Singapore – Rice prices head higher
Source: The Wall Street Journal14/12/2011 – Aggressive buying by Asian governments is pushing up rice prices, even as the world heads for a second straight year of record harvests.
Bangladesh – Prawns net profit for flood-hit Bangladesh rice farmers
Source: AlertNet12/12/2011 – The world may have agreed to start work on a new accord to cut planet-warming emissions due to come into force by 2020, but for many poor people in developing countries, that is an age away. Rice farmers in flood-prone Bangladesh need solutions to their climate woes now, and are finding that prawns…
India – India’s rice exports may touch 7mn tonnes in 2011-12
Source: Moneycontrol.com12/12/2011 – CRISIL Ratings has come out with its report on Indian rice. As per the rating agency India’s rice exports is expected to reach around 7 million tonnes in 2011-12, up from 2.2 million tonnes in 2010-11.
Guyana – Over 153,000 tonnes of rice shipped to Venezuela in 2011
Source: Kaieteur News12/12/2011 – More than 5,000 tonnes of rice was loaded at the John Fernandes Wharf on Saturday, for shipment to Venezuela, as Guyana continues to export this major resource in exchange of the $160M debt owed to Venezuela for oil.
Philippines – Filipinos’ rice intake goes up as they cannot afford to buy meat, fruits – BAS
Source: Inquirer news11/12/2011 – Filipinos’ rice consumption remains high, but their intake of meat and vegetables have gone down over the years, a sign that they cannot afford a more varied and nutritious diet, according to agriculture experts.
Resequencing 50 accessions of rice cast new light on molecular breeding
Source: Physorg.com11/12/2011 – BGI, the world’s largest genomics organization, announced that a study on resequencing 50 accessions of cultivated and wild rice was published online today in Nature Biotechnology. The study provides one of the largest genome variation data sets for wild and cultivated rice, which is valuable for breeding and for identifying agronomically important genes…
USA – U.S. rice exports to increase in 2012-13
Source: Delta Farm Press09/12/2011 – U.S. rice exports, particularly for long-grain, are expected to recover next marketing year, after the significant decline in 2011-12, according to Nathan Childs, senior rice market analyst with USDA’s Economic Research Service.
Japan – Japan expands rice-shipment ban as contamination spreads
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek08/12/2011 – Japan extended a ban on rice shipments to another area in Fukushima prefecture after local authorities found more tainted grain, deepening food-safety concerns nine months after a nuclear disaster.
From emergency to sustainability: rice
Source: CGIAR07/12/2011 – Emergency programs generally focus on short-term relief rather than on sustainable development. However, by adopting a knowledge-based approach, two emergency projects launched in response to the rice-price crisis of 2008 in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) not only met immediate relief goals but also put in place efficient systems to boost rice production in the…
Philippines – Good rice harvest means Philippines to import less
Source: PhilStar.com06/12/2011 – The Philippines, the world’s largest rice importer, expects a good harvest in the next dry season and will import less in the coming year.