBOT rally is an overreaction unless corn and soybeans, which have both been trading at low levels, find some support. “The rally in CBOT wheat is clearly overdone and the highs are probably in,” he says.

He says the huge global stockpile of wheat from last year’s record production is likely to limit the upside in wheat values. “This is not the year to roll the dice hoping for significantly higher prices because the risk of sharp declines from current levels is pretty high.”

Profarmer chief analyst Hannah Janson says the global wheat stocks-to-use ratio is usually a good indicator of how reactive the global market will be to any production news. “It’s about looking at what you have got in stock versus how much you need to feed the world, and know what percentage you have as a buffer,” she says.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Currently that buffer is about 35.5 per cent, which is a long way from the 26 per cent in 2012 when there was a global price shock, or the 20.8 per cent levels in 2007 following Russian and Australian droughts.

Janson says old and new crop physical prices in Australia are dependent on three aspects — CBOT values (which makes up about 70 per cent of the price), the foreign exchange rate and basis (the difference between the physical and futures price).

She says the basis, which was up because of the dry start to the season in critical production areas such as Western Australia, and the CBOT values are driving the current rally.

“The (current) rally is reflective of new crop production potential, and if that concern turns out to be unfounded we will see prices ease domestically and offshore,” she says.

He suspects more grain has been sold domestically than the trade has estimated.

“There’s a lot of wheat which gets chewed up without us knowing about it, but the trade still needs it, as the export (trade) is still on,” he says.“I think the numbers will stay firm as we go.” http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/agribusiness/decisionag/market-report-grains/newsstory/f682a2cb466a963a0ad2076e50639680

ASIA RICE-THAI PRICES SUPPORTED BY GOVERNMENT POLICIES; INDIAN RATES EASE 11/9/2017

By Koustav Samanta BENGALURU, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Rice prices in Thailand were little changed this week amid government initiatives aimed at boosting the domestic market, while rates for the staple grain in India fell due to sluggish demand and fresh supplies.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Thailand's benchmark 5-percent broken rice <RI-THBKN5-P1> was quoted at $375-$387 a tonne, free-on-board (FOB) Bangkok, compared with $382-$386 a tonne last week.

The country's Ministry of Commerce has introduced policies including payments of 1,500 baht, or about $45 per tonne, to farmers to encourage them to store rice in warehouses to avoid oversupply.

Some rice traders welcomed the move, while others were sceptical about its success.

"In the past, there wasn't enough space in these warehouses," said one Bangkok-based rice trader.

Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture has been trying to promote Thai rice by joining forces with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in China to sell the grain via the e-commerce giant's online platform.

But, despite all the efforts, demand remains relatively low, traders said.

"I think the government's efforts are good because it opens up new markets for Thai rice. However, the quantity will probably not be much because these are mainly new buyers," said another Bangkok-based rice trader.

Top exporter India's 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices <RI-INBKN5-P1> eased by $3 to $397-$400 per tonne on sluggish demand and as supplies from a new season crop started in southern India.

"African buyers are on the sidelines," said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. India mainly exports non-basmati rice to African countries.

Bangladesh, which has become a major importer this year after floods hit its crops, has signed a deal with India's PEC

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter to import 100,000 tonnes of parboiled rice at $455 a tonne, including cost, insurance and freight (CIF) liner out basis, officials at the state grains buyer said.

Despite deals with several rice exporting countries including Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, Bangladesh is still battling to build its reserves. Rice at government warehouses stood at 411,000 tonnes, well below the normal level of around 1 million tonnes.The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts Bangladesh's rain-fed rice output at 13.1 million tonnes, about 350,000 tonnes less than last year's yield.

The rain-fed Aman variety of rice, which grows typically during the July-September monsoon season and is currently being harvested, accounts for about 40 percent of the country's total production.Meanwhile, the rice market in Vietnam remained quiet amid high price levels, traders said, quoting an unchanged $405 per tonne for 5-percent broken rice <RI-VNBKN5-P1>, FOB Saigon.

"We barely see any demand. And, we are also running out of stocks at the end of the season," a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said.

Floods caused by Typhoon Damrey swamped over 9,300 hectares (22,980 acres) of rice in the central provinces, Vietnam's disaster prevention agency said.

However, Damrey, the country's deadliest storm this year, did not hit the major rice bowl in the Mekong Delta.

(Reporting by Suphanida Thakral in Bangkok, Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Mi Nguyen in Hanoi and Ruma Paul in Dhaka; Additional reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter) http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/asia-rice-thai-prices-supported-bygovernment-policies-indian-rates-ease

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter South Korea designates more rice for animal feed

November 9, 2017 - by Arvin Donley

Government tries to reduce ending stocks as human rice consumption declines.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Rice ending stocks in South Korea continue to fall as the government has begun allowing the use of rice for consumption in animal feed, according to a Nov. 6 Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report from the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The report said rice ending stocks in South Korea are projected to decrease to 1.7 million tonnes and 1.2 million tonnes in marketing years 2016-17 and 2017-18, respectively.

To reduce high ending stocks, the South Korean government released rice to be used as feed for the first time in 2015-16, making 101,000 tonnes of brown rice available for feed use. In 201617, 480,000 tonnes of brown rice was released for feed use and the government recently published a plan to release 750,000 tonnes in 2017-18.

The move to designate more rice for feed use comes as rice for human consumption continues to decline in South Korea. The report noted that annual per capita table rice consumption reached its peak at 136.4 kg in 1970 and has gradually declined to 61.4 kg in 2015-16, according to preliminary government statistics.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter “Per capita table rice consumption continues declining as eating habits change due to rising incomes and the growing popularity of Western foods,” the report said.

Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) recently released its 2017 rice production estimate of 3.96 million tonnes, which is down 5.8% from the previous year due to smaller production area and lower yield.

“Rice area has continued to decrease annually – with decreases ranging from 5,000 hectares to 38,000 hectares every year since 2001,” the report said. http://www.worldgrain.com/articles/news_home/World_Grain_News/2017/11/South_Korea_designates_more _ri.aspx?ID=%7BF8931CC9-7E1D-4C99-A091-CD959AE86A1C%7D

Cambodia's rice export to China up 59 pct in 10 months Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-09 14:35:12|Editor: Mengjie

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia had exported 142,768 tons of milled rice to China in the first 10 months of 2017, a 59-percent rise over the same period last year, according to the latest report on Thursday.

The report released by the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export showed that China is the top buyer of Cambodian rice, followed by France and Poland.

Export to China accounted for 29 percent of the country's total rice export, the report said, noting that the total export was 492,115 tons during the January-October period this year, up 17 percent over the same period last year.

The Southeast Asian nation is expected to export 200,000 tons and 300,000 tons to China in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Cambodia produces more than 9 million tons of paddy rice a year. With this amount, it has over 3 million tons of milled rice for annual export.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-11/09/c_136739815.htm

U.S. Rice a Permanent Fixture in ASDA Stores throughout the UK

By Sarah Moran

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

LONDON, ENGLAND -- Following two successful promotions last year, ASDA, the UK's second largest retailer, has added U.S. long grain rice to its permanent inventory.Displays in 45 key ASDA stores in October and November of this year featured new 5-kg red bags of Peacock brand U.S. rice leading to a sales increase of 42 percent.

"We are delighted that following the success of the previous promotions, ASDA has decided to list Peacock permanently," said Hartwig Schmidt, USA Rice regional director. "This breakthrough shows that persistence has paid off for U.S. rice and will be rewarded with increased awareness and sales."

ASDA Stores Limited is a subsidiary of the American retail corporate giant Walmart, and is the secondlargest supermarket chain in Britain by market share.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter WASDE Report Released WASHINGTON, DC -- Total 2017/18 U.S. rice supplies are increased marginally this month to 248.9 million cwt as higher projected imports (primarily Thai fragrant rice) offset slightly lower production. In the November Crop Production report, NASS reduced the 2017/18 U.S. crop size by 200,000 cwt to 178.4 million on lower forecast yield. This is 20 percent less than last year and would be the lowest U.S. rice production since 1996/97. Projected U.S. rice exports are reduced by 2 million cwt to 104 million, down 1 million each for both long- and medium- and short- grain rice to 74 and 30 million cwt, respectively. Exports for both classes are projected lower than last year due to reduced exportable supplies, greater competition, and higher U.S. prices. Projected 2017/18 ending stocks are increased 2.1 million cwt to 29.9 million, still the lowest all rice ending stocks since 2007/08. The projected 2017/18 season-average farm price for all rice is reduced 20 cents at both ends of the range to $12.50 to $13.50 per cwt based on monthly NASS prices reported to date and price expectations for the rest of the marketing year. The midpoint of $13.00 per cwt is $2.60 above the previous year.

