9th december,2020 daily global regional local rice e newsletter

Daily Global, Regional & Local Rice E-Newsletter
1 | w w w . r i c e p l u s s . c o m , w w w . r i c e p l u s m a g a z i n e . b l o s g s p o t . c o m
December 09 ,2020 Vol 11 Issue 12
www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com
mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com 92 321 3692874

Editorial Board
Chief Editor
 Hamlik
Managing Editor
 Abdul Sattar Shah
 Rahmat Ullah
 Rozeen Shaukat
English Editor
 Maryam Editor
 Legal Advisor
 Advocate Zaheer Minhas
Editorial Associates
 Admiral (R) Hamid Khalid
 Javed Islam Agha
 Zahid Baig(Business Recorder)
 Dr.Akhtar Hussain
 Dr.Fayyaz Ahmad Siddiqui
 Dr.Abdul Rasheed (UAF)
 Islam Akhtar Khan
Editorial Advisory Board
 Dr.Malik Mohammad Hashim
Assistant Professor, Gomal
University DIK
 Dr.Hasina Gul
Assistant Director, Agriculture KPK
 Dr.Hidayat Ullah
Assistant Professor, University
of Swabi
 Dr.Abdul Basir
Assistant Professor, University of
Swabi
 Zahid Mehmood
PSO,NIFA Peshawar
 Falak Naz Shah
Head Food Science & Technology
ART, Peshawar
Rice News Headlines…
 Success for Pakistan; Illegal registration of “KERNAL” rice trademark
canceled
 FEATURE-Pakistan looks to new tech to curb crop burning and cut
smog
 In Pakistan, a 'Happy' solution to curb crop burning takes off
 Pakistan files opposition notice in EU
 Pakistan looks to new tech to curb crop burning and cut smog
 Bantwal: Mechanic creates cost-effective rice thrasher using weed
cutter
 DA turns over P220M in farm machinery, aid
 Saudi govt delists ‘Kernal’ rice trademark on Pakistan’s objection
 Govt now allows millers to supply less rice
 Nigeria: How Kano Is Becoming Country’s Rice Milling Hub
 Japan space agency hails return of asteroid dust on Earth
 Scientists get the lowdown on sun's super-hot atmosphere
 2020 Rice Award Winners on The Rice Stuff Podcast
 Rice and Beans, With an Exhilarating Crunch
 India, US Sign Deal on Intellectual Property Cooperation
 Pakistan looks to new tech to curb crop burning and cut smog
 Palay price slumps to low of P 10/kilo
 Farmers’ association calls cash-assistance bill a departure from rice
competitiveness goals
 Explainer: India's Multi-Billion Dollar Food Programme Is at the Heart
of Farmers' Protests
 Rice growers warn there may be no locally-grown rice on supermarket
shelves by next year
 Rice exporters challenge Indian GI claims on basmati in EU
 Japanese food company introduces low-protein, ready-to-eat rice in
PH
 Development of Pollen Substitute Diets for Apis mellifera ligustica
Colonies and their Impact on Brood Development and Honey
Production

News Detail…
Success for Pakistan; Illegal registration of ―KERNAL‖
rice trademark canceled
The minister thanked the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) for bringing the issue
to the Ministry of Commerce‘s notice.
Ali Ahmed 08 Dec 2020
In a major success for the country‟s rice exporters, Pakistan has managed to cancel of
illegal registration of the trademark “KERNAL” by an overseas rice company, informed
Advisor to Prime Minister on Trade and Finance Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday.
―I am glad to share that we have achieved cancelation of illegal registration of the trademark
―KERNAL‖ by a rice company overseas,‖ informed Dawood in a tweet post. ―This was

tantamount to unfair use of intellectual property of Pakistan, as the word is similar to SUPER
KERNEL, a premium Pakistani rice variety,‖ he said.
The minister thanked the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) for bringing the issue
to the Ministry of Commerce‘s notice. ―I urge exporters to keep informing MOC of such
violations so that we can protect Pakistan‘s intellectual property overseas,‖ he added.
About 838,770 metric tons of rice valuing US $ 499.485 million exported during first four
months of current financial year as compared the exports of 1,176,228 metric tons worth US $
633.797 million of corresponding period of last year.
According the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, rice exports from the country during the
period from July-October, 2020-21 decreased by 21.19 percent as compared to the exports of the
same period of last year.
https://www.brecorder.com/news/40038724/success-for-pakistan-illegal-registration-of-
kernal-rice-trademark-canceled
FEATURE-Pakistan looks to new tech to curb crop
burning and cut smog
By Rina Saeed Khan, Thomson Reuters Foundation
DECEMBER 8, 202011:02 am
LAHORE, Pakistan, Dec 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Air pollution is a long-standing
problem in Pakistan, but every October and November contaminates in the air in Punjab
province shoot up as farmers burn rice stalks left behind after harvesting to clear their fields to
plant wheat.
During these cooler months, the provincial capital Lahore, which is surrounded by rice-growing
districts, is covered with thick smog.
―It is a health emergency – the air quality monitors in Lahore routinely show hazardous levels in
November,‖ said Farah Rashid, a climate and energy programme coordinator for green group
WWF-Pakistan.
Now the Punjab government hopes to tackle the problem by providing 500 rice farmers around
Lahore with a set of machines that together eliminate the need to burn crop stubble.
The machines include a shredder that breaks down rice stubble and mulches it into the ground
and a seed drill - called the Happy Seeder - that follows to sow wheat through the mulch.
―It‘s a useful technology,‖ said farmer Aaamer Hayat Bhandara, who has used both machines at
a friend‘s large farm, and has pushed the government to subsidise them.

―These machines used together could really make life much easier for us farmers,‖ said
Bhandara, from Pakpattan in Punjab province.
Malik Amin Aslam, climate change advisor to Prime Minister Imran Khan, called air pollution a
―silent killer‖ and said Lahore‘s smog had increased in intensity and frequency over the last five
years.
He explained that rice farmers traditionally use combine harvesters to cut their rice in October,
leaving behind about four inches of stubble.
With less than two weeks before they have to ready their fields to sow wheat, burning is the
fastest way to clear the land, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In Pakistan, rice is grown on an area of about 2 million hectares (5 million acres), mainly in the
Punjab and Sindh provinces. Many of the fields are cleared by burning every year.
In October and November, Lahore‘s Air Quality Index level can jump to over 300, a number that
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says corresponds to a ―health warning of emergency
conditions‖.
CUTTING EMISSIONS
Farmers say the new farm equipment can help combat smog, but note that crop burning produces
only a small share of the province‘s pollution.
―The stubble is burned only for a few weeks in the winter. It is a fact that the problem becomes
worse during this short period,‖ Bhandara said.
―But farmers are not the only reason for this pollution,‖ he added.
A 2018 report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the underlying causes
of smog in Punjab noted that agriculture - mainly rice residue burning - accounts for 20% of total
air pollutant emissions.
That puts it behind industry, which produces a quarter of the air pollution in the province, and
transport, which contributes more than 40%.
Tackling air pollution - and leaving stubble on the soil as mulch, rather than burning it - also has
the benefit of reducing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.
In India, where farmers have been using the rice stubble shredder and Happy Seeder for the past
few years, a group of scientists published a report last year stating the technology could cut
greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 78%.

