29th April , 2014

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Arkansas fields flooded by heavy rains Palay price at record high P25 per kilo Access to Japans Markets Crucial in Trade Pact: Vilsack NFA awards rice supply contracts to 2 Vietnamese firms Supplyco sets paddy procurement target ECI permits opening new paddy procurement centres AIC pays claims to rice farmers in Lagos Toxicologist: "Approach to Food Chemical Safety is Wrong" Louisiana Senate Ag Committee Approves Check-Off Fixes CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures Report: U.S. doesn't need mandatory GMO labeling Budding Conservation Practice Helps Farmers use Technology to Control Amount, Timing of Water

News Detail Arkansas fields flooded by heavy rains

Apr 29, 2014Mary Hightower, University of Arkansas | Delta Farm Press

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Heavy rains in Arkansas Sunday submerged some crop fields entirely, and most fields were flooded at their low ends, reports Andy Vangilder, Clay County Extension staff chair for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.A lot of our rice levees were washed down and will have to be built back up when the land dries, he said Monday. For those parts of fields underwater, if the water gets off soon, we may possibly not lose too much crop. The deadly storm system that surged across the state Sunday (April 27) brought up to 7 inches of rain in some places and revived images of past flooding when rivers across the Arkansas Delta rose from their banks claiming homes, businesses and roads. Fourteen people died in Sunday nights storms.Having local rivers recede may take some time, because some of the water is still draining south from While most parts of Asia are bracing for lower rainfall and farm output this year if the El Nio weather pattern returns, Thailand is eyeing a rare opportunity to unload tons of expensive rice stocks.The government has accumulated billions of dollars worth of rice in warehouses around the country after buying up the grain at above market prices to help farmers and drive up rural incomes.Thai policy makers bet that they would increase global prices for local rice by stockpiling the grain. But instead, other exporters such as India and Vietnam took advantage of the buying to flood the market with their reservesdriving down prices.Now though, with the possible return of the El Nio weather pattern, rice supplies in Asia might be cut and prices might rice, prompting Thailands producers to sell. El Nio is set in motion when winds in the equatorial Pacific slow down or reverse direction . That warms the water over a vast area and can upend weather patterns around the world.If there is a production cut due to lack of water, its probably a good thing and will provide the government a chance to release more from its stockpile, currently estimated at around 10 million tons, said Korbsook Iamsuri, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association. It estimates the country can export 8.5 million to nine million tons this year.For India though, the worlds largest rice exporter, sparse rainfall may cause trouble. Rice is Indias main summer crop, so any shortfall could cause economic pain. Indias warehouses arent as full as Thailands because it opened up its plentiful stocks for exports a couple of years ago to clear space. Tejinder Narang, a grain analyst, said Thailand is likely to gain ground this year on some of Indias rice markets, particularly in Africa and the Middle East.Another Indian executive, Vijay Setia, former president of the All India Rice Exporters Association, voiced optimism that India would continue to maintain its rank as the

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worlds top rice exporter despite fears of El Nio. He said the weather event might not drastically reduce Indias output.El Nio or not, Indias rice market may not be as buoyant this year.It will be difficult for India to sustain the same level of production as in the past two years, said Trilochan Mahapatra, director of the Central Rice Research Institute, which is based out of the eastern Indian town of Bhubaneswar.Indias rice output in the last crop year ended June 2013 was estimated at 104.4 million tons.

Image: Missouri.A flock of pigeons fly over a pile of rice drying in a courtyard at the Sahakorn Kan Kasert rice mill in U Ya, Suphan Buri province, Thailand, on Monday, Feb. 17, 2014.