Global 2017/18 rice supplies are decreased to 619.3 million tons, primarily on a smaller crop projected for India. World 2017/18 consumption is down fractionally to 480.4 million tons. Global 2017/18 trade is raised to 44.9 million tons on higher exports by Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and China more than offsetting reductions for India, Pakistan, and the United States. Trade is still below the 2016/17 record of 45.3 million tons. World ending stocks are

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter lowered this month to 138.9 million tons for 2017/18, still higher than last year and at the highest level since 2000/01.

Go here to read the full report.

Brazilian rice to be on offer in Jeddah fair 08/11/2017 - 07:00hs Companies Arrozeira Pelotas, Camil Alimentos, Josapar and Nelson Wendt will appear at the stand of Brazilian Rice at Foodex Saudi, an important food products trade show in Saudi Arabia.

André Barros* andre.barros@anba.com.br São Paulo – Four Brazilian rice producers will take part in the Foodex Saudi, a food products trade show in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. From Sunday (12) to Wednesday (15), companies Arrozeira Pelotas, Camil Alimentos, Josapar and Nelson Wendt will exhibit their products to the Saudis and other importers of the region at the stand of Brazilian Rice, a sector project carried on by a partnership between the Brazilian Rice Industry Association (ABIARROZ) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil).

It will be the first Brazilian participation in the fair, which will gather this year 520 brands from 214 exhibitors from 32 countries. According to the event’s organization, imports of food and beverages by Saudi Arabia should climb from the current USD 21 billion to USD 34 billion in 2020.

“It’s not a very large fair, if compared to this type of events in Latin America, but it’s very focused on food products and attracts a large number of rice producers, especially from India, Pakistan, Thailand and United States,” says Diogo Thomé, trade promotion executive of the Brazilian Rice project.

The executive came to Foodex Saudi last year in a survey mission to plan this year’s actions.

According to him, the Saudis consume a lot of Indian rice, but there’s room for Brazilian parboiled rice. “It’s a market that imports a lot of rice. Besides India, the United States are a large supplier and it’s in this spot that we can compete,” he says.

Saudi Arabia is one of the target markets of the Brazilian Rice project – and it will remain this way, since it kept its status in the renewal of the partnership this year. From January to October of last year, the Brazilian rice sector exported 5,000 tons of rice to the Saudis, a volume that

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter climbed to 7,000 tons in the same period this year. Counting on the results of the fair, the expectation is to reach 10,000 tons exported in 2018’s first ten months, according to the executive.

Thomé takes off to Jeddah on Friday’s (10) early hours and will work on the assembly of the Brazilian stand the next day. Since it’s the first time that Brazil takes part in the trade show, Thomé refrained from a forecast on deals. In addition to exhibiting products, the Brazilian stand will hold a cooking and tasting marketing action to display the different features of the Brazilian rice. *Translated by Sérgio Kakitani http://www2.anba.com.br/noticia/21876797/business-opportunities/brazilian-rice-to-be-on-offerin-jeddah-fair/

AKP stage protest for demands’ acceptance November 09, 2017 SANGLA HILL- The workers of Anjuman-e-Kashtkaran Punjab (AKP) staged a protestin front of ocal press club for acceptance of their demands.The protesting workers were led

by AKP General Secretary Ch Hassan Javaid Chattha. They were holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans in favour of their demands. They chanted slogans against the authorities concerned for neglecting the woes being faced by the farmer community.

Addressing the participants, Ch Hassan Javaid Chattha said that rice export contributed about $2 billion per annum to the national exchequer. Due to discriminatory treatment with paddy growers and exporters, he said, Indian and Thai exporters are capturing the international market of rice despite the fact Pakistan produces the finest quality of rice. He urged the government to fix the support price of Irri rice at Rs1,900 per 40kg and of Basmati rice at Rs4,000 per 40kg.

The support price of cottonseed (Phutti) should be fixed at Rs6,000 per 40kg, he added. “If support price of cottonseed is not increased, growers would obviously shift to other crops for yielding better dividends of their blood and toil,” he noted. Mr Chattha highlighted the importance of textile sector, saying it comprises 60 percent of country’s exports and 50 percent contribution to the national exchequer.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter He vowed to continue protest until acceptance of farmers’ demands. He also warned to stage country-wide protests if demands of farmers are not met. He also criticised hike in POL prices. Other AKP office-bearers were also present on the occasion. http://nation.com.pk/09-Nov-2017/akp-stage-protest-for-demands-acceptance

Customs siezes 360 bags of rice llegedly belonging to Dangote Group

November 9, 2017 By Ibukun Josephine Bankole

360 bags of rice allegedly belonging to Dangote Group intercepted by Customs.

The Controller of Nigeria Customs Service in Sokoto/Kebbi/Zamfara Area Command, Mr Nasiru Ahmad, said it had seized two trucks with 365 bags of foreign rice.Represented by the command’s Spokesman, Mr Magaji Mailafiya, Ahmad disclosed on Thursday that the confiscations were made last week Thursday and Friday along Illela-Sokoto road.

According to Ahmad the intercepted trucks are owned by Dangote Group, while the duty paid value of the 50kg bags of rice was N8.7m.

He said the imported rice were among the items banned from entering the nation through land borders.

He also added that that the action breached the Federal Government’s fiscal policy on rice importation.

Customs seize three containers of counterfeit drugs, vehicles, others He said that the prohibited rice were siezed as a result of the vigilance of his men on border patrol.“The contraband has a Duty Paid Value of N8, 748,320 and the two suspected importers along with the contraband items were arrested.“They are in our custody and will soon be prosecuted accordingly,” Ahmad said.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

He called on Nigerians to assist the government’s efforts on rice cultivation and other agriculture development initiatives by setting up processing industries geared toward viable economic development in the country.He enjoined individuals, traditional and community leaders as well as groups to assist government to achieve “smuggle-free” society.Ahmad said smuggling is “cripplers of nation economy which deterred employments, revenue and nation’s security progress”. https://www.naijanews.com/news/29848-customs-siezes-360-bags-rice-allegedly-belongingdangote-group

Researchers report findings on the effects of fat on stem cells November 9, 2017 by Rob Cahill

From left, Ilya Levental, Joseph Lorent, Allison Skinkle and Kandice Levental at the Laboratory of Membrane Biology at UTHealth’s McGovern Medical School. Skinkle, a Rice senior, began working in the lab as a freshman. Credit: Maricruz Kwon/UTHealth You really are what you eat—especially when it comes to fats, according to a study this week in the journal Science Advances that was co-authored by Rice University undergraduate Allison

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

Skinkle and colleagues at the Laboratory of Membrane Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston's McGovern Medical School.The study examined how the type of fat a person consumes may determine whether stem cells are converted into bone cells or fat cells. It's the third peer-reviewed journal article Skinkle has co-authored since joining the lab as a freshman and working there for two additional years as part of Rice's Sustaining Excellence in Research (SER) Scholars Program.

"The lab is kind of broad, but overall we like to study the way that properties of membranes affect physiology or cell function," Skinkle said. "It's multidisciplinary. We have physicists, chemists and engineersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a little bit of everything."

The lab is jointly run by Kandice Levental and Ilya Levental, the paper's lead and senior authors, respectively, who are assistant professors in the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology at the McGovern School.

In this new study, the team examined what happens when dietary fats are applied to mesenchymal stem cells, a common type of adult stem cell produced in bone marrow that can grow into many types of connective tissue, including fat, skin, bone and cartilage. The researchers found that dietary fats could remodel cell membranes and affect how stem cells transform into mature tissue cells.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter "The fats that we consume, such as cholesterol, unsaturated fats and fish oil, become robustly incorporated into the membrane of our cells and dramatically change the composition and function of those membranes," said Ilya Levental, a Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar.

The team measured the lipid content of mesenchymal stem cells as the cells transformed into bone cells or fat cells. They found that bone cell membranes had unique lipids that were particularly high in a type of dietary fat called omega-3 polyunsaturated fat. This fat is also called DHA and is the most abundant component of fish oil, a common dietary supplement. Most importantly, they found that adding such fish oil fats to mesenchymal stem cells pushed them to transform into osteoblasts (bone-forming cells) as opposed to adipocytes (fat-storing cells).

"This fundamental research helps explain why fish oil benefits people with osteoporosis, a boneweakening disorder affecting an estimated 200 million women worldwide," Levental said. "More broadly, it may provide insight into the many connections between dietary fats and a variety of clinical outcomes, including healthy aging and heart disease."

Skinkle, who worked on the study with the Leventals and four postdoctoral research associates, helped quantify the changes to each type of cell used in the study.

"I would take images and quantify things like matrix deposition or lipid droplet formation in order to quantify how osteogenic or how adipogenic the cells were," she said.

Skinkle plans to earn a Ph.D. after graduating in late 2018, and she credits her time in the Levental lab with her decision to pursue a doctorate and with her choices about what to study in graduate school.