Ejaz Ahmad, an environmental expert with the Institute of Urbanism in Islamabad, said any
efforts to curb air pollution will benefit Pakistanis.
―The Happy Seeder seems like a useful machine,‖ he said.
CHOSEN BY LOTTERY
In Mandi Bahauddin district, where famed Basmati rice is grown, Muhammad Afzal, an
agriculture officer at Punjab‘s Government Agriculture Seed Farm, has been experimenting with
the Happy Seeder for the past two years.
―Stubble management is a serious issue for farmers,‖ said Afzal, who helps farmers adopt new
farming techniques.
Pakistan has penalties for rice stubble burning, including fines of up to 20,000 Pakistani rupees
($125) per acre - but most farmers have little other choice and simply continue the practice and
pay the penalty when they are charged.
But a growing number are looking for alternative solutions, Afzal said.
The total cost for the stubble shredder and Happy Seeder is about 637,500 rupees ($4,000), and
the government this year is paying about 80% of the price for 500 farmers, he noted.
―For those who can‘t afford it, bigger farmers are willing to rent out the machines. In the future,
more service providers will come up to rent them out,‖ Afzal said.
One drawback to the machines, he noted, is the need to mount them on the back of a tractor - and
not just any tractor will do.
―It requires a large, 85-horsepower tractor,‖ he noted, something most rice farmers in Pakistan
do not have.
Bhandara, the farmer in Pakpattan, said the subsidised machines also are only available in certain
districts around Lahore, in the so-called smog ―red zone‖.
―The subsidised machines should be made available to rice farmers in South Punjab and Sindh as
well, otherwise they are too expensive for most farmers,‖ he said.
Despite the limitations, the Happy Seeder has proven so popular that the government has had 10
applicants for each of its 500 machines, according to Aslam, the climate change advisor.
He said authorities are using a lottery system to decide who gets the subsidised equipment.
The government has plans to expand the Happy Seeder programme next year and cover the
whole of the Punjab rice belt by 2023, Aslam noted.

In the meantime, he added, it is already working on a technology upgrade.
"The agriculture extension department has developed a prototype to combine the two shredder
(and) seeder machines into one 'Pak Seeder', which will be even more effective and efficient" -
plus 30% cheaper, he said. ($1 = 159.3100 Pakistani rupees) (Reporting by Rina Saeed Khan;
Editing by Jumana Farouky and Laurie Goering. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation,
the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who
struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit news.trust.org/climate)
https://in.reuters.com/article/pakistan-pollution-farming/feature-pakistan-looks-to-new-
tech-to-curb-crop-burning-and-cut-smog-idINL8N2I43PK
In Pakistan, a 'Happy' solution to curb crop burning
takes off
A new effort by the Punjab government to tackle air pollution caused by rice stubble burning is
taking off as machines – called Happy Seeders – are given to farmers at a subsidized cost. The
technology could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 78%.
K. M. Chaudary/AP
Vehicles move through a smog that has enveloped the area of Lahore, Pakistan, Nov. 11, 2020.
Air quality is often at a hazardous level at this time of the year, with agriculture – mainly rice
residue burning – accounting for 20% of total air pollutant emissions.
December 8, 2020
 By Rina Saeed Khan Thomson Reuters Foundation
LAHORE, PAKISTAN
Air pollution is a long-standing problem in Pakistan, but every October and November
contaminates in the air in Punjab province shoot up as farmers burn rice stalks left behind after
harvesting to clear their fields to plant wheat.

―It is a health emergency – the air quality monitors in Lahore routinely show hazardous levels in
November,‖ said Farah Rashid, a climate and energy program coordinator for green group
WWF-Pakistan.
and a seed drill – called the Happy Seeder – that follows to sow wheat through the mulch.
a friend‘s large farm, and has pushed the government to subsidize them.
―These machines used together could really make life much easier for us farmers,‖ said Mr.
years.

In Pakistan, rice is grown on an area of about 2 million hectares, mainly in the Punjab and Sindh
provinces. Many of the fields are cleared by burning every year.
the United States Environmental Protection Agency says corresponds to a ―health warning of
emergency conditions.‖
Cutting emissions
worse during this short period,‖ Mr. Bhandara said.
of smog in Punjab noted that agriculture – mainly rice residue burning – accounts for 20% of
total air pollutant emissions.
Tackling air pollution – and leaving stubble on the soil as mulch, rather than burning it – also has
Chosen by lottery

―Stubble management is a serious issue for farmers,‖ said Mr. Afzal, who helps farmers adopt
new farming techniques.
($125) per acre – but most farmers have little other choice and simply continue the practice and
But a growing number are looking for alternative solutions, Mr. Afzal said.
more service providers will come up to rent them out,‖ Mr. Afzal said.
One drawback to the machines, he noted, is the need to mount them on the back of a tractor –
and not just any tractor will do.
do not have.
Mr. Bhandara, the farmer in Pakpattan, said the subsidized machines also are only available in
certain districts around Lahore, in the so-called smog ―red zone.‖
―The subsidized machines should be made available to rice farmers in South Punjab and Sindh as
applicants for each of its 500 machines, according to Mr. Aslam, the climate change advisor.
He said authorities are using a lottery system to decide who gets the subsidized equipment.
The government has plans to expand the Happy Seeder program next year and cover the whole
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2020/1208/In-Pakistan-a-Happy-solution-
to-curb-crop-burning-takes-off

Pakistan files opposition notice in EU
Challenges India‘s geographical indication claim on Basmati rice
Our Correspondents
December 08, 2020
PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE:
Pakistan has filed an opposition against India's claim of geographical indication (GI)
tag for Basmati rice in the European Union (EU).
A geographical indication is a sign used for products with a specific geographical
origin, possessing qualities or reputation essentially based on natural and human
factors of their place of origin.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Adviser to the PM on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood said,
―I wish to inform that Pakistan has filed its opposition against the Indian application
to European Commission for granting exclusive rights on the use of Basmati for its
rice exports to European Union (EU).‖
He added, ―We assure the rice community that we will defend our case with due
diligence and commitment.‖
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Tuesday, the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan
(REAP) stated it filed the Notice of Opposition on December 7, 2020 against India‘s claim of
geographical indication (GI) on Basmati rice in the European Union.
―The association took the step on behalf of rice exporters and farmers of Pakistan, who were
facing the threat of losing income worth billions of dollars.‖
The association stressed that Pakistan‘s Basmati export segment was thriving, which put the
country among top five exporters of the commodity.
Recently, India sought protection of its Basmati rice as a GI product in the European Union in
an attempt to hinder Pakistan‘s growing exports and the expansion of local Basmati segment.
―Exports of Pakistan‘s Basmati rice to the European Union have almost doubled in the last
five years and they have even outpaced India‘s exports,‖ REAP said.
Importers and other customers of Basmati in the European Union prefer Pakistan‘s rice over
India‘s due to its fine aroma, sweet taste and soft texture.
It added that food safety standards of Pakistan including the use of high-quality pesticides had
resulted in increased demand for Pakistan‘s Basmati rice abroad.
―Pakistan has the legal right to export Basmati under its original brand name in accordance
with the decades-old practices followed by the European Union,‖ it said.
The association pointed out that European importers had also raised objections to the Indian
stance and voiced support for Pakistan. ―REAP, in collaboration with the Ministry of
Commerce, is striving for an early legislation on GI rules in Pakistan.‖
The rules will enable Basmati exporters and farmers of Pakistan to protect their product name
in international markets.

―An internally registered GI of Basmati will strengthen Pakistan‘s case in the coming legal
stages in the European Commission,‖ it said. ―REAP remains optimistic that Pakistan has a
strong case as the EU recognises Pakistan as an authentic Basmati growing region.‖
The protection of Basmati as Pakistan‘s indigenous product is crucial to sustain rice exports.
Earlier in the day, Dawood also shared that Pakistan had achieved cancellation of illegal
registration of the trademark ―KERNAL‖ by a rice company overseas.
―This was tantamount to unfair use of intellectual property of Pakistan, as the word is similar
to SUPER KERNEL, a premium Pakistani rice variety‖ the adviser tweeted.
The commerce adviser also thanked REAP for bringing the issue to the Ministry of
Commerce‘s notice and urged exporters to keep informing the ministry of such violations so
that it could protect Pakistan‘s intellectual property overseas.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2275173/pakistan-files-opposition-to-india-rice-claim-tomorrow
Pakistan looks to new tech to curb crop burning and
cut smog
by Rina Saeed Khan | @rinasaeed | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Tuesday, 8 December 2020 06:00 GMT
Subsidised farm machinery that eliminates the need to burn fields could improve Lahore's
choking air pollution, government hopes
By Rina Saeed Khan

LAHORE, Pakistan, Dec 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Air pollution is a long-standing
problem in Pakistan, but every October and November contaminates in the air in Punjab
province shoot up as farmers burn rice stalks left behind after harvesting to clear their fields to
plant wheat.
"It is a health emergency – the air quality monitors in Lahore routinely show hazardous levels in
November," said Farah Rashid, a climate and energy programme coordinator for green group
WWF-Pakistan.
and a seed drill - called the Happy Seeder - that follows to sow wheat through the mulch.
"It's a useful technology," said farmer Aaamer Hayat Bhandara, who has used both machines at a
friend's large farm, and has pushed the government to subsidise them.
"These machines used together could really make life much easier for us farmers," said
"silent killer" and said Lahore's smog had increased in intensity and frequency over the last five
years.