Palay price at record high P25 per kilo

By Dino Balabo Apr 29, 2014 MALOLOS CITY The price of palay has reached record high of P25 per kilo which some officials attributed to the cessation of rice smuggling, lack of irrigation and a series of disasters last year. Rice traders at the Intercity Industrial Estate in Bocaue town said that palay price has climbed to P25, while local farmers in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija said that farm gate price rose to P23 per kilo.The National Food Authority (NFA) confirmed such prevailing prices and said their procurement price remain between P17 to P19 per kilo, depending on the quality of rice. This the first time that palay price reached P25 a kilo, a trader in Bocaue town who asked not to be named said in the vernacular. The said price is confirmed by the NFA as the highest price per kilo of palay in the last 10 years. The trader noted that in the past weeks, rice price at Intercity, the known rice trading center in Luzon has fluctuated between P21 to P24 per kilo. He said since the end of March they expected that prices would go down with the coming of locally harvested rice.However, last week, the price climbed to P25 per kilo due to lack of supply. According to Rex Estoperez, NFA spokesperson, a number of factors contributed to the price hike. In an interview Saturday, Estoperez cited cessation of rice smuggling, lack of irrigation and natural calamities that hit the country late last year.Normally, our commercial traders are fighting for summer harvest dahil di na nila kailangang ibilad pa yon at naibebenta agad nila, he said. He added that while commercial traders immediately sell locally harvested rice, they keep rice in their inventories which, he said, are sourced somewhere. Malaki rin ang epekto ng pagtigil ng rice smuggling, pero, siyempre we also have to consider the lack of irrigation and natural calamities, he said. Estoperez explained that in some areas, irrigation came in late, while in other areas especially those that were hit by calamities, farmers tried to re-plant, but ran out of water.With regards to increase of palay price, the NFA spokesperson explained that its price will double when the palay is milled. This means that palay bought at P23 will be sold at P46 per kilo after milling. We expect that milled

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rice price will increase during the lean months, thats why the NFA is importing 800,000 metric town, he said. This will be in addition to 400,000 metric tons imported late last year, but arrived in the country in January. Estoperez explained that NFA will keep the 800,000 metric tons as buffer stocks in preparation for the lean months from May to July this year.As this developed, local farmers here are overjoyed with the record high P25 per kilo of palay. However, they express concern that consumers will suffer most. Ang tatamaan niyan ay mga kababayan din natin dahil sila ang end user, tiyak na tataas ang presyo ng bigas sa tag-ulan kung hindi makokontrol ng NFA ang presyo, Melencio Domingo said.As chair of the Malolos City Agriculture and Fisheries Cou ncil, Domingo said that the government must provide support to farmers to avoid price hike. Among the assistance he mentioned were seedling and fertilizer subsidy, andsupport price for farmers. For his part, Estoperez said that the government is already subsidizing rice sold by the NFA to the market, that for every kilo of P38 NFA rice, the government is shelling out at least P6 in subsidy.

Access to Japans Markets Crucial in Trade Pact: Vilsack

By Brian Wingfield 2014-04-28T22:14:37Z A Pacific-rim trade agreement may have to proceed without Japan if the Asian nation doesnt open its agricultural markets to imports, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.It is incumbent upon us to have market access, and if the Japanese are unwilling and unable to provide that market access, then the other alternative is that you have a less comprehensive agreement in which the Japanese are not part, Vilsack told reporters and editors at Bloomberg Government today in Washington. We dont want that. We think its really important for the benefit of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal that Japan be part of this.Vilsack said the U.S. isnt considering moving forward without Japan, and that it would be inappropriate to comment on the U.S. negotiating position in the talks because hes not involved in the actual discussions. Negotiators are at odds over Japans market restrictions for imports of agricultural goods including rice and beef, even after President Barack Obama met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week during a visit to Asia. The two sides have identified a path forward to resolve some of those issues, according to the U.S. Trade Representatives office.Vilsack said it is encouraging both nations have identified a way that some of the

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differences could potentially be resolved, with the emphasis on the word could and the emphasis on the word potentially. He said much work remains to be done in securing an agreement. Congress Action Vilsack said Congress could help U.S. negotiators by passing legislation known as trade-promotion authority, which lets lawmakers set some guidelines for trade deals while barring them from amending negotiated accords. A majority of Democrats oppose the legislation, saying they want more input to ensure that the Pacific deal doesnt harm U.S. workers.Without greater market access for U.S. agricultural goods, it will b e very difficult for this agreement -- and frankly it should be difficult for this agreement -- to get the approval of Congress, Vilsack said.He also said House Republican leaders need to show political courage to bring legislation to the floor that would revise U.S. immigration laws to give undocumented workers a legal pathway to remain in the U.S. Those additional workers would help boost farm production. Its beyond understanding to me why this isnt getting done, Vilsack said. He said business, lab or and faithbased groups with aligned interests should press for the changes.Now that Congress has passed a new farm bill, Vilsack said his department will take a more active approach to rural economic development. Small businesses need more investment to support the economic expansion supurred in the past half-decade by high commodity prices, he said.Most of the rural areas of the country, youre not looking at large agribusiness with major 500 1,000 employee kinds of business, he said. Youre looking at folks who have 10-15-20 people working in their plant. To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Wingfield in Washington at bwingfield3@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net Steve Geimann