"It's definitely shaped my interests," she said. "I also worked in an immunology lab last summer in Germany. Thanks to my research experiences, I've realized I'm interested in broad principles of biological organization. I think my time in the lab as an undergraduate has given me an understanding of the questions that I'm interested in, and now moving forward, I just have to find a lab and a discipline that will allow me to answer those questions."

Explore further: Study shows adipose stem cells may be the cell of choice for therapeutic applications More information: Kandice R. Levental et al. Ď&#x2030;-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids direct differentiation of the membrane phenotype in mesenchymal stem cells to potentiate osteogenesis, Science Advances (2017). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao1193 https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-11-effects-fat-stem-cells.html

Gold Nanoshells Ferry Chemo Drugs Into Cancer Cells to Spare Rest of Body NOVEMBER 9TH, 2017

EDITORS NANOMEDICINE, ONCOLOGY

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

By combining cross sections of a macrophage cell from the x-, y-, and z-axes, researchers could examine how nanoshell-drug complexes (red) distributed inside cells after a 24-hour period of incubation. A dye was used to distinguish the cell nucleus (blue). (Image by O. Neumann/Rice University)

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Researchers at Rice and Northwestern universities engineered a way of encapsulating toxic chemo agents inside of gold nanoshells that deliver and deposit their contents only inside neoplastic cells.

Reported on in the latest Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study involved getting docetaxel and lapatinib chemo drugs inside of gold nanoshells which can be opened up with a near-infrared laser.

To hold the chemo agents securely to the gold shell, strands of DNA are used to connect the docetaxel while albumin protein kept the lapatinib stuck. The near-infrared laser beam, which can penetrate tissue up to a few inches, breaks the bonds holding the chemo drugs and expands the shell to let them out.

So far this has been achieved in laboratory cultures of breast cancer cells, but the principle should be applicable to attacking actual tumors. Of course further animal and other studies will have to prove that out. In the future the researchers hope to use macrophages, white blood cells able to get inside of tumors, as the carrier vesicles, and they have already shown in the latest study that macrophages can carry chemo drugs and release them only when activated by the laser. https://www.medgadget.com/2017/11/gold-nanoshells-ferry-chemo-drugs-cancer-cells-spare-rest-body.html

Admin to rope in more millers to lift paddy

By Express News Service | Published: 10th November 2017 02:31 AM | Last Updated: 10th November 2017 08:47 AM JAGATSINGHPUR:THE district administration will rope in millers from neighbouring districts to lift paddy from the farmers during the upcoming kharif procurement season. This was decided during district paddy procurement meeting chaired by Collector Yamini Sarangi on Wednesday.

Sources said the district requires minimum 40 rice millers to lift around 10 lakh quintals of paddy, but it has only two to three millers. Though last year, the administration had engaged 21 millers of nearby districts in the kharif paddy procurement season, it was not sufficient. As a result, many farmers failed to sell their produce and later they resorted to distress sale. In order to avoid a similar situation this year, the administration has taken several preventive measures.

It was decided to open 100 paddy purchase centres under 96 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) in the district. So far, 29,859 farmers have registered their names online to sell

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

their produce. The State Government has fixed the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy at `1,550 for fair average quality (FAQ) and `1,590 for Grade-A. The Collector has been empowered to register the names of millers to participate in the paddy procurement and the administration will rope in millers from other districts to complete the task on time. The procurement centres will remain open from December 20 and the administration has already launched an awareness campaign for farmers to register their names, she added.

Registrar of Cooperative Society Kulamani Padhi said online registration of farmers will continue till December 31. A committee comprising Revenue Inspector (RI), Village Level Workers (VLWs), Executive Officer of panchayat and farmers has been formed at block-level to expedite the work. Similarly, a squad, led by the Sub-Collector, has been tasked to check irregularities in lifting paddy, he added.Among others, Cuttack Central Cooperative Bank secretary Jayant Kumar Swain and other senior officials were present. http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2017/nov/10/adi n-to-rope-in-more-millers-to-lift-paddy-1697264.html

FEC approves N5.6bn for erosion control in 6 states 26

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter November 9, 2017 Ibukun Josephine Bankole

FEC okays N5.6bn for the control of erosion in 6 states.A total of N5, 567, 314, 541.76 has been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the third quarter soil erosion control accelerated intervention projects for six states.According to FEC headed by President Muhammad, the states include Kano, Sokoto, Ondo, Osun, Enugu and Bayelsa.The information was made known by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, at the post-FEC briefing , along with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh and Minister of State (Aviation), Heidi Sirika.

According to Sirika, the FEC has approved bilateral air services agreement with Canada in furtherance of its efforts to improve relations between both countries, including trade and commerce.â&#x20AC;&#x153;It would be a standard agreement to facilitate the movement of people and business transactions,â&#x20AC;? he said.Also speaking, Ogbe, noted that FEC approved the development of foundation seeds for maize, by the Institute of Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

2018 Budget: Buhari reacts to disease outbreak in Nigeria He said the research was at the cost of N165 million for 30 tons of foundation seeds multiplied by 265 tons of improved seeds, which is to be given to seeds companies to multiply.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter The minister said one of the problems facing maize production in the country was lack of the right quality.According to him, this is responsible for the yields per hectare being among the lowest in the world Ogbe said the council also discussed the disturbing trend of smuggling, which is impacting negatively on the country.“We have to deal with that because while we are making a great deal of progress in our production of grains, smugglers are trying to compromise the successes we have achieved.

“I can give you some figures. Between September 2015 and now, rice importation through the ports dropped from 644,131 tons to 20,000 tons in September, which means that by the end of this year, to the early part of next year, we can literally say we are close to total self-sufficiency in rice.

“On the other hand, in Republic of Benin, rice importation has increased to 1.33 million tons because they don’t eat parboiled rice; they eat white rice. So, every grain of rice landing there is heading for Nigeria through smuggling and some of it also come in through Niger Republic.

“These are issues to deal with because we want local rice production to meet our needs and we are creating jobs.

“There are at least 12.2 million farmers in the country and they are enjoying life the way they haven’t before. So these are the issues we raised today,” he said.

Ogbe added that the government would beef up its onslaught on smugglers, as the country was currently losing over N5 billion to the nefarious activities.

He said smugglers were responsible for the delay in setting up of rice mills.“They (millers) spend money to mill the rice and the smugglers dump them at N12,500. The smugglers can dump at N12,500 because they are subsidised from Thailand. They are determined to see that we don’t succeed. We can’t do that because we can’t subsidise to that level.We say if everything goes well without the smugglers, our people should be able to sell at N13, 500 per bag,” he stated. https://www.naijanews.com/news/29760-fec-approves-n5-6bn-erosion-control

Study details massive haul of ancient primate finger, toe bones from China www.ricepluss.com / www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com Contact Online Advertisement : mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com Cell: 0321 369 2874

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter "These are the earliest known examples of those narrow fingers and toes that are key to anthropoid evolution," researcher Dan Gebo said.

By Brooks Hays | Nov. 9, 2017 at 1:12 PM

Many of the ancient primate finger and toe bones are no bigger than a grain of rice. Many of the primate species they belonged to were about the size of a mouse. Photo Northern Illinois University Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Scientists have detailed the discovery of some 500 ancient primate toe and finger bones. The tiny fossils were recovered from China and described this week in the Journal of Human Evolution."The fossils are extraordinarily small, but in terms of quantity this is the largest single assemblage of fossil primate finger and toe specimens ever recorded," Dan Gebo, a researcher at Northern Illinois University, said in a news release.Many of the bones are barely

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter larger than a grain of rice, but they have offered scientists a glimpse into the lives of the earliest primates. The bones represent a variety of primate families and at least 25 different early primate species, including the first known anthropoid, Eosimias. Three of the fossils represent newer, more advanced anthropoid species.

The earliest primates -- hailing from the mid-Eocene period, around 45 million years ago -ranged in size from 10 to 1,000 grams. They occupied the tree canopies of ancient jungles, eating fruits and insects. All of the fossils reveal an ability to grasp with both hands and feet, a prerequisite for life among the tree tops.

"The new study provides further evidence that early anthropoids were minuscule creatures, the size of a mouse or smaller," Gebo said. "It also adds to the evidence pointing toward Asia as the initial continent for primate evolution. While apes and fossil humans do come from Africa, their ancestors came from Asia."

The bones were recovered from a quarry near Shanghuang, a village in the south of Jiangsu Province, which is positioned along the central portion of China's east coast. The limestone in the quarry dates back to the Triassic, some 220 million years ago, when the first dinosaurs emerged.

But erosion left fissures in the rock, which captured layers of fossil-rich sediment dated to the Eocene, when mammals begin to flourish in the absence of the dinosaurs.