In October and November, Lahore's Air Quality Index level can jump to over 300, a number
that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says corresponds to a "health warning of
emergency conditions".
Malik Amin Aslam, climate change advisor to Prime Minister Imran Khan, speaks with a farmer
at the launch of a programme to subisidize farm equipment for Pakistani rice farmers in
Sheikhupura, Punjab, Pakistan, November 8, 2020. Photo: Ansab Ali, Ministry of Climate
Change
CUTTING EMISSIONS
only a small share of the province's pollution.
"The stubble is burned only for a few weeks in the winter. It is a fact that the problem becomes
worse during this short period," Bhandara said.
"But farmers are not the only reason for this pollution," he added.
of smog in Punjab noted that agriculture - mainly rice residue burning - accounts for 20% of total
air pollutant emissions.

Tackling air pollution - and leaving stubble on the soil as mulch, rather than burning it - also has
"The Happy Seeder seems like a useful machine," he said.
CHOSEN BY LOTTERY
agriculture officer at Punjab's Government Agriculture Seed Farm, has been experimenting with
"Stubble management is a serious issue for farmers," said Afzal, who helps farmers adopt new
farming techniques.
($125) per acre - but most farmers have little other choice and simply continue the practice and

"For those who can't afford it, bigger farmers are willing to rent out the machines. In the future,
more service providers will come up to rent them out," Afzal said.
One drawback to the machines, he noted, is the need to mount them on the back of a tractor - and
not just any tractor will do.
"It requires a large, 85-horsepower tractor," he noted, something most rice farmers in Pakistan do
not have.
districts around Lahore, in the so-called smog "red zone".
"The subsidised machines should be made available to rice farmers in South Punjab and Sindh as
well, otherwise they are too expensive for most farmers," he said.
applicants for each of its 500 machines, according to Aslam, the climate change advisor.
The government has plans to expand the Happy Seeder programme next year and cover the
whole of the Punjab rice belt by 2023, Aslam noted.

"The agriculture extension department has developed a prototype to combine the two shredder
(and) seeder machines into one 'Pak Seeder', which will be even more effective and efficient" -
plus 30% cheaper, he said.
($1 = 159.3100 Pakistani rupees)
(Reporting by Rina Saeed Khan; Editing by Jumana Farouky and Laurie Goering. Please credit
the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives
of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit
http://news.trust.org/climate)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
https://news.trust.org/item/20201208050355-ft1gl/
Bantwal: Mechanic creates cost-effective rice thrasher
using weed cutter
 Tue, Dec 8 2020 05:59:46 PM

Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)
Bantwal, Dec 8: Cost-effective farm machines are not available in the market. Towards meeting
this problem, some agricultural equipment is being developed locally. One of the new additions to
them is rice thrasher.
Yogeesh Shetty, a mechanic from Vittal, has created a rice thrasher by using the freely available
weed cutter.
This equipment made with the rod has to be fitted to the rod of the weed cutter clutch. Two
bearings have been used with a rod and nail in the middle. Six rods have been uniquely fitted to
each other. When this is fitted to the machinery, the equipment starts rotating. By holding the hay
sheaves, paddy easily gets separated.

Yogeesh says that this initiative was undertaken as there was a demand to use weed cutters for multiple farm
activities. He says that this machine can be used in places where vehicles do not easily reach and its cost is
between Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500.
https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID=779504
DA turns over P220M in farm machinery, aid
 Published on: 12/09/2020
 | Section: Top Stories
 BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said yesterday that the cash and food assistance
given to farmers and fisherfolk, and the distribution of RCEF mechanization and other
interventions of the Department of Agriculture will provide the needed boost to improve
production, optimize the income capacity, and mitigate the debilitating effects of the pandemic to
the agricultural sector in the province.
Lacson, in yesterday‘s turnover of machinery and equipment, worth around P220 million, to
farmers of Negros Occidental at the Panaad Park in Bacolod City, said the farm school support

and the scholarship grants will also give the needed encouragement and empowerment to the
younger generation to take serious interest in farming.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar led the turnover yesterday of the interventions funded under
the DA Regular Program and the DA-Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and
Mechanization‘s (PhilMech) Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) mechanization
component.
Lacson said as a developing nation, the Philippines is also determined to be an industrialized
country.
―However, it cannot be negated that we remain predominantly agricultural. In Negros
Occidental, almost half of our land area remains to be agricultural lands, our farmers and
fisherfolk continue to be among our straitened sectors,‖ he added. ―We have aging farmers, with
the average age between 57-60 years old. Our young people seemed to have lost interest in
pursuing the vocation.‖
Lacson said it is for these reasons that developing agriculture and uplifting the lives of farmers
are among the main thrusts of the provincial administration. ―We need to be reminded that
agriculture is the foundation of our food security, and even the foundation of our survival.‖ We
are presently navigating a difficult and developing situation, with the very serious task of saving
both lives and livelihood. However, we, in Negros Occidental and Western Visayas take
encouragement in the fact that we remain to be among the top palay producers in the country and
our production even increased in the first half of the year, he added.*
https://news.visayandailystar.com/da-turns-over-p220m-in-farm-machinery-aid/
Saudi govt delists „Kernal‟ rice trademark on Pakistan‟s
objection
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has succeeded in canceling the illegal registration of „Kernal‟ for
trademark by an overseas rice company, Commerce Adviser Razak Dawood disclosed on
Tuesday.
The adviser did not mention the name of the country or the company which had sought
trademark registration in his tweets, but interactions with senior officials in various ministries
confirmed that the registration had happened in Saudi Arabia.
This is the second time that a company in Saudi Arabia tried to monopolise the well-known
trademark of ‗Kernel‘ rice. Back in 2003, a leading Saudi company importing rice from different
sources including Pakistan applied for registration of a trademark ―Kernel.‖ However, timely

action by the commercial section of the Pakistani mission in Jeddah compelled Saudi authorities
to refuse the registration in the Kingdom.
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) Chairman Abdul Qayum Paracha told Dawn
that the issue was settled by the Saudi government. ―The cancellation of trade mark will provide
more protection to Pakistani brands and will lead to more exports,‖ he added. Neither the
government officials nor the Reap chairman disclosed the name of the company which has
registered ‗Kernal‘ as trademark. On Aug 6 this year, Reap had sent a letter to the Ministry of
Commerce to raise the issue diplomatically with the Saudi government for the earliest resolution.
The ministry was informed that a Saudi Arabia-based rice export company had illegally
registered the word ‗Kernal‘ as a brand name which is similar to ‗Super Kernel‘ — a premium
rice variety grown in Pakistan.
According to Reap, there is a lot of similarity between word ‗Kernal‘ and ‗Kernel‘. The
association believes that the similar sounding words would have confused consumers the world
over. On the request of the Reap, an official source said, the government of Pakistan had taken
up the issue with the Saudi authorities to cancel the word ‗Kernal‘ from its trademark list
because ‗Super Kernel‘ is a type of rice variety grown in Pakistan and legally it cannot be
registered as a brand name. ―We have received the cancellation certificate,‖ the commerce
adviser confirmed to Dawn.