Image:A farmer harvests rice in a paddy field in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Photographer:

NFA awards rice supply contracts to 2 Vietnamese firms

By: Orti Despuez, InterAksyon.com April 29, 2014 12:09 AM InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS

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MANILA The National Food Authority (NFA) has awarded two state-owned Vietnamese firms the contracts to supply the Philippines with 800,000 metric tons of rice.NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez said the agency gave Vietnam Northern Food Corp (Vinafood I) the contract to supply the Philippines with 200,000 metric tons, and Vinafood II the contract to supply 600,000 metric tons.Delivery of the rice stocks is expected starting next month to provide the Philippines with ample supply during the lean season.The two Vietnamese firms offered the lowest prices at $436-439 per metric ton for Vinafood I and $436.5-439.25 for Vinafood II during a tender the NFA held early this month. The bids were lower than the NFAs ceiling of $477.28.

Supplyco sets paddy procurement target

KOCHI, APRIL 29: The State-owned Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) is likely to procure 6 lakh tonnes of paddy from farmers in the State during 2014-15.The figures were 5 lakh tonnes in 2013-14 and 3.6 lakh tonnes in 2012-13. The total procurement saw an increase of about 40 per cent in 2013-14, Lakshman Gugulloth, Managing Director of the company, said. The corporation will disburse 150 crore to paddy farmers this week. With this, payment for the Paddy Receipt Sheet (PRS) up to March 31 will be completed in all the districts. An amount of 125 crore was paid to paddy farmers towards the cost of paddy during February and March this year, he said. About 3.2 lakh tonnes of paddy has been procured by Supplyco from about one lakh paddy farmers of the State so far during the 2013-14. It is expected that about 80,000 tonnes will be procured during May. The Corporation, which has over 1,200 retail outlets, is targeting a sales turnover of 5,000 crore this financial year against 3,415 crore in the last fiscal, he said. (This article was published on April 29, 2014)

ECI permits opening new paddy procurement centres

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The Election Commission of India (ECI) has revisited its curbs over procurement of paddy and maize by the government agencies. ECI Principal Secretary Tapas Kumar has issued a fresh direction to the Chief Election Officer, Hyderabad, in a letter No. 437 /AP-HP/LA 2014, dated 24-4-2014, according permission for opening of new purchase centres for procurement by the government agencies.It may be recalled that The Hindu has carried a news item on the reported uncertainty over paddy procurement in the Krishna and the Godavari delta regions in the rabi in the wake of the ECIs curbs. In this backdrop, a delegation of peasant representatives led by the Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA) chairman Peddireddy Chengal Reddy brought to the notice of Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath the hardships being faced by farmers in receiving minimum support price from buyers for the produce for want of government intervention.Mr. Tapas Kumar in his letter stated, The Commission has reconsidered and has directed that the Andhra Pradesh Markfed and the other such organisations may open new centres for procuring agricultural commodities at locations as per the requirement. He further adds, The conditions pertaining to the rates shall remain as it is.