"Because of commercial exploitation of the quarry site, the fossil-bearing fissure-fillings at Shanghuang are now exhausted," said Christopher Beard, a paleontologist at the University of Kansas. "So, the fossils that we currently have are all that will ever be found from this site."

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter But researchers continue to sift through the remarkable paleontological record that was recovered from the quarry over the last few decades.

The diversity of primate species found at Shanghuang is unusual, and researchers hope their ongoing analysis can help scientists better understand the evolution of primate anatomy, including the unique fingers shared by all modern anthropoids, or higher primates.

"These are the earliest known examples of those narrow fingers and toes that are key to anthropoid evolution," Gebo said. "We can see evolution occurring at this site, from the broader finger or toe tips to more narrow." https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2017/11/09/Study-details-massive-haul-of-ancientprimate-finger-toe-bones-from-China/9721510245784/

Promoting rice and surgical goods exports to EU BR RESEARCH NOV 10TH, 2017

While Pakistan benefits from high utilisation rates of textiles, exporters have not utilised GSP+ preferences for products falling under HS chapters 10 and 90 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; says the recent mid-term evaluation report of GSP, conducted by the European Commission. In other words, Pakistan overlooks rice and surgical exports to EU. 31

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

It is old news that Pakistan’s export base is non-diversified. While GSP+ allows duty free exports for a range of goods, Pakistan tends to view it as a mean of boosting the textiles sector.

Rice and medical instruments are two commodities for which Pakistan is not leveraging preferential access to the EU. The rice sector in particular has a lot of potential. In 2016, EU’s rice imports were $2.5 billion of which Pakistan’s share was a $161 million. While Pakistan concentrates on China and Afghanistan as its biggest rice markets, it fails to increase its share in the EU market, especially since the stringent polices placed by EU on the presence of hazardous pesticides in Basmati rice could reduce India’s share in the global market. Since Pakistan’s farmers do not use the banned pesticides in their crops, there is an opportunity to move in and take up India’s share.

The bulk of Pakistan’s exports have low value addition, leaning towards resource-based goods 32

rather than value added products. The surgical and medical instruments industry in an exception.

A report by TDAP indicates that though the average export price of surgical items made in

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Sialkot is $1.5-$2.5 as compared to the average Chinese export price of $0.35, these instruments still find a market due to their superior quality.

From lack of government support to issues in increasing scale of operations, both products suffer from similar problems that prevent their increase in exports. One such issue is lack of branding.

The buyers of Pakistanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surgical instruments are international distributors and wholesalers.

Despite a history of more than six decades, there are still no brand names.

The absence of being recognised as a brand deprives the industry of directly participating in tender business to cater to the end users.

Similarly, Pakistani rice as a consumer-level retail product has a very low international presence.

Exporting rice in bulk without the presence of a brand name means large deals can get cancelled over small price differences. Without proper processing or packaging, Pakistanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rice exports cannot net a premium price.

The EU market could be better milked if Pakistanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s export base was diversified. Investing in developing rice and surgical goods sector by improving their visibility through branding is one way through which Pakistan can increase its market share in EU in sectors other than textile.

https://www.brecorder.com/2017/11/10/380344/promoting-rice-and-surgical-goods-exports-to-eu/ 33

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Rice basmati, wheat weaken on sufficient stocks position PTI | Nov 8, 2017, 14:27 IST New Delhi, Nov 8 () Weak conditions prevailed at the wholesale grains market today as prices of rice basmati and wheat drifted lower by up to Rs 100 per quintal due to reduced offtake against sufficient stocks position.Barley also slipped on muted demand from consuming industries.

Traders said easing demand from retailers and rice mills against adequate stocks position mainly led to decline in rice basmati prices.

Adequate stocks position on higher supplies from producing belts against low demand from flour mills, kept pressure on wheat prices, they said.In the national capital, rice basmati common and Pusa-1121 variety fell by Rs 100 each to Rs 7,800-7,900 and Rs 6,300-6,400 per quintal, respectively.

Wheat dara (for mills) also eased further by 15 to Rs 1,820-1,825 per quintal. Atta chakki delivery followed suit and shed Rs 5 to Rs 1,825-1,830 per 90 kg.

Other bold grain, barley too declined by Rs 20 to Rs 1,520-1,530 per quintal.

Following are today's quotations (in Rs per quintal): Wheat MP (desi) Rs 2,145-2,350, Wheat dara (for mills) Rs 1,820-1,825, Chakki atta (delivery) Rs 1,825-1,830, Atta Rajdhani (10 kg) Rs 260-300, Shakti Bhog (10 kg) Rs 255-290, Roller flour mill Rs 980-990 (50 kg), Maida Rs 1,025-1,030 (50 kg)and Sooji Rs 1,060-1,080 (50 kg).

Basmati rice (Lal Quila) Rs 10,700, Shri Lal Mahal Rs 11,300, Super Basmati Rice Rs 9,800, Basmati common new Rs 7,800-7,900, Rice Pusa (1121) Rs 6,300-6,400, Permal raw Rs 2,2502300, Permal wand Rs 2,300-2,350, Sela Rs 2,500-2,700 and Rice IR-8 Rs 1,900-1,925, Bajra Rs 1,160-1,165, Jowar yellow Rs 1,350-1,400, white Rs 2,700-2,800, Maize Rs 1,300- 1,305, Barley Rs 1,520-1,530. SUN KPS SBT

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/rice-basmati-wheat-weakenon-sufficient-stocksposition/articleshow/61560135.cmshttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-

Indian PM to go to Philippines to attend ASEAN, East Asia summits Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-10 13:57:59|Editor: Liu

NEW DELHI, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a three-day visit to the Philippines Sunday to attend the India-ASEAN and East Asia summits next week.

"This visit will be Prime Minister Modi's first official visit to the Philippines and his fourth time participation in the annual ASEAN and East Asia summits," Indian External Affairs Ministry Secretary (East) Preeti Saran told the media Thursday evening.

During his stay in capital Manila, the Indian prime minister will hold bilateral talks with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who is also the current chair of the ASEAN. Modi will also meet some of the other world leaders on the sidelines of the summits.

Modi's schedule in Manila also includes a meeting with members of the Indian community at a reception to be hosted by the Indian ambassador to the Philippines.

He will also undertake a tour of the International Rice Research Institute in Manila. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-11/10/c_136742319.htm

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Why Amazon is investing so heavily in voice If you think about it, all computer interfaces have been designed for communication with the computer, not with humans, Amazon's chief technology officer Werner Vogels said at Web Summit.

Amazon chief technology officer Werner Vogels believes voice will entirely change the digital systems we rely on These unnatural and inhuman interfaces and they are discriminatory, Vogels told the conference in Lisbon today."Let's take the International Rice Research Institute in Manila as an example.

They know everything about rice and they work with farmers in the region to improve crop yields. They have built a digital webpage with all this crucial information but no one was using it because the farmers don't own computers. So, they put a voice interface over it so farmers could call in and describe their patch of land. It has helped greatly improve crop yields," Vogels said.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter People who have bought Amazon Echo devices love them, their reviews say so, he continued.

"They use them for every mundane task possible because it's effortless."

One customer who has dementia wrote that Alexa had given him his memory back. That he could ask it for the date 20 times a day and it would give him the correct answer 20 times, without getting angry.

But Amazon doesn't want the world to confine itself to its Echo devices. "The device itself isn't that smart. All of that lives in the cloud. Alexa is a voice service based on a platform that does all the work," Vogels said.

Brands and developers could even forego Amazon's skills kit and use Amazon Polly, its life-like speech service."Polly converts text to life-like speech. It can be fully managed, it has 47 voices and speaks 24 languages. Duolingo, the language learning app is based on Polly," he said.

Polly allows control over the tone, volume, context and different pronunciations, Vogels demonstrated. "It can be used to build voice chatbots, not just Alexa."

Amazon is investing in developing all this because it believes that the future lies in a human interface to our digital systems.

"I truly believe a voice interface to digital systems will completely revolutionise the way we build these systems and it will open these systems to everyone in the world and not just digital natives," Vogels concluded.

https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/why-amazon-investing-so-heavilyvoice/1449708

Papua New Guinea to train farmers on sustainable rice production Published November 10, 2017, 11:22 AM

By Genalyn Kabiling

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter DA NANG, Vietnam — The Philippines will soon deploy a team from International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to Papua New Guinea to train their farmers on stable and sustainable rice production.

President Duterte has offered to help Papua New Guinea to develop its rice sector after asking Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to keep the “status quo” on tuna imports to the Philippines.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte greets Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill prior to their bilateral meeting at the Premier Village in Da Nang, Vietnam on November 9, 2017.