―This was tantamount to unfair use of intellectual property of Pakistan, as the word is similar to
‗Super Kernel‘, a premium Pakistani rice variety,‖ he said. The adviser thanked Reap for
bringing the issue to the Ministry of Commerce‘s notice. ―I urge exporters to keep informing the
ministry of commerce of such violations so that we can protect Pakistan‘s intellectual property
overseas,‖ he added. According to Reap, Pakistan is the 13th largest rice producer in the world
and the 4th largest rice exporting country, with a 15 percent share in Global Rice Industry.
Different varieties of rice grown in Pakistan include Super Basmati and Super Kernel Basmati
Rice among others.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1594801
Govt now allows millers to supply less rice
Staff Correspondent | Published: 00:19, Dec 09,2020
The Directorate General of Food issued an order on Tuesday allowing rice millers to supply half
the amount of rice they are supposed to supply to government warehouses.
The order comes amid a poor response from rice millers to enter a contract with the government
for supplying 6.5 lakh tonnes of aman at a price of Tk 37 per kilogram by February.
Rice millers are legally obligated to supply rice to the government during boro and aman
procurement seasons with their supposed amount of supply decided by the government.
‗We have decided to relax our procurement mechanism a bit to get better response from rice
millers,‘ said DGF additional director Moniruzzaman.
He said that millers would not be punished if they give 50 per cent of the amount they are
supposed to supply to the government.
He said that the rice millers were unwilling to supply rice to the government because of low
price.
The deadline the government set for rice millers to get a deal with it to supply rice to meet the
procurement target expires on Thursday.
So far rice millers promised only about 80,000 tonnes to the government.
There are 19,230 rice millers in the country. But how many of them have so far signed deals with
the government cannot be confirmed.
About 40 per cent millers did not comply with the rule during boro procurement by the
government that ended in mid-September.

The boro procurement fell far short of reaching the target with less than 1 million tonnes bought
against the target of about 2 million tonnes.
Initially, the government gave rice millers until the end of November for signing a deal with the
government to meet aman procurement target.
Though the contract deadline was extended by 10 days, the move failed to change the overall
situation.
The government is importing 3 lakh tonnes of rice because of its poor procurement amid a
depleting rice reserve.
The amount of rice a miller is supposed to supply to the government is decided by their capacity
to process rice in a fortnight.
Agricultural economists said that the millers were not supplying rice to cash in on a crisis
situation for multiplying their profits.
They said that the millers were manipulating rice price cashing in on the fear in people‘s mind
that the coronavirus crisis together with destruction of paddy in frequent floods might give a rise
to a food crisis.
The government is expecting the aman production to reach 13.9 million tonnes this year after a
10 per cent fall in the production of aman last year.
Besides buying from rice millers, the government is also buying 2 lakh tonnes of aman paddy
from farmers at Tk 26 per kilogram by the end of February.
https://www.newagebd.net/article/123816/govt-now-allows-millers-to-supply-less-rice
Nigeria: How Kano Is Becoming Country‟s Rice
Milling Hub
By ADMIN 6 hours ago
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With many rice mills springing up in Kano State, coupled with increase in production, the state is
gradually becoming the hub of rice, not only in Nigeria but West Africa.
The recent rice farming activities in Kano have been seen as a record-breaking achievement in
the history of Nigeria, as far as that sector is concerned.
As one of the staple foods in Nigeria, the consumption of rice is said to have increased to 4.7 per
cent, almost four times the global consumption growth.

This triggered a revolution in the sector; hence the increase in rice milling in Kano.
From 2015 to 2020, no fewer than 230 micro, small, medium and large rice mills have emerged.
A lot of the existing ones have also been upgrading their capacities.
In places like Kura, Gezawa, Bunkure, Garun Malam and Tudun Wada local government areas
of the state, it is common to see a cluster of small-scale rice millers doing business.
New mega rice mills with thousands of metric tons per month capacity are also on the increase.
The recent one has a 160-ton-per-day capacity. It is the first mega rice mill owned by a woman
in Kano State.
In the past seven years, the Nigerian government, in collaboration with the Rice Farmers
Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), boosted the production of rice by according it high priority. In
2017, production got to 3.7million tons.
It was reported that rice milling revolution in Kano started in 2014 when 70,000 farmers were
mapped out to benefit from the year‘s dry season farming programme in the state‘s agricultural
scheme. It was in conjunction with the then Federal Ministry of Agriculture‘s Agricultural
Transformation Agenda (ATA).
It is also believed that the achievement recorded in the production of rice in Kano is a result of
various agricultural policies introduced by the Federal Government. For example, the Anchor
Borrowers Programme (ABP), through various associations, as well as the ATA, encouraged
many people to venture into agriculture, especially dry season rice farming. This resulted in an
increase in the number of rice farmers in the state as demand increased.
With several efforts the Federal Government put in place through the ABP, the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) aggregator scheme, Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for
Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), which is a $500million non-bank financial institution, wholly-
owned by the CBN, among non-governmental interventions, in 2019, Nigeria moved from the
status of the largest importer of rice to being the largest producer of rice (paddy) in Africa, with
an average production volume of 8million metric tons.
It is also on record that as at 2019, Nigeria ranked as the first in Africa and the 14th largest
producer of rice in the world, with China being the top producing country.
According to Iliyasu Nazifi, an engineer and young entrepreneur, in the last five years, rice
production received the boost it had never received in the history of agriculture in Nigeria, which
gave rise to the many milling factories in Kano State. Nazifi is the chief executive officer of the
Golden Star Rice Mill and a member of the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN).

It was also said that this achievement wouldn‘t have been possible without the commitment and
support of members and leadership of the RIFAN across all the states in Nigeria.
According to the chairman of the RIFAN in Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Haruna, Nigerians
were initially estimated to have been consuming more than five million metric tons of rice each
year, with a significant portion coming from imports.
He further revealed that demand, which was growing faster than supply, driven by factors like
population growth and urbanisation, actually gave birth to the strategies adopted by the
government to ensure increased production, which would lead to self-sufficiency.
―The development of rice value chain in Nigeria has immeasurably reduced urban-city migration
and youth restiveness as many of the youths are gainfully engaged in agricultural practices,‖
Haruna said.
Also, the treasurer of the RIFAN in the state, Malam Hussaini Shu‘aibu, revealed that the
decision of the Federal Government to close Nigeria‘s land borders against rice importation
created a huge demand and created awareness for more domestic b mills.
It was also revealed that the state‘s rice production capacity increased; hence the establishment
of mills.
―Very soon, Kano State will move from being the centre of commerce to that of farming and
processing,‖ Shu‘aibu said.However, the Kano State Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines
and Agriculture (KACCIMA) is worried that the state has only recorded industrial boom in rice
milling while other sectors suffer great setback.
According to the first deputy president of the KACCIMA, Ambassador Usman Darma, most
industries in Kano are closed down due to electricity issues and financial challenges associated
with policies of some commercial banks. He added that only few of the industries operate in full
capacity.
―Virtually 85 per cent of industries in Kano are not working. The only expansion so far recorded
is in rice mills, and that is because government policies have been favourable to the operators.
However, with the recent visit by a combined team of the National Assembly and the Ministry of
Industry, Trade and Investment, we are hopeful that the issue would be addressed in due course,‖
he said.
https://thestreetjournal.org/2020/12/nigeria-how-kano-is-becoming-countrys-rice-milling-hub/

Japan space agency hails return of asteroid dust on
Earth
Published December 7, 2020, 6:46 AM
by Agence France-Presse
Japan space agency officials on Sunday hailed the arrival of rare asteroid samples on Earth
after they were collected by space probe Hayabusa-2 during an unprecedented mission.
A capsule carrying asteroid samples that was dropped off by the Hayabusa-2 probe created a shooting
star-like fireball as it entered Earth‘s atmosphere
In a streak of light across the night sky, a capsule containing the precious specimens taken
from a distant asteroid arrived on Earth after being dropped off by the probe.
Scientists hope the samples, which are expected to amount to no more than 0.1 grams of
material, could help shed light on the origin of life and the formation of the universe.

―After six years of space travel, the box of treasures was able to land in Australia‘s
Woomera this morning,‖ Databus-2 project manager Yuichi Tsuda told a press
conference.The capsule carrying samples entered the atmosphere just before 2:30 am Japan
time (1730 GMT Saturday), creating a shooting-star-like fireball as it entered Earth‘s
atmosphere en route to the landing site Down Under.
A few hours later, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed the samples
had been recovered, with help from beacons emitted by the capsule as it plummeted to Earth
after separating from Hayabusa-2 on Saturday, while the fridge-sized probe was about
220,000 kilometres (137,000 miles) away.
―The capsule landed in perfect form, and the probe is moving on to another mission,‖ Tsuda
said.The capsule, recovered in the southern Australian desert, will now be in the hands of
scientists performing initial analysis including checking for any gas emissions.
It will then be sent to Japan.
Megan Clark, chief of the Australian Space Agency, congratulated the ―wonderful
achievement‖.
―2020 has been a difficult year all around the world‖ but the Hayabusa-2 helped ―renew our
faith in the world, and our trust (in) and appreciation‖ of the science of the outer universe,
she said.
– Samples with organic material? –
The samples were collected by Hayabusa-2, which launched in 2014, from the asteroid
Ryugu, about 300 million kilometres from Earth.The probe collected both surface dust and
pristine material from below the surface that was stirred up by firing an ―impactor‖ into the
asteroid.
The material is believed to be unchanged since the time the universe was formed.
Larger celestial bodies like Earth went through radical changes including heating and
solidifying, changing the composition of the materials on their surface and below.