AIC pays claims to rice farmers in Lagos

April 29, 2014 | Filed under: Company News | Author: Modestus Anaesoronye Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) has indemnified small-holder farmers in Lagos State whose rice farms were destroyed following heavy drought in September 2013. And considering the role of small-holders farmers in the agricultural value chain, the Lagos State government is excited by the prompt response of the insurance company to enable the 100 affected farmers return to business.NAIC had recently settled the claims in order to indemnify 100 farmers who had experienced crop losses on over 120 hectares of rice field that was occasioned by drought in September 2013.In a commendation letter to the Corporation, the permanent secretary of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, signed by Olayiwole Onasanya, lauded NAIC for the prompt investigation and payment of the claims, which had ameliorated the pain of the losses suffered by the small-holder farmers. The permanent secretary while appreciating the due diligence and prompt payment of the claims by NAIC, added that the rice farmers were encouraged and convinced of the critical importance of crop insurance in sustainable agricultural development.Bode Opadokun, managing director of NAIC, while acknowledging the letter of commendation, urged both large and small scale farmers in the country to embrace Agricultural Insurance to cover the risks that were attendant to agricultural practices, saying in the event of any disaster NAIC would be readily available to settle all verifiable claims.He assured that NAIC had several insurance covers which all categories of agro-allied business operators could take, saying losses and disasters do not affect local farmers alone, but equally affect the whole agricultural value chain, including the suppliers of inputs as well as the consumers. Opadokun therefore decried the poor awareness and response of farmers towards agric insurance policies, saying the Corporation primarily existed to indemnify all categories of farmers against unforeseen natural disasters, with the view to keeping the farmers in business at all levels of the agric value chain.He therefore reassured NAIC clientele nationwide of excellent customers service given the present re-engineering initiative

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of the new management, which is committed to repositioning the Corporation for optimal service delivery in the business environment.

Toxicologist: "Approach to Food Chemical Safety is Wrong"

BELTSVILLE, MD -- In a presentation at the annual spring symposium of the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) here, a leading Coughlin: "U.S.-grown rice is food toxicologist, Dr. James R. Coughlin, said there is a better way to approach food chemical safety issues."We need to take a holistic approach," safe and nutritious." he said. "There may be a health risk associated with some foods which contain trace levels of a toxic chemical, but there may be an even greater public health risk to eliminating that food from your diet. It is much more important to examine the safety and benefits of the whole food than to merely focus, as we have done for decades, on the presence of a very low level of a toxic chemical in that food."Coughlin said the traditional approach to food chemical safety, where a single chemical is studied in the food essentially in a vacuum, does not lead to sound public health results, can create false alarm for the public, and often doesn't take into account the mitigating health benefits of a particular food. Coughlin pointed to the issue of arsenic in rice that has gained some sensationalist media attention despite assurances from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that arsenic levels "found in its testing are too low to cause immediate or short-term adverse health effects." "After looking at the risks and benefits data I am not prepared to say anything that would lead rice eaters to change their diet," said Dr. Terry Troxell, a scientist and former Director of the FDA's Office of Plant and Dairy Foods, who also presented at the conference. Coughlin described the conclusions of a major 2013 review of inorganic arsenic's potential cancer risks by Dr. Samuel Cohen of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Cohen and his collaborators found there is little, if any, cause for concern when it comes to human exposure to low levels of inorganic arsenic in foods and in the environment.Coughlin said that "Cohen showed that even though inorganic arsenic is a known human carcinogen for some people exposed to very large amounts, there is no direct link between human cancer and inorganic arsenic when the levels are below a threshold dose.

Coughlin believes that "levels of inorganic arsenic in rice are just too low to reach any of the thresholds. Add to that there are important health benefits associated with eating rice.""There have been no documented incidents in which arsenic in U.S. rice has led to human health problems," said Coughlin during his presentation. "In fact, many populations that consume up to five times more rice than Americans have lower overall disease rates - and the rice they are eating likely has higher arsenic levels, since U.S. rice is consistently shown to have among the lowest levels anywhere in the world." Coughlin concluded that "in spite of the very low arsenic levels in rice, rice is still a safe and nutritious food."

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CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures CME Group (Preliminary): Closing Rough Rice Futures for April 29

Month

Price

Net Change

May 2014 July 2014 September 2014 November 2014 January 2015 March 2015 May 2015 Contact: Michael Klein, (703) 236-1458

$15.625 $15.540 $14.575 $14.705 $14.895 $15.070 $15.070

+ $0.175 + $0.170 + $0.160 + $0.170 + $0.170 + $0.170 + $0.170

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Louisiana Senate Ag Committee Approves Check-Off Fixes BATON ROUGE, LA -- The Louisiana Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture, and Rural Development voted today to approve rice check-off legislation that was approved by the House on April 10. The legislation makes changes to the Louisiana Rice Check-Off statutes introduced in response to the state Supreme Court's ruling late last year that elements of the statutes, created forty years ago, were unconstitutional. The two bills, HB 886 and HB 1045, fund vital research and promotion efforts and were unanimously approved by the Committee. Both billsnow move to the full Senate for consideration in the coming days.The bills set the assessments at current levels, provide for a refund provision for any growers who do not wish to support research or promotion activities funded by check-off dollars, and expand the size of the rice research and promotion boards by two seats each. Contact: Randy Jemison, (337) 738-7009