(ALBERT ALCAIN/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) Rice and tuna trade relations were among the topics discussed by the two leaders on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Da Nang, Vietnam.“We were talking of trade relations. It’s a huge land Papua New Guinea and they need to work up on their lands. They’re importing rice. But it’s a big country and I think the soil is compatible with rice and they are asking our expertise,” Duterte told Manila-based reporters in an interview on Thursday night here.

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38

Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter “We have been a rice-producing country for so long and we have the IRRI, the IRRI who can help them. And I’m sending a promise to send a team from the Department of Agriculture to help them out,” he added.

The IRRI is considered the world’s premier research organization on rice science, developing advanced rice varieties that yield more grain and withstand pests, diseases and other climate change effects.

The President also raised the country’s concern about its tuna imports from Papua New Guinea during his meeting with O’Neill.

Papua New Guinea, home to around 18 percent of the world’s tuna stock, reportedly wants to require 100 percent of tuna caught within its waters to be processed locally. This was part of its government plans to become a major downstream player in the global tuna market.

Duterte said he asked Papua New Guinea to continue to allow the country to import tuna despite its plans to focus on developing the processing side of its fisheries industry.

“We were also talking about the import of tuna, which is plentiful in that area but it appears because of the many countries dipping their fingers there in fishing, including Australia. They have reached a point of just allocating everybody a share,” he said.

“But I asked the Prime Minister if he could consider maintaining the status quo and the number of tons that we are importing in the Philippines which is mainly dropped at General Santos City, I think,” he added.At present, around 40 percent of the Philippines’ tuna catch comes from Papua New Guinea.Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Papua New Guinea promised it will be “very fair” in the tuna trade, adding it was only requiring its canning facility to process the tuna sourced from its seas.“Hindi naman nila pinagbabawal na yung sobra mapadala sa Pilipinas, sa iba pang parts ng daigdig (They are not disallowing the tuna trade to the Philippines, other parts of the world),” he said. https://news.mb.com.ph/2017/11/10/irri-team-to-be-deployed-to-papua-new-guinea-to-train-farmers-onsustainable-rice-production/

Stubble burning blamed for Delhi pollution: Why farmers carry out the exercise The paddy straw is of no use to the farmer unlike the wheat straw, which is used as animal fodder. The paddy straw has high silica content that animals can’t digest.

PUNJAB Updated: Nov 09, 2017 21:09 IST

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Manraj Grewal Sharma Hindustan Times, Chandigarh

Farmers find it easy to dispose of paddy stubble by burning it.(HT Representative)

The plain farming chore of burning after-harvest paddy stalks as farmers prepared their fields in Punjab and Haryana for the wheat crop never headlined so much as in the past month.

The swirling smoke from the fire is blamed for the thick haze that has shrouded New Delhi, where the conditions were exacerbated by fog, dust, vehicle exhaust fumes and no high wind to blow the toxic air away.

The air quality in Chandigarh too has become “very poor” with the air quality index (AQI) hovering in the 301-400 range, against the acceptable limit of 100.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Farmers switching to mechanical harvesters, introduced in the early 1980s, could be the genesis of the problem. The machine cuts, threshes and cleans rice from ripe paddy in a matter of hours, saving days of menial labour.

Over the years, more farmers bought these machines and those who didn’t have one could get a harvester on rent for a nominal Rs 1,300, or hereabouts, for an acre.

The downside is that harvesters skim from the top and leave 80% of the paddy plant — six to eight inches long — on the field. Except for the Basmati variety, the straw is useless.Unlike wheat stalks that are used as animal fodder, the paddy straw has high silica content that animals can’t digest. And Basmati with its low silica content is grown only in 450,000 acres.Since farmers need to sow wheat within a fortnight of harvesting paddy, they burn the straw, or paraali, to save time, labour and money.

About 3 million acres are cultivated for paddy in Punjab and 20 million tonnes of stubble are generated every year, said Jasbir Singh Bains, the state’s director of agriculture.The spike in stubble burning is blamed on the PUSA variety of rice, which is harvested late.Authorities took drastic measures to check the smoke from the country’s food bowl such as fining farmers — up to Rs 5,000 — who were found setting fields afire. Punjab government data show 2,338 farmers were fined so far and Rs 65.92 lakh collected in fines.

According to the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, instances of paddy stubble burning were less this year compared to the past.Manjeet Singh Makkar, who heads the farm machinery and power 41

engineering department at Punjab Agricultural University, suggested three solutions.His first suggestion is the straw chopper-cum-spreader. This machine chops the stubble and mixes it in

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter the soil either with the help of water or a rotavator, a tool that has a steel shaft and blades and can be fitted to a tractor.

The second suggestion is a straw management system and a “happy seeder”. The first can be fitted to a combine harvester. It cuts the straw into small pieces and scatters it evenly. Next, a “happy seeder” mounted on a tractor can be used to sow wheat and put the cut straw over the area as mulch, which improves soil fertility. The two machines cost Rs 1.25 lakh each.

The third solution is a baler, which bales the straw. These can be used in power plants or cardboard factories.

Punjab agriculture director Bains said the state sought a central grant of Rs 900 crore for a crop residue management project this May. The state proposes to offer farmers 40% subsidy on balers, rakes, rotavators and “happy seeders”. The Centre released 48.5 crore.These machines require an investment of more than Rs 2 lakh, but small and medium farmers don’t have the money. Most are reeling from debts. The cheapest machine, a cutter-shredder, costs Rs 45,000 or more. Use of farm labour is the most expensive at Rs 6,000 an acre.“Given a choice between a box of matchsticks and machinery worth Rs 2 lakh, what will you choose?” asked Billa Singh, a farmer in Phagwara.But Navtej Singh Bains, the director of research at Punjab Agricultural University, believes new machinery is the only way out.“If every village procures one or two happy seeders, the problem will be solved. Farmers are now renting these machines for Rs 1,300 an acre. The cost is bound to fall if more farmers buy the seeders,” he said. http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/why-do-farmers-burn-paddy-stubble/storycN5uXCkzIr8Cs9K1R9TtVK.html

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

Central team to assess crop loss Subhashish Mohanty

Bhubaneswar: A high-level central team led by Union minister of state for agriculture and farmer welfare Gajendra Singh will visit Odisha from November 12 to assess crop loss caused due to pest attacks.

The team will also visit Bargarh district where incidents of crop loss due to pest attack has beeen maximum.The announcement was made after Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan met Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh in New Delhi on Thursday and discussed prevailing situation in the state.

Agriculture minister Sin-gh accused the Odisha government of ignoring the advisory issued by the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack."The advisory was issued on October 5 and 6 to the state government. Had the state government promptly taken action, the situation could have been averted," said Singh. Pradhan also accused the Naveen Patnaik government of failing to check distribution of fake pesticides.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter "The state government had ignored it (inputs about sale of fake pesticides) too. On the basis of media reports, a central team had reviewed the situation with state government officials. It has come to light that fake pesticides were used. Pesticides were also not used at several places," Pradhan said. He also alleged that under the National Food Security Scheme, the Centre had disbursed Rs 53.78 crore to the state for distribution of seeds and pesticides.

"But the state government has been able to spent only Rs 1.98 crore," said Pradhan, adding that only package announced by the state government would not mitigate the problem of farmers. He was referring to Odisha' government Rs 124-crore agricultural package for pest-hit areas.A sixmember BJP team led by its MP Om Prakash Yadav will reach the state on Friday to analyse the crop-loss situation in Odisha. The team will visit the affected areas and submit a report to party president Amit Shah on the issue.

According to official reco- rd, a whopping 1.78 lakh hectare of paddy farm in nine districts in western Odisha have been damaged by pest attack. Six farmers have committed suicide because of crop failure, records say.

"The people involved in selling fake pesticides would be arrested. They should also be made to march on the streets before being jailed," said state panchayati raj minister Pradeep Maharathy. https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/odisha/central-team-to-assess-crop-loss-184824

Cambodian rice among the world’s best three Chea Vannak / Khmer Times Share:

Cambodian rice has consistently been voted one of the world’s best. KT/Chor Sokunthea Cambodia’s premium fragrant rice was voted one of the best in the world in the latest global competition, coming in the top three.

Thailand’s Horm Malis rice came out on top, taking home the title of World’s Best Rice.

The 9th edition of the World Rice Conference took place in Macau yesterday, with seven counties – Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, the US, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar – entering 21 different rice varieties.

Cambodia entered three brands – two premium fragrant rice varieties and one fragrant rice – selected during a national competition held last week.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

Moul Sarith, the secretary-general of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), congratulated Cambodian rice farmers for the great results, but lamented that the kingdom did not take home the accolade. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was a close call for the judges, but ultimately the Thai variety, which is very similar to our own variety, won,â&#x20AC;? Mr Sareth said.

He believed the positive results will help boost sales of the Cambodian commodity.