But ―when it comes to smaller planets or smaller asteroids, these substances were not
melted, and therefore it is believed that substances from 4.6 billion years ago are still there,‖
Hayabusa-2 mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa told reporters before the capsule arrived.
Scientists are especially keen to discover whether the samples contain organic matter, which
could have helped seed life on Earth.
―We still don‘t know the origin of life on Earth and through this Hayabusa-2 mission, if we
are able to study and understand these organic materials from Ryugu, it could be that these
organic materials were the source of life on Earth,‖ Yoshikawa said.
―We‘ve never had materials like this before… water and organic matters will be subject to
research, so this is a very valuable opportunity,‖ said Motoo Ito, senior researcher at the
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
Half of Hayabusa-2‘s samples will be shared between JAXA, US space agency NASA and
other international organisations, and the rest kept for future study as advances are made in
analytic technology.
– More tasks for Hayabusa-2 –
The work is not over for Hayabusa-2, which will now begin an extended mission targeting
two new asteroids.
It will complete a series of orbits around the sun for around six years before approaching the
first of the asteroids — named 2001 CC21 — in July 2026.
The probe will not get as close as it did to Ryugu, but scientists hope it will be able to
photograph CC21 and that the fly-by will help develop knowledge about how to protect
Earth against asteroid impact.
Hayabusa-2 will then head towards its main target, 1998 KY26, a ball-shaped asteroid with
a diameter of just 30 metres.
When the probe arrives at the asteroid in July 2031, it will be approximately 300 million
kilometres from Earth.

It will observe and photograph the asteroid, no easy task given that it is spinning rapidly,
rotating on its axis about every 10 minutes.But Hayabusa-2 is unlikely to land and collect
samples, as it probably would not have enough fuel to return them to Earth.
https://mb.com.ph/2020/12/07/japan-space-agency-hails-return-of-asteroid-dust-on-earth/
Scientists get the lowdown on sun's super-hot atmosphere
Orbiting instrument hints at how stored magnetic energy heats solar atmosphere
Date:December 7, 2020
Source:Rice University
Summary:Images of the sun captured by the IRIS mission show new
details of how low-lying loops of plasma are energized, and may
also reveal how the hot corona is created.
Share:FULL STORY
A phenomenon first detected in the solar wind may help solve a long-standing mystery about the
sun: why the solar atmosphere is millions of degrees hotter than the surface.
Images from the Earth-orbiting Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, aka IRIS, and the
Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, aka AIA, show evidence that low-lying magnetic loops are
heated to millions of degrees Kelvin.
Researchers at Rice University, the University of Colorado Boulder and NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center make the case that heavier ions, such as silicon, are preferentially heated in both
the solar wind and in the transition region between the sun's chromosphere and corona.
There, loops of magnetized plasma arc continuously, not unlike their cousins in the corona
above. They're much smaller and hard to analyze, but have long been thought to harbor the
magnetically driven mechanism that releases bursts of energy in the form of nanoflares.
Rice solar physicist Stephen Bradshaw and his colleagues were among those who suspected as
much, but none had sufficient evidence before IRIS.
The high-flying spectrometer was built specifically to observe the transition region. In the
NASA-funded study, which appears in Nature Astronomy, the researchers describe
"brightenings" in the reconnecting loops that contain strong spectral signatures of oxygen and,
especially, heavier silicon ions.

The team of Bradshaw, his former student and lead author Shah Mohammad Bahauddin, now a
research faculty member at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at Colorado, and
NASA astrophysicist Amy Winebarger studied IRIS images able to resolve details of these
transition region loops and detect pockets of super-hot plasma. The images allow them to
analyze the movements and temperatures of ions within the loops via the light they emit, read as
spectral lines that serve as chemical "fingerprints."
"It's in the emission lines where all the physics is imprinted," said Bradshaw, an associate
professor of physics and astronomy. "The idea was to learn how these tiny structures are heated
and hope to say something about how the corona itself is heated. This might be a ubiquitous
mechanism that operates throughout the solar atmosphere."
The images revealed hot-spot spectra where the lines were broadened by thermal and Doppler
effects, indicating not only the elements involved in nanoflares but also their temperatures and
velocities.
At the hot spots, they found reconnecting jets containing silicon ions moved toward (blue-
shifted) and away from (red-shifted) the observer (IRIS) at speeds up to 100 kilometers per
second. No Doppler shift was detected for the lighter oxygen ions.
The researchers studied two components of the mechanism: how the energy gets out of the
magnetic field, and then how it actually heats the plasma.
The transition region is only about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but convection on the sun's
surface affects the loops, twisting and braiding the thin magnetic strands that comprise them, and
adds energy to the magnetic fields that ultimately heat the plasma, Bradshaw said. "The IRIS
observations showed that process taking place and we're reasonably sure at least one answer to
the first part is through magnetic reconnection, of which the jets are a key signature," he said.
In that process, the magnetic fields of the plasma strands break and reconnect at braiding sites
into lower energy states, releasing stored magnetic energy. Where this takes place, the plasma
becomes superheated.
But how plasma is heated by the released magnetic energy has remained a puzzle until now. "We
looked at the regions in these little loop structures where reconnection was taking place and
measured the emission lines from the ions, chiefly silicon and oxygen," he said. "We found the
spectral lines of the silicon ions were much broader than the oxygen."
That indicated preferential heating of the silicon ions. "We needed to explain it," Bradshaw said.
"We had a look and a think and it turns out there's a kinetic process called ion cyclotron heating
that favors heating heavy ions over lighter ones."
He said ion cyclotron waves are generated at the reconnection sites. The waves carried by the
heavier ions are more susceptible to an instability that causes the waves to "break" and generate
turbulence, which scatters and energizes the ions. This broadens their spectral lines beyond what
would be expected from the local temperature of the plasma alone. In the case of the lighter ions,
there might be insufficient energy left over to heat them. "Otherwise, they don't exceed the
critical velocity needed to trigger the instability, which is faster for lighter ions," he said.

"In the solar wind, heavier ions are significantly hotter than lighter ions," Bradshaw said. "That's
been definitively measured. Our study shows for the first time that this is also a property of the
transition region, and might therefore persist throughout the entire atmosphere due to the
mechanism we have identified, including heating the solar corona, particularly since the solar
wind is a manifestation of the corona expanding into interplanetary space."
The next question, Bahauddin said, is whether such phenomena are happening at the same rate
all over the sun. "Most probably the answer is no," he said. "Then the question is, how much do
they contribute to the coronal heating problem? Can they supply sufficient energy to the upper
atmosphere so that it can maintain a multimillion-degree corona?
"What we've shown for the transition region was a solution to an important piece of the puzzle,
but the big picture requires more pieces to fall in the right place," Bahauddin said. "I believe
IRIS will be able to tell us about the chromospheric pieces in the near future. That will help us
build a unified and global theory of the sun's atmosphere."
Story Source:
Materials provided by Rice University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
1. Shah Mohammad Bahauddin, Stephen J. Bradshaw, Amy R. Winebarger. The origin of
reconnection-mediated transient brightenings in the solar transition region. Nature
Astronomy, 2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-01263-2
Cite This Page:
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Rice University. "Scientists get the lowdown on sun's super-hot atmosphere: Orbiting instrument
hints at how stored magnetic energy heats solar atmosphere." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7
December 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201207131312.htm>.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201207131312.htm