Report: U.S. doesn't need mandatory GMO labeling

By Aarian Marshall Copyright Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc. WASHINGTON, April 28, 2014 - A new report from the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) used public polling, food safety and testing data and philosophical and legal evaluations to determine that mandatory labeling of genetically modified (GM) food would increase food costs and have negative implications for First Amendment rights.The report also concludes there is no science-based reason to single out genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for labeling and finds that GMOs are safe for human consumption.CAST says the report is response to seemingly contradictory studies on labeling, some of which are funded by groups with stakes in the debate. The paper's authors call for a renewed dialogue on GMO issues, which would include a reenergized push for independent and fact-based studies on the issue.Independent objective information on the scientific issues and the possible legal and economic consequences of mandatory GE food labels need to be provided to legislators and consumersto help move the national discussion from contentious claims to a more fact-based and informed dialog, the authors write.Though the report does not present an estimate for the costs of mandatory

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food labels, it finds that costs would vary widely depending on how food manufacturers respond to a hypothetical labeling rule from the FDA. Companies could choose to simply label their products and keep their formulas as they are now - that's the least expensive option. But firms could also decide to change their products to avoid labels, shifting away from GMO ingredients and changing well-established sourcing and supply chains. The report also touches upon state mandatory labeling laws, just as Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is poised to sign the country's first mandatory GM label law this week. (Connecticut and Maine have passed laws that would mandate labeling in their states only if four contiguous states created similar legislation.)[S]tate mandatory labeling laws may be invalidated for conflicting with preemptive federal authority and may also violate First Amendment rights, the report's authors write. But courts that invalidate state laws will be viewed as hostile to consumers' wishes. Litigation seems a likely outcome, the report concludes - an assertion borne out by recent statements from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), which has said it will attempt to reverse Vermont's law in court.

Budding Conservation Practice Helps Farmers use Technology to Control Amount, Timing of Water

Posted by Ciji Taylor, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on April 28, 2014 at 2:00 PM

Planting foxtail millet, a summer annual forage with low water needs, helps conserve water for subsequent crops. Photo by Scott Bauer.An up-andcoming conservation practice offered by USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) helps farmers and ranchers manage water on their land, keep water clean and better cope with extreme weather like drought.Drainage water management enables landowners to determine when and how much water leaves farms through underground tiles and drainage ditches. Underground tiles lay beneath fields removing excess water from the soil subsurface.Since landowners dont need the same drainage intensity at all times during the year, this practice lets them use their drainage water in a way thats most advantageous to them, their crops and the environment, NRCS Senior Project Leader Paul Sweeney said.

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Farmers can incorporate this practice, which involves installing a water-level control structure on tile lines or even in open drainage ditches.The water-level control structure gives landowners the ability to manage the subsurface water level by turning on and off drainage systems. By doing this, landowners can improve water quality by minimizing unnecessary tile drainage and reducing the amount of nutrients that leave farm fields.There are so many aspects of farming that we cannot control, but this low-cost water control system really gives you more options to manage and control your water, Sweeney said. It puts that power into farmers hands.Farmers and ranchers can use drainage water management systems to retain water that crops can use for growth and production later in the season, which is helpful during times of drought. Water is important for crops to grow, but too much water can hurt them. Just as this practice allows farmers to bring water to crops, they can also use it to remove water.With this practice, Im in the drivers seat with water and water levels on these fields, said Dennis Braeuninger, a farmer in Illinois. I control it; it doesnt control me. Thats a good feeling.Drainage water management is best suited for flat, uniform cropland with a slope of 1 percent or less, but it may be considered for fields with slopes up to 2 percent, depending on the layout of the drainage system. For lands with steeper ground, NRCS can offer other beneficial conservation practices.To get started with NRCS, visit your local USDA Service Center or www.nrcs.usda.gov/GetStarted. Learn more about drainage water management by visiting the NRCS website.

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