A Cambodian variety called Phka Rumduol, but often also called phka malis or Cambodia jasmine rice by millers and traders, won the competition from 2012 to 2014, but lost its crown in 2015 to a rice variety from California.

Last year, another Thai brand from Chiang Mai took home the coveted prize at the eighth edition of the event.

Chan Sokheng, the chairman of rice export company Signature of Asia, said that after Cambodian rice was crowned the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best in 2012 his sales rose dramatically.

Phou Puy, the president of Green Rice Miller in Battambang province, said participating in the international contest alone will enhance the reputation of the Cambodian grain.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter “Whether we win or lose, we can expect more orders from international buyers, as the competition will serve as a window to showcase our products,” he said.

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5089690/cambodian-rice-among-worlds-best-three/

Eleven Pakistani companies to participate in Jeddah food exhibition Islamabad Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) has selected 11 well established companies to participate in Foodex Saudi 2017 exhibition that will be held in Jeddah in coming week.

According to a message received here, these companies will offer their range of quality products for Saudi market to the Saudi audience.

The names of Pakistani exhibitors with their products are M/s English Biscuits Manufacturers (Pvt) Ltd. (Biscuits, Cakes), M/s United King Foods Pvt. Ltd. (Confectionary Items, Sweets, snacks, etc), M/s Vania Food Industry (Candies, chocolate, Chew gum, jelly), M/s Nosh Food Industries (Spices, Recipes, pastes, pickles, ketchup), M/s Perfect Food Industry (Garlic paste, onion chili, Turmeric, mix spices), M/s Shezan International (Juices Drinks, pickles, jams, squashes), M/s Pure Food Company Pvt. Ltd. (Juices), M/s Mehran Bottlers Pvt. Ltd. (Soft Drinks, Fruit Juices), M/s Reem Rice Mills Pvt. Ltd. (Rice),M/s Millat Trading Company (Rice) and M/s Mohammad Hashim TajirSurma (Honey, Rose water, Ispaghol, joshanda).Exhibitors are mainly in the field of Bakery & Confectionary Items, Ready-to-Eat Products & Frozen Food, Recipe Spices and Pastes, Rice, Softdrinks and Juices, honey and herbal products.

By facilitating the participation of these companies in the prestigious exhibition ‘Foodex Saudi 2017’at Jeddah, the Government of Pakistan has not only sent exporters, but Ambassadors of our land and our people to offer the best food products for Saudi Arabian people.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter The exhibition will prove as a platform to forge the business relations between Pakistani exporters and Saudi buyers and their partnerships will go a long way in benefiting the businessmen and communities of both the brotherly countries. These marketing effort will also serve to reinforce the already monumental relations of brotherly and spiritual love that both countries hold for each other.

Pakistan is blessed with vast fertile lands enriched soil with nutrition & minerals and plenty of sweet water. 100% Halal sourcing is the strength of Pakistan. Starting from fresh produces to processed food products, all segments of the food industry are fully developed having state of the art processing and packaging facilities, meeting all international standards.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;APP https://pakobserver.net/eleven-pakistani-companies-participate-jeddah-food-exhibition/

47 EXPAND

The only thing missing in this fall cocktail is a flaming marshmallow.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Courtesy of Midnight Rambler

Midnight Rambler Brings Back Greatest Hits Alongside New Fall Favorites SUSIE OSZUSTOWICZ | NOVEMBER 9, 2017 | 4:00AM

Downtown Dallas' cocktail den, Midnight Rambler, is bringing back some old favorites from menus past and throwing in a soon-to-be fall favorite or two. One of its new tipples is the Hot Buttered Soul, a fall-forward cocktail named for a Southern soul album by Isaac Hayes.

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SHOW ME HOW The "soulful Texas fall fix" by the bar's creator, Chad Solomon, is an interesting take on an old fashioned with a fat-washed brown butter bourbon. While the process of fat-washing liquor is a little unsavory (pun completely intended), it gives the cocktail a complexity and rich, deep flavor. (The orgeat is equally as complicated â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it's made in house by roasting pecans and blending with brown basmati rice and cassia bark to get a nut/rice milk before it's filtered, clarified in a centrifuge and sweetened.)

This is one you won't want to try at home ... http://www.dallasobserver.com/restaurants/midnight-rambler-brings-back-greatest-hitcocktails-10051221f

beans followed mixed trends, with those of red beans increasing due to a reduced spring harvest and strong demand for seeds. In general, prices for all staples remained above their year-earlier levels reflecting the reduced 2017 spring production and some uncertainties for crops to be harvested during the rest of the year.

IRRI team to be deployed to Papua New Guinea to train 48

farmers on sustainable rice production November 10, 2017, 11:22 AM

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

By Genalyn Kabiling DA NANG, Vietnam — The Philippines will soon deploy a team from International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to Papua New Guinea to train their farmers on stable and sustainable rice production.

President Duterte has offered to help Papua New Guinea to develop its rice sector after asking Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to keep the “status quo” on tuna imports to the Philippines.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte greets Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill prior to their bilateral meeting at the Premier Village in Da Nang, Vietnam on November 9, 2017.

(ALBERT ALCAIN/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)

Rice and tuna trade relations were among the topics discussed by the two leaders on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Da Nang, Vietnam.“We were talking of trade relations. It’s a huge land Papua New Guinea and they need to work up on their lands. They’re importing rice. But it’s a big country and I think the soil is compatible with rice and they are asking our expertise,” Duterte told Manila-based reporters in an interview on Thursday night here.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter “We have been a rice-producing country for so long and we have the IRRI, the IRRI who can help them. And I’m sending a promise to send a team from the Department of Agriculture to help them out,” he added.

The IRRI is considered the world’s premier research organization on rice science, developing advanced rice varieties that yield more grain and withstand pests, diseases and other climate change effects.

The President also raised the country’s concern about its tuna imports from Papua New Guinea during his meeting with O’Neill.

Papua New Guinea, home to around 18 percent of the world’s tuna stock, reportedly wants to require 100 percent of tuna caught within its waters to be processed locally. This was part of its government plans to become a major downstream player in the global tuna market.

Duterte said he asked Papua New Guinea to continue to allow the country to import tuna despite its plans to focus on developing the processing side of its fisheries industry.

“We were also talking about the import of tuna, which is plentiful in that area but it appears because of the many countries dipping their fingers there in fishing, including Australia. They have reached a point of just allocating everybody a share,” he said.

“But I asked the Prime Minister if he could consider maintaining the status quo and the number of tons that we are importing in the Philippines which is mainly dropped at General Santos City, I think,” he added.

At present, around 40 percent of the Philippines’ tuna catch comes from Papua New Guinea.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Papua New Guinea promised it will be “very fair” in the tuna trade, adding it was only requiring its canning facility to process the tuna sourced from its seas.

“Hindi naman nila pinagbabawal na yung sobra mapadala sa Pilipinas, sa iba pang parts ng daigdig (They are not disallowing the tuna trade to the Philippines, other parts of the world),” he said. https://news.mb.com.ph/2017/11/10/irri-team-to-be-deployed-to-papua-new-guinea-totrain-farmers-on-sustainable-rice-production/

Customs intercepts 365 bags of smuggled rice in 2 trucks in Sokoto www.ricepluss.com / www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com Contact Online Advertisement : mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com Cell: 0321 369 2874

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter By . | Publish Date: Nov 9 2017 10:50AM Mr Nasiru Ahmad, the Controller of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) in Sokoto/Kebbi/Zamfara Area Command, said the command had intercepted two trucks with 365 bags of foreign rice.

Ahmad, represented by the command’s Spokesman, Mr Magaji Mailafiya, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday that the seizures were made last week Thursday and Friday along Illela-Sokoto road.

Ahmad said the seized trucks belonged to Dangote Group, while the duty paid value of the 50kg bags of rice was N8.7 million.

He said the foreign rice were among the items prohibited from entering the country through land boarders, adding that the action contravened Federal Government’s fiscal policy on rice importation He said that the contraband rice were arrested as a result of the vigilance of his men on border patrol.“The contraband has a Duty Paid Value of N8, 748,320 and the two suspected importers along with the contraband items were arrested.“They are in our custody and will soon be prosecuted accordingly,” Ahmad said.

He urged Nigerians to complement government’s efforts on rice cultivation and other agriculture development programmes by establishing processing industries geared toward viable economic development in the country.He enjoined individuals, traditional and community leaders as well as groups to assist government to achieve “smuggle-free” society.

Ahmad described smuggling as “cripplers of nation economy which deterred employments, revenue and nation’s security progress”. (NAN) https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/customs-intercepts-365-bags-of-smuggled-rice-in-2-trucks-insokoto.html

Ration shops accused of forcing consumers to buy grocery items TNN | Nov 10, 2017, 00:11 IST

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Madurai: Consumers in the city are forced to buy certain grocery items that they don't need, to be eligible for their monthly share of ration supplied through the public distribution system (PDS) in the district.

The worrying complaint against the fair price shop employees was raised by the city residents after they were allegedly compelled to buy some articles to avail of the essential commodities sold through PDS. With around 1,300 ration shops selling essential commodities at an affordable price in Madurai, the PDS is supposed to benefit more than 8.78 lakh people living in the district. However, consumers dependent on the system have now complained they would be denied their due share of ration unless they paid more for articles they did not really want.Arun Kumar Malayalam, a resident at Gomathypuram, said that his family mostly depended on free rice provided through PDS. But when he approached the ration shop for his share, he was asked to buy articles like soap or semolina to get his share rice and sugar. "The ration shopkeeper asks us to pay for something like soap or rava that we do not need if we have to get the 1.5 kg of sugar along with the free rice,'' he said.

M R Balakumar, from South Perumal Maistry Street, said that his family was eligible for free rice and had a wheat card that entitled him to 1.5 kilograms of PDS sugar. Sadly, when his mother went to buy sugar from the ration shop, she was told to buy a packet of sunflower oil of a particular brand costing Rs 90 to avail of their ration. "This is atrocious. She had to pay Rs 90 for the oil and buy the rice and wheat,'' he said.

The consumers complained that none of the ration shops distributed commodities to the beneficiary without asking them to buy a commodity they did not need.Echoing the sentiment, S Pandiayammal, of CMR Road, said that she too had a free rice card but were forced to buy a

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter packet of tea to get the 1.5 kg of rice. "Sugar sells at a price of Rs 50 in the retail market, so this is still cheap,'' she said.

Notwithstanding the illegal trend, T Thangaraj of Anupanadi said that they bought unwanted articles for about Rs 150 a month because the prices of the essential commodities such as rice and sugar would go beyond Rs 800 for a family.

When contacted, district civil supplies officer Balasubramanian promised that he would look into the consumer complaints. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/ration-shops-accused-of-forcing-consumers-to-buy-groceryitems/articleshow/61585296.cms

Cambodian rice among the world’s best three Cambodia’s premium fragrant rice was voted one of the best in the world in the latest global competition, coming in the top three.Thailand’s Horm Malis rice came out on top, taking home the title of World’s Best Rice.

The 9th edition of the World Rice Conference took place in Macau yesterday, with seven counties – Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, the US, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar – entering 21 different rice varieties.

Cambodia entered three brands – two premium fragrant rice varieties and one fragrant rice – selected during a national competition held last week.Moul Sarith, the secretary-general of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), congratulated Cambodian rice farmers for the great results, but lamented that the kingdom did not take home the accolade.

“It was a close call for the judges, but ultimately the Thai variety, which is very similar to our own variety, won,” Mr Sareth said.He believed the positive results will help boost sales of the Cambodian commodity.

A Cambodian variety called Phka Rumduol, but often also called phka malis or Cambodia jasmine rice by millers and traders, won the competition from 2012 to 2014, but lost its crown in 2015 to a rice variety from California.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

Last year, another Thai brand from Chiang Mai took home the coveted prize at the eighth edition of the event.

Chan Sokheng, the chairman of rice export company Signature of Asia, said that after Cambodian rice was crowned the world’s best in 2012 his sales rose dramatically.

Phou Puy, the president of Green Rice Miller in Battambang province, said participating in the international contest alone will enhance the reputation of the Cambodian grain.

“Whether we win or lose, we can expect more orders from international buyers, as the competition will serve as a window to showcase our products,” he said. http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5089690/cambodian-rice-among-worlds-best-three/

Cambodia beaten by Thailand in heated annual rice contest For the third year in a row Cambodia has failed to take the top spot in the World’s Best Rice contest, instead earning second place after Thailand.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

Seven major rice-producing countries entered into the contest this week in Macau, China, where 21 samples of rice were presented for judging, according to Hun Lak, vice president of the Cambodia Rice Federation. While Cambodia’s Phka Rumdoul variety of fragrant rice impressed the judges, it was Thailand’s own Hom Mali rice that took the first place prize.

“We came in second after Thailand, but our rice was recognised and widely supported for its good quality during the contest. Many buyers from China and Vietnam are interested in buying our rice,” Lak said.

“Thailand had a very strong presentation linking the late King [Bhumibol Adulyadej] to the history of its rice, which was very attractive to the audience and made it difficult for Cambodia to win.” The rice is judged according to five criteria, both before and after cooking, including appearance, texture, moisture, aroma and length of grain. Cambodia’s Phka Rumduol rice was once a consistent winner of the competition, coming in first place for three consecutive years between 2012 and 2014, but it lost its crown to the United States’ Calrose rice in 2015 and lost again to Thailand’s Hom Mali last year. Despite this year’s loss, Deputy Director of Capital Food Chray Son noted that the Cambodian rice market should still benefit from having participated in the competition.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter “We always gain experience from this competition, and we learn to prepare for the next,” he said yesterday, adding that Cambodia needs to further strengthen the quality of its rice seeds, improve irrigation and enhance its harvesting and milling techniques. “Standing in second place does not hurt our market, and it is not a bad thing. It is better than not winning an award,” he said. “We gain a lot of benefits from promoting our rice, and more or less this will help with the growth of our exports.” The World’s Best Rice Competition may be a useful tool for promoting the quality of Cambodian rice, but the best way for the Kingdom’s industry to attract buyers and enhance its reputation is to focus on efforts from its private sector, according to Hean Vanhan, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture. “Even though we place at the top of this competition every year, rice exports are not increasing much, and rumours of fake or low-quality rice have tarnished the reputation of Cambodia’s rice sector internationally,” he said. “We are also noticing rice exporters have a limited capacity to attract buyers.” http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30331234

Not possible to practice traditional farming in India anymore; here is why For most consumers, ‘organic’ is probably a code for ‘safe’ or ‘residue-free’, not necessarily produce grown without chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

For most consumers, ‘organic’ is probably a code for ‘safe’ or ‘residue-free’, not necessarily produce grown without chemical fertilisers and pesticides. (Image: IE) For most consumers, ‘organic’ is probably a code for ‘safe’ or ‘residue-free’, not necessarily produce grown without chemical fertilisers and pesticides. But marketers use the tag to tap into a seam of fear in some urban parents who are so anxious about health that they are willing to pay for advertising that spells ‘well-being’.

A brand of ‘organic’ jaggery, for example, on the shelves of Reliance Fresh stores claims to be free of genetically modified organisms (GMO), when GM sugarcane is not even undergoing field trials in the country. Only one variety of cane that has been genetically-engineered for drought tolerance is being tested in India and that too in glasshouses at the Sugarcane Breeding Institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Even if it passes the tests, it will be years before it jumps the regulatory hoops; perhaps, never at all.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Organic is the result of activism,â&#x20AC;? says Parag Sinha of NAPL Advisors, a consultant to food parks and dairies. It is a nice tag, he says, but it is difficult for produce to earn that label unless grown in isolated areas like Sikkim or Arunachal Pradesh. Sinha was in the business of growing residue-free chilli for export to the European Union (EU) at Khargone in Madhya Pradesh. He says he signed up farmers on contract for 250 acres the first year and 1,250 acres in the second.

Farmers were paid the market price prevailing on the day of purchase, if their produce had residues below the maximum levels permitted by the EU. Chilli is prone to pest attacks and needs repeated sprays. A small team advised farmers about the chemicals to use and when to use them. In the third year, Sinha contracted 5,000 acres, but ran out of working capital and defaulted on purchases. But prices were high that year, so farmers did not suffer losses. In 2016, Sinha suspended the business after a viral attack as farmers cannot revert to the crop for three years. Sinha found that 70% of the produce, on average, was residuefree. Some farmers cheated. Some others followed the prescribed practices, but their plots were so small they could not escape contamination from neighbouring fields.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter “Residue-fee farming is not difficult,” Sinha says, “It is not even costlier.” But for people like Rangu Rao, chemical pesticides are anathema. He considers them environmentally unsustainable; bugs develop resistance to them over time. They also kill beneficial microbes in the soil. And they have to be bought for cash, which is financially oppressive for smallholder farmers who have little marketable surplus. Ideally, Rao would want smallholder farmers to grow all they wanted. But they can’t. They have to buy clothes, for instance.

So, they need cash. He would like them not to use chemical fertilisers. For him, they are like steroids. He believes farmyard manure (FYM) can do the trick. But tribal farmers do not own plots large enough to keep cattle. It is also not possible to scour the landscape for enough quantities of the dung of free-range cattle to supply crops the nutrients they need. Huge quantities of manure would be needed to replace chemical fertilisers. The Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research near Delhi says FYM is rich in micro-nutrients and organic carbon, but it has just 0.5% nitrogen, up to 0.4% phosphorus, and 0.3% potassium. In comparison, urea has 46% nitrogen, single superphosphate is 16% phosphorous and muriate of potash 60% potassium.

Rao is one of a group of idealists from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University who, three decades ago, decided to work among tribals in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district. Rao is CEO of Safe Harvest, a company whose chairman is Mihir Shah, former member of the erstwhile Planning Commission. About two dozen kitchen staples including pulses, rice, spices, millets and wheat flour grown without pesticides are sold under that brand. Safe Harvest buys produce from farmer producer companies and non-governmental organisations who work with farmers. They use neem, garlic and weed extracts to repel or kill pests. Rao thinks there is a tossup between high yields and sustainability. He prefers the latter. High-yield agriculture, for him, is risky because it is high in inputs, which have to be purchased. Smallholder farmers can be selfcontained if they do traditional, non-chemical agriculture.

The Green Revolution, he believes, has helped certain regions and a certain class of farmers. It has been propped up with subsidies. Remove the subsidies, and traditional agriculture will come out superior. Sadly, it isn’t possible to practice truly traditional farming because the country’s agricultural system is geared for high-input agriculture, whether in its emphasis of hybrids or advice at Krishi Vigyan Kendras (agricultural science centres). Safe Harvest has a list of farmers who have undertaken to follow Non-Pesticide Management (NPM).

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter They have to promise to abide by the entire protocol. There is a system of regular audits. A diary is maintained for each farmer. Are customers willing to spend more for organic? Big Basket, an online grocer, says it wants to be entirely organic as that is where fussy customers seem to be heading. But when it charged a premium, sales dropped, so it settled for a mark-up of about 10% over conventionally grown fruits and vegetables that account for the bulk of its sales. In January 2016, the prime minister declared Sikkim as a fully organic state, the only one in India.

But a report in The Indian Express in October says its farmers have come to grief as they are being undercut by non-organic produce from West Bengal. A farm in Sikkim that yielded 40 quintals of tomatoes with chemical fertilisers is now giving 18-20 kg. The producer wanted at least `60 a kg, but with non-organic tomatoes selling for less, he has very few buyers at that price. As a relatively isolated state, Sikkim has natural advantages for organic farming. But it will not be sustainable unless farmers profit from it.

This has lessons for the agriculture ministry at the Centre which is pushing organic farming because it conjures up images of tradition and a pristine past. For the left parties, chemical equals corporate, which is a red rag. It is time to take the dogma out of agriculture and see it for what it is: a business and a livelihood. Chemical need not mean contaminated if protocols of use are observed.

Thailandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fragrant Hom Mali rice voted worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best The World Rice Conference has declared Thailand's fragrant Hom Mali variety the world's best rice, maintaining Thailand's number one position.

It's official: Thai rice is the world's best

Phusadee Arunmas The World Rice Conference has declared Thailand's fragrant Hom Mali variety the world's best rice, maintaining Thailand's number one position after several years of lower rice quality due to a previous rice-pledging scheme.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said that the conference in Macau on Wednesday declared the Hom Mali 105 varietythe world's best rice in 2017, while the second and third rankings went to Cambodian and Vietnam.

He said the referees were chefs from hotels in Macau, and the criteria were the taste and shape of the rice grain. It was the second consecutive year that Thailand's fragrant rice won the championship. It had lost the title to Myanmar in 2011, Cambodia in 2012-2013 and the US

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

in 2015. Winning the title again this year would boost Thai rice revenues, Mr Chookiat said, as it would increase both global demand and prices. He added the price of Thai Hom Mali rice was already much higher than that of Cambodian and Vietnamese varieties, with Thai Hom Mali quoted at US$850 a tonne, compared to Cambodia's at $750 and Vietnam's at $550. Over the past four years, the price of Cambodian rice approached the Thai price, Mr Chookiat said, as Cambodian rice was judged the world's best rice in 2012 and 2013.

This year's contest involved 21 rice varieties from rice-producing countries. Thailand nominated three varieties. "Thailand lost the championship for four years because the quality of Thai rice dropped due to the rushed rice cultivation that resulted from a previous pledging scheme that accepted every grain. We're champions again because we're emphasising rice quality once more," Mr Chookiat said. He encouraged the government to promote organic rice cultivation, which he said would bring back the naturally fragrant Hom Mali rice of the past, when paddy fieldswere not contaminated with chemicals. https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/advanced/1357353/thailands-fragrant-hom-mali-rice-voted-worldsbest

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter It’s official: Thai rice is the world’s best

A rice grower from Roi Et province displays his fragrant Hom Mali rice at a market near Government House. Thailand's Hom Mali rice was declared the world's best rice on Wednesday.

(File photo) The World... Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1356968/its-official-thai-rice-is-the-worlds-best. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

It's official: Thai rice is the world's best 8 Nov 2017 at 22:03



WRITER: PHUSADEE ARUNMAS

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter

A rice grower from Roi Et province displays his fragrant Hom Mali rice at a market near Government House. Thailand's Hom Mali rice was declared the world's best rice on Wednesday.

(File photo) The World Rice Conference has declared Thailand's fragrant Hom Mali variety the world's best rice, maintaining Thailand's number one position after several years of lower rice quality due to a previous rice-pledging scheme.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said that the conference in Macau on Wednesday declared the Hom Mali 105 variety the world's best rice in 2017, while the second and third rankings went to Cambodian and Vietnam.

He said the referees were chefs from hotels in Macau, and the criteria were the taste and shape of the rice grain.

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It was the second consecutive year that Thailand's fragrant rice won the championship. It had lost the title to Myanmar in 2011, Cambodia in 2012-2013 and the US in 2015.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Winning the title again this year would boost Thai rice revenues, Mr Chookiat said, as it would increase both global demand and prices.

He added the price of Thai Hom Mali rice was already much higher than of Cambodian and Vietnamese varieties, with Thai Hom Mali quoted at US$850 a tonne, compared to Cambodia's at $750 and Vietnam's at $550.

Over the past four years, the price of Cambodian rice approached the Thai price, Mr Chookiat said, as Cambodian rice was judged the world's best rice in 2012 and 2013.

This year's contest involved 21 rice varieties from rice-producing countries. Thailand nominated three varieties.

"Thailand lost the championship for four years because the quality of Thai rice dropped due to the rushed rice cultivation that resulted from a previous pledging scheme that accepted every grain. We're champions again because we're emphasising rice quality once more," Mr Chookiat said.

He encouraged the government to promote organic rice cultivation, which he said would bring back the naturally fragrant Hom Mali rice of the past, when paddy fields were not contaminated with chemicals. https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1356968/its-official-thai-rice-is-the-worldsbest

Thailand's fragrant Hom Mali rice voted world's best ď&#x201A;ˇ

9 Nov 2017 at 08:22 WRITER: TERRY FREDRICKSON

ď&#x201A;ˇ

ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: PHUSADEE ARUNMAS

Thailand's Hom Mali rice was declared the world's best rice on Wednesday. (File photo) The World Rice Conference has declared Thailand's fragrant Hom Mali variety the world's best rice, maintaining Thailand's number one position.

It's official: Thai rice is the world's best

Phusadee Arunmas The World Rice Conference has declared Thailand's fragrant Hom Mali variety the world's best rice, maintaining Thailand's number one position after several years of lower rice quality due to a previous rice-pledging scheme.

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Daily Global, Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said that the conference in Macau on Wednesday declared the Hom Mali 105 varietythe world's best rice in 2017, while the second and third rankings went to Cambodian and Vietnam. He said the referees were chefs from hotels in Macau, and the criteria were the taste and shape of the rice grain.

It was the second consecutive year that Thailand's fragrant rice won the championship. It had lost the title to Myanmar in 2011, Cambodia in 2012-2013 and the US in 2015.

Winning the title again this year would boost Thai rice revenues, Mr Chookiat said, as it would increase both global demand and prices.

He added the price of Thai Hom Mali rice was already much higher than that of Cambodian and Vietnamese varieties, with Thai Hom Mali quoted at US$850 a tonne, compared to Cambodia's at $750 and Vietnam's at $550.

Over the past four years, the price of Cambodian rice approached the Thai price, Mr Chookiat said, as Cambodian rice was judged the world's best rice in 2012 and 2013.

This year's contest involved 21 rice varieties from rice-producing countries. Thailand nominated three varieties.

"Thailand lost the championship for four years because the quality of Thai rice dropped due to the rushed rice cultivation that resulted from a previous pledging scheme that accepted every grain. We're champions again because we're emphasising rice quality once more," Mr Chookiat said.

He encouraged the government to promote organic rice cultivation, which he said would bring back the naturally fragrant Hom Mali rice of the past, when paddy fieldswere not contaminated with chemicals. https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/advanced/1357353/thailands-fragrant-hom-mali-rice-votedworlds-best

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