2020 Rice Award Winners on The Rice Stuff Podcast
By Deborah Willenborg
ARLINGTON, VA -- One of the highlights of the USA Rice Outlook Conference is the annual awards
luncheon where friends and colleagues network and visit, and the industry comes together to celebrate
excellence and dedication. With the cancellation of the 2020 conference as a result of COVID-19, many
wondered if the Rice Awards, presented by Rice Farming Magazine, Horizon Ag, and USA Rice, would
go forward.
In a year that's been difficult for everyone, it was decided early on that the awards would go forward and
we'd at least end the year with some great and inspiring stories of people who give so much to the rice
industry.
"With no luncheon at which to honor the award recipients this year, we were thrilled that they all accepted
our invitation to appear on the podcast," said Michael Klein, USA Rice vice president of communications
and domestic promotion, and one of the podcast's hosts. "And it was nice that we had more time to spend
with these folks, all of whom have led really interesting lives and have had great careers in rice."
Rice Farming Magazine Editor Vicky Boyd, who traditionally serves as emcee of the Awards Luncheon,
joined the podcast as well to introduce the winners and share some insights into their careers.
The special episode kicked off with Dr. Tim Walker, general manager of Horizon Ag, talking about why

the awards are so important to the industry and to him personally, and sharing what it's like to be the one
who actually lets the winners know they're being honored -- it doesn't always go smoothly!
The 2020 Rice Farmer of the Year is California's Gordon Wylie; the 2020 Industry Award went to Kyle
McCann with the Louisiana Farm Bureau; and the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed
upon entomologist Dr. Mo Way from Texas.
All spend quality time with Boyd, Klein, and co-host Lesley Dixon on Episode 11 of The Rice
Stuff podcast, available now.
New episodes of The Rice Stuff are published twice each month on Tuesdays and can be found on Apple
Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher. All episodes and additional information can be found
on the podcast's dedicated website at thericestuffpodcast.com. The site includes a "Podcast 101" section
on the "About" page for people new to the medium and a means to reach out to the show hosts and guests
via the "Talk to Us" button.
Rice and Beans, With an Exhilarating Crunch
Credit...Photograph by Heami Lee Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Rebecca Bartoshesky.
By Samin Nosrat
 Dec. 2, 2020
I spent my childhood hungrily competing each night with my brothers for the darkest, crunchiest
pieces of tahdig — the golden crust of rice that forms at the bottom of a pot of Persian rice.
Some of my most meaningful friendships have been secured by a mutual love of crispy rice. So I
knew that the chef and writer Reina Gascón-López was a kindred spirit when she said, ―I get
such a sense of satisfaction when I take a wooden spoon and scrape the bottom of a rice pot and
hear a crunch — it feels like I‘ve unlocked a major cooking achievement.‖
On her blog, The Sofrito Project, Gascón-López introduces herself as a ―Southern Boricua,‖
influenced in cooking and life by both her native and adopted cultures. The 34-year-old was born
in Puerto Rico and grew up in a military family in Charleston, S.C., where she still lives. The
Sofrito Project began in 2017 as a way for Gascón-López to chronicle her journey through
culinary school for family and friends. By the time I stumbled upon the site earlier this year,
however, Gascón-López had begun to include recipes she‘d adapted from a rich family trove —
everything from arroz con pollo to coquito, Puerto Rico‘s cream-of-coconut answer to eggnog.
Reading and cooking my way through The Sofrito Project, I realized how little I know about the
island‘s cuisine. ―When people learn I‘m Puerto Rican,‖ Gascón-López told me, ―they
automatically lump me in with Mexicans, which is what most Americans tend to do with Latinos
who aren‘t Mexican. They‘re like, Oh, you all like spicy food,‖ she said, with an audible sigh. ―I
always say Puerto Rican food is a blend of three different cuisines: Spanish, Indigenous and
African. And I specify that we don‘t really eat a lot of spicy foods.‖

When I asked Gascón-López to share her favorite holiday dish with me, she didn‘t hesitate: ―My
mom‘s special arroz con gandules — it‘s one of my favorite things to teach people about because
it combines all three cultures in one pot.‖ West Africans cultivated rice and brought gandules, or
pigeon peas, with them during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. The Spanish colonists brought
pork, olives and olive oil. And Indigenous cooks were experts at using their local ingredients,
including annatto.
I was already eager to get to my kitchen, but then Gascón-López sealed my interest: ―Arroz con
gandules is all about the pegao.‖ Pegao is Puerto Rican tahdig, and I‘d never tasted it before. I
couldn‘t wait to make it.
Like practically any Puerto Rican dish that starts on the stove, this one begins with a blend of
aromatic vegetables called sofrito. In contrast to the Italian version, though, which is deeply
caramelized, Puerto Rican sofrito is lightly cooked and packed with herbs. And the pigeon peas
make this version of rice and beans distinctly Caribbean. Gascón-López prefers to start with dry
gandules, which her family sometimes ships to her from Puerto Rico, then flavor the pot with
some sofrito, a bay leaf or two and a smoked pork neck. I don‘t have family in Puerto Rico, and I
couldn‘t find dry pigeon peas at my Latin market. But a quick Google search and text thread with
my brain trust of Indian cooking experts revealed that I could get dry pigeon peas, labeled toor,
at any Indian grocer.
As I cooked the dish, I could tell that every step and every ingredient added something
important. Annatto seeds steeped in oil lend the rice its signature marigold hue. The banana leaf
imparts a subtle, tropical aroma to the rice as it cooks. Olives, ham, beer and peppers with their
brine offer salt, fat, acid, umami and a bright pop of color. The sheer number of flavors layered
into this dish make it a delight to unpack. But by far, the most exhilarating layer is the last
one: pegao.
Once the rice was cooked, I mounded it in the center of the pot and lowered the flame to let
the pegao form. After 20 minutes, I came back and scooped away the rice, unable to wait any
longer. With my sharpest metal spatula, I dug straight in and couldn‘t believe my eyes — I‘d
managed to make perfectly brown, glassy shards of pegao. I could hardly stop eating the salty,
crisp pieces long enough to take pictures to send to Gascón-López. When she responded that I‘d
nailed it, I, too, felt as if I‘d unlocked a major cooking achievement. Later that night, as I semi-
guiltily ate the rest of the pegao by myself, I felt comforted remembering something Gascón-
López told me as we were getting off the phone. ―Forget about the rice,‖ she said, ―it‘s all about
the pegao.‖
Editors‟ Picks
Arroz con Gandules (Puerto Rican Rice With Pigeon Peas)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/magazine/rice-and-beans-recipe.html

India, US Sign Deal on Intellectual Property
Cooperation
December 7, 2020 zenger.news News Comments Off on India, US Sign Deal on Intellectual
Property Cooperation
Tamil Nadu — India and the United States this week signed a Memorandum of
Understanding on Intellectual Property cooperation, agreeing to exchange information and best
practices.
The agreement, which was approved by the Cabinet on Feb. 19, includes exchanging knowledge
on IP ―among the public, and between and among the industry, universities, research and
development (R & D) organizations, and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises‖; collaboration on
training programs; exchanging information on applications for patents, trademarks and other
intellectual property rights; and sharing traditional knowledge.
―This is an attempt by the Indian government to restore faith in its IPR [intellectual property
rights] regime,‖ Alankar Kirpekar, a lawyer specializing in IP laws, told Zenger News.
India was named on the IPR Priority Watchlist by the Office of the U. S. Trade Representative in
April, along with nine other countries, including China, Argentina, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
―Over the past year, India has been inconsistent in its progress on intellectual property (IP)
protection and enforcement,‖ the report states. ―While India‘s enforcement of IP in the online
sphere has gradually improved, a lack of concrete benefits for innovators and creators persists,
which continues to undermine their efforts. India remains one of the world‘s most challenging
major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP.‖
India ranked 40th out of 53 countries on the IP index published by the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce in February.
Protection of intellectual property has caused tension between the two countries in trade disputes.
―Indo-U.S. trade will benefit if the IP laws are in tandem with each other,‖ said Rahul Ajatshatru,
counsel and head of Ajatshatru Chambers, a law firm that focuses on competition law and
intellectual property.
―India is much better placed than China in many sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, but then
the Novartis case is spoken about,‖ said Kirpekar. ―These things might get ironed out if we work
together through this MoU.‖
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis filed an application in 1998 with India‘s patent office in
Chennai for a patent for an anticancer drug, Glivec. Though the drug was patented in over 35

countries, Novartis‘ application was rejected in 2006. After years of legal battles challenging the
country‘s patent law, the Supreme Court of India dismissed Novartis‘ appeal in 2015.
Among the key components of the MoU concerns traditional knowledge, described as ―the skills,
ideas and knowledge that is passed within any community, generation after generation, causing
to form spiritual and cultural identity.‖
Traditional knowledge was involved in several cases where the U.S. sought patents on traditional
items, such as neem, basmati rice and turmeric, that India considers to fall under its intellectual
property.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1995 applied for a patent for turmeric‘s healing
capacities. The application was challenged by the Indian government, forcing the U. S.
Trademark Patents and Office to revoke the patent in 1997.
―The Indian government hired a U.S. lawyer and spent $15,000 to fight the case,‖ said Mehak
Kalsi, an IPR lawyer. He said the legal battle between the two countries lasted over a year.
A similar case occurred with neem. Indians believe the leaves and bark of this tree have
medicinal properties. A patent application was filed by W. R. Grace and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture in the European Patent Office in 1994. After a challenge by India, the patent was
revoked.
―India since then has been more cautious towards protecting its IP and has started documenting
traditional knowledge to provide evidence of prior knowledge and use,‖ said Kalsi. Signing of
the MoU could help protect the rich traditional knowledge of India from misappropriation.
In general, Kalsi said, ―most tech startups, IP creators, individuals, inventors do not safeguard
their IP rights until they are funded or reach break-even, without realizing that their IP can be
misappropriated by an imposter, squatter or cyber squatter with the aim of illegally benefiting
therefrom. There have been instances, where the rightful IP owner has incurred costs to get their
own IP transferred to them.‖Artificial intelligence is another focus area of the agreement.
―IP laws do need to catch up with developments in artificial intelligence, blockchain and other
emerging technology, but this is not limited to India,‖ said Lynn Lazaro, a partner at Kochhar &
Co., a New Delhi-based law firm. ―The knowledge-sharing MoU with the U.S. could assist with
this.―In India, there is very little awareness about IP and lack of enforcement by authorities,‖ she
said.
(Edited by Uttaran Das Gupta and Judith Isacoff. Graph by Urvashi Makwana.)
https://thewestsidegazette.com/india-us-sign-deal-on-intellectual-property-cooperation/+&

Pakistan looks to new tech to curb crop burning and cut
smog
BY AGENCIES , (LAST UPDATED
LAHORE: Air pollution is a long-standing problem in Pakistan, but every October and
November contaminates in the air in Punjab shoot up as farmers burn rice stalks left behind after
harvesting to clear their fields to plant wheat.
districts, is covered with thick smog.―It is a health emergency – the air quality monitors in
Lahore routinely show hazardous levels in November,‖ said Farah Rashid, a climate and energy
program coordinator for green group WWF-Pakistan.

and a seed drill — called the Happy Seeder — that follows to sow wheat through the mulch.
a friend‘s large farm, and has pushed the government to subsidise them.
―These machines used together could really make life much easier for us farmers,‖ said
Bhandara, from Pakpattan in Punjab.
Malik Amin Aslam, climate change adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan, called air pollution a
years.
the US Environmental Protection Agency says corresponds to a ―health warning of emergency
conditions.‖
CUTTING EMISSIONS

Farmers say the new farm equipment can help combat smog but note that crop burning produces
worse during this short period,‖ Bhandara said.
A 2018 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on the underlying causes of
smog in Punjab noted that agriculture — mainly rice residue burning — accounts for 20 percent
of total air pollutant emissions.
That puts it behind the industry, which produces a quarter of the air pollution in the province,
and transport, which contributes more than 40 percent.
Tackling air pollution — and leaving stubble on the soil as mulch, rather than burning it — also
has the benefit of reducing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.
greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 78 percent.
CHOSEN BY LOTTERY

―Stubble management is a serious issue for farmers,‖ said Afzal, who helps farmers adopt new
farming techniques.
Pakistan has penalties for rice stubble burning, including fines of up to Rs20,000 per acre — but
most farmers have little other choice and simply continue the practice and pay the penalty when
they are charged.
The total cost for the stubble shredder and Happy Seeder is about Rs637,500 rupees, and the
government this year is paying about 80 percent of the price for 500 farmers, he noted.
more service providers will come up to rent them out,‖ Afzal said.
One drawback to the machines, he noted, is the need to mount them on the back of a tractor —
and not just any tractor will do.
do not have.
districts around Lahore, in the so-called smog ―red zone.‖
―The subsidised machines should be made available to rice farmers in South Punjab and Sindh as
applicants for each of its 500 machines, according to Aslam, the climate change adviser.

The government has plans to expand the Happy Seeder program next year and cover the whole
of the Punjab rice belt by 2023, Aslam noted.
―The agriculture extension department has developed a prototype to combine the two shredder
[and] seeder machines into one ‗Pak Seeder‘, which will be even more effective and efficient‖ —
plus 30 percent cheaper, he said.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/12/08/pakistan-looks-to-new-tech-to-curb-crop-burning-and-cut-
smog/
Palay price slumps to low of P 10/kilo
Average for country hovered above P15 a kilo as of November
By: Karl R. Ocampo - Reporter / @kocampoINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:08 AM December 08, 2020
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has recorded the lowest palay rate in recent memory in
November, the reason for which could be the series of typhoons that devastated farmers‘ crops.
The three strongest typhoons that hit the country this year—Typhoons ―Quinta‖ (international
name: Molave), ―Rolly‖ (Goni) and ―Ulysses‖ (Vamc0)—drowned farmlands and sloshed tons of

crops through the mud. Farmers said the produce that they were able to save were already of poor
quality that could not command decent prices. Hence, the sudden dive in palay rates.
Based on PSA‘s latest price monitoring report, the lowest quotation recorded during the third week
of November was P10.71 a kilo in Quezon province and Cavite.
Both of these provinces were simultaneously hit by natural calamities. In other typhoon-wracked
regions like Bicol, quotations hovered between P11 and P18 a kilo. In Cagayan, rates were at a low
of P11 a kilo and a high of P19 a kilo.
Prices for palay have been on the downtrend in recent months. In October, the average farm-gate
price for the staple hit the P15-a-kilo mark. The latest rates averaged P15.63 a kilo.
Of the provinces covered by the reports, 13 recorded a low price of P15 a kilo, 12 registered a low
rate of P14 a kilo while 10 provinces were selling at a low of P13 a kilo.
Four provinces recorded a low of P12 a kilo while three provinces registered P11 a kilo.
These quotations represented the lowest prices in the provinces, different from the average farm-
gate price they received.
ExplanationOnly three provinces were able to record a farm-gate price of P20 a kilo and up. These
were Nueva Ecija (P22), Palawan (P20) and Zamboanga Sibugay (P2o).Meanwhile, rice prices
have stabilized at P41 a kilo for well-milled rice and P37 a kilo for regular milled rice. Prices of
rice are dictated by the availability and demand for local and imported rice.Noel Reyes,
spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture (DA), in a separate interview with the Inquirer,
argued that rates provided by the PSA use a different baseline, which might explain the low prices.
He said the DA was set to meet with PSA to agree on a standard. Former Agriculture Secretary
Emmanuel Piñol also had similar qualms with the government‘s statisticians. INQ
https://business.inquirer.net/313509/palay-price-slumps-to-low-of-p-10-
kilo#ixzz6g7jEteHB

Farmers‘ association calls cash-assistance bill a departure
from rice competitiveness goals
December 8, 2020 | 7:20 pm
SENATE BILL (SB) 1927, or the proposed Cash Assistance for Filipino Farmers Act of 2020
runs counter to the original intent of Republic Act (RA) No. 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law,
which was to fund competitiveness initiatives for the rice industry, a farmers‘ organization said.
In a mobile phone message, Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) National Manager Raul Q.
Montemayor said the Senate bill is not in accordance with RA 11203‘s original intent, which is
to help farmers who are affected by the entry of imported rice.
―What they are proposing now deviates from the original intent of the law both in the manner by
which the funds are appropriated and in the use of the funds,‖ Mr. Montemayor said.
On Dec. 6, the Senate unanimously approved SB 1927 on third and final reading.
Under the bill, financial assistance to farmers will be sourced from rice import tariffs in excess of
the P10 billion a year allocated by RA 11203 to the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund

(RCEF). The bill‘s proponents have said that farmers have been suffering due to recent
calamities and low prices for palay, or unmilled rice.
As of the third week of November, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the average
farmgate price of palay rose 1.6% week on week to P15.63 per kilogram, well below the P19 per
kilogram maximum buying price of dry palay set by the National Food Authority.
The bill identifies those eligible for cash aid as rice farmers tilling one hectare of land or less,
with the Department of Agriculture (DA) in charge of determining the beneficiaries from those
listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture.
―Farmers are also asking why the cash aid is limited to those tilling one or two hectares or less
when all farmers regardless of farm size have been affected by falling palay prices and other
events,‖ Mr. Montemayor said.
Former Agriculture Undersecretary and current Monetary Board member V. Bruce J. Tolentino
said the bill is more inclusive and will be helpful to more farmers.
―The proposed SB 1927 — if enacted — will certainly help farmers who till land of size one
hectare and below,‖ Mr. Tolentino said.
The DA had yet to reply to requests for comment on the FFF‘s position at deadline time.
In an October hearing, Senator Cynthia A. Villar said the Bureau of Customs has collected
P13.86 billion worth of import tariffs in the year to date.
Under RA 11203, an annual budget of P10 billion sourced from import tariffs is allocated to
RCEF, which will provide aid to farmers in the form of seed, machinery, and extension services.
— Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
https://www.bworldonline.com/farmers-association-calls-cash-assistance-bill-a-departure-from-rice-
competitiveness-goals/

Explainer: India's Multi-Billion Dollar Food
Programme Is at the Heart of Farmers' Protests
By Reuters, Wire Service Content Dec. 4, 2020, at 8:58 a.m.
Explainer: India's Multi-Billion Dollar Food Programme Is at the Heart of Farmers' Protests
Farmers protest against the newly passed farm bills at Singhu border near Delhi, India,
December 4, 2020. REUTERS/Anushree FadnavisREUTERS
BY MAYANK BHARDWAJ
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Thousands of Indian farmers angered by farm laws that they say
threaten their livelihoods have intensified their protests by blocking highways and camping out
on the outskirts of the capital Delhi.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders of protesting farmers' unions have
held several rounds of talks but have not made any progress in breaking the deadlock over the set
of laws passed by parliament in September.
Although various farmer unions have supported the protest, the agitation is largely led by the
growers of relatively well-off states of Punjab and Haryana in India's north.
Every year the Indian government spends billions of dollars on buying millions of tonnes of rice
and wheat from Punjab and Haryana, and the world's most expensive food procurement
programme has now become the centrepiece of India's biggest farmers' protest in years.
HOW DOES INDIA RUN ITS MAMMOTH FOOD PROCUREMENT PROGRAMME?
After calculating the cost of cultivation, the state-run Commission for Agricultural Costs and
Prices (CACP) announces Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for more than 22 commodities
yearly to set a benchmark.
Although every year the CACP announces MSPs for most crops, the Food Corporation of India
(FCI), the main state-run grain procurement agency, buys only rice and wheat at those prices due
to a lack of storage and funds.
After buying rice and wheat from farmers at MSPs, the FCI sells the staples at highly subsidised
prices to the poor. The government compensates the FCI for its losses.

HAS STATE PROCUREMENT PROGRAMME LED TO OVERPRODUCTION OF RICE
AND WHEAT?
Guaranteed prices offered by the FCI encourage farmers to produce large quantities of rice and
wheat. Higher production puts pressure on the FCI to buy extra supplies from farmers, resulting
in overflowing state warehouses and a ballooning subsidy bill that often pushes up the budget
deficit.
Despite sitting on massive mounds of rice and wheat, the FCI finds it challenging to export as the
annual rise in MSPs and its own storage costs make FCI's rice and wheat more expensive than
world prices, making overseas sales uneconomic.
Once in a while, the Indian government gives small quantities of rice and wheat to other
countries through diplomatic deals. Still, FCI's warehouses are chock-a-block.
WHO LARGELY BENEFITS FROM FCI'S SAFETY NET?
The safety net ironically covers relatively well-off farmers from the northern states of Punjab and
Haryana, forcing their poorer counterparts from Bihar and other underdeveloped states to sell at
a discount.
Every year, farmers from Punjab and Haryana sell almost their entire produce to the FCI at
MSPs thanks to well-developed market yards and efficient procurement centres, a far cry from
Bihar's underdeveloped grain procurement infrastructure.
Also, unlike poor farmers from Bihar, the rich and politically influential farming community of
Punjab and Haryana ensures that the FCI continues to buy large volumes of rice and wheat from
their states, where agriculture is a mainstay.
While Punjab and Haryana sell almost their entire rice and wheat output to FCI, the government
agency's procurement in Bihar has remained at less than 2% of the state's total production.
Left out of the safety net, most farmers from Bihar are forced to sell at a discount of 25% to
35%.
Already deprived of assured returns, farmers from Bihar have not explicitly opposed the new
laws which growers from Punjab and Haryana fear will eventually pave the way for the FCI to
stop buying their grain at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of private buyers.
(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj, editing by Louise Heavens)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-12-04/explainer-indias-multi-billion-dollar-
food-programme-is-at-the-heart-of-farmers-protests

Rice growers warn there may be no locally-grown rice
on supermarket shelves by next year
Posted Tue 8 Dec 2020, 8:46pm
Updated Wed 9 Dec 2020, 8:55am
Expires: Wednesday 5 November 4758 8:46pm
Australia's rice industry is in crisis, with growers warning there may be no locally-grown rice on
supermarket shelves by next year.
It's the latest chapter in the debate about access to our most precious resource - water.
Nadia Daly reports.
Statement from Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt.
Statement from NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey.
Transcript
plusminus
NADIA DALY, REPORTER: Barry Kirkup's family has been growing rice on this land for
generations.
BARRY KIRKUP, RICE GROWER: There is nothing better to get out here and listen to the
frogs and the ducks and the birds.
NADIA DALY: But these are tough times for irrigators in the Riverina region of southern New
South Wales. After a harsh drought over the past few years, conditions are just starting to
improve after recent rain.
GILLIAN KIRKUP, DIRECTOR, SUNRICE: Last year we grew 34 hectares of rice where we
normally grow, a couple of hundred?
BARRY KIRKUP: Two hundred.
GILLIAN KIRKUP: Yeah, hectares.

NADIA DALY: While Barry tends to the crops, his wife Gillian manages the farm's finances.
She also sits on the board of Sunrice, the company that produces 98 per cent of Australia's rice.
GILLIAN KIRKUP: So our income is virtually, has been for the last couple of years, virtually
nothing.
NADIA DALY: With vital water allocations reduced to a trickle over the past few years, the
industry is warning that by next year there will be no locally grown rice on supermarket shelves.
GILLIAN KIRKUP: With COVID, demand was up over 200 per cent for several months. We'll
still have rice on the shelves and that's because we're an international network now and we can
source rice from other countries.
NADIA DALY: Growers say the industry is facing a perfect storm - panic buying of rice on top
of a long drought and low water allocations.
BARRY KIRKUP: Water is like the petrol in our fuel tank. When it is full, we are ready to go,
we can make some kilometres but when it is not, it is very difficult.
Because we're in quite a dry area here, without irrigation it is very difficult to survive or make an
income from just rainfall.
NADIA DALY: What keeps you going through those really tough times?
BARRY KIRKUP: I always say, you know, one day is closer to rain but it doesn't help you when
you are the middle of a drought.
NADIA DALY: Further south, Rob and Ainsley Massina's farm has not been allocated any
irrigation water for two years. As a result, they haven't been able to grow a single grain of rice
instead they are focussed on other crops and sheep.
AINSLEY MASSINA: Yeah, there has been definitely some stressful times over the last couple
of years.
ROB MASSINA, PRESIDENT, RICEGROWERS ASSOCIATION: 2018 was our last crop so
we haven't delivered a kilo of rice into the mills for two years.
NADIA DALY: In this part of the country known as Australia's food bowl, everything depends
on irrigation water drawn from the river and while the Massina's have finally got some water
now, it was a hard few years.
ROB MASSINA: