Thailand – Farmers vow mass protest if rice price cut
Source: Bangkok Post01/03/2013 – The Commerce Ministry’s proposal to slash the rice pledging price has infuriated paddy farmers, who are threatening to hold a mass rally if it goes ahead.
Thailand – MInistry seeks to trim rice price
Source: The Nation28/02/2013 – With rice exports moving sluggishly, the Commerce Ministry will tomorrow propose that the National Rice Policy Committee revise down its pledged price from Bt15,000 a tonne to Bt13,000 or Bt14,000 a tonne for white paddy rice in April’s second-crop harvest season.
Philippines – NFA pushed to become sole PH rice importer
Source: Rappler26/02/2013 – Farmers groups and the government are pushing for the National Food Authority (NFA) to become the sole importer of ordinary rice in the Philippines to combat smuggling.
Singapore – Global rice prices expected to drop
Source: The Wall Street Journal26/02/2013 – Rice prices may keep falling, unlike that of wheat and soybeans. Rice stocks held by the world’s top exporters could rise to record highs this year due to bountiful harvests, shrinking import demand in the main markets and a costly government policy, according to a report released this week…
Philippines – PH plans exportation of high-quality rice
Source: Business Inquirer25/02/2013 – The Philippines, which is known as the world’s top rice importer, plans to pursue more aggressively its goal of going into rice exportation.
USA – Bout over Colorado River release for rice a harbinger for rural water?
Source: Statesman.com23/02/2013 – One August morning in 1915, Aaron Simon, a Jew who had immigrated to the United States at the turn of the century to flee the pogroms and deprivations of Czarist Russia, led a motorcade from Bay City to Bastrop to address the Colorado River Improvement Association.
USA – Uncertainty affects rice farmers’ plans for 2013
Source: Daily Democrat22/02/2013 – Greater competition from Australia and Egypt in the global market has dampened export prospects for California rice, and farmers say they worry they will have a harder time covering their production costs as they face lower returns and uncertainty in future farm programs.
India – Bihar’s claim of rice record ‘fake’, says top China scientist
Source: The Hindu22/02/2013 – China’s most renowned agricultural scientist has described as “120 per cent fake” claims that farmers in Bihar harvested a world record 22.4 tonnes of rice from one hectare of land without using herbicides or genetically modified (GM) seeds last year. A national icon, Yuan Longping is known here as “the father…
Rice promotions serve up success in Ghana
Source: Delta Farm Press21/02/2013 – Ghana is the largest commercial market for U.S. rice sales on the African continent. For more than 10 years, the USA Rice Federation has conducted successful promotional activities in this key market. As a result, U.S. rice is well-known among Ghanaian consumers and is preferred over long-grain rice from other…
Nigeria – American farmer sets for rice farming in Taraba
Source: All Africa20/02/2013 – An American farmer, Calvin Burgess of Guthrie, Oklahoma, owner of Dominion Rice and Integrated Farms Limited, is set to begin a large scale mechanised rice farming in Taraba State beginning this year’s farming season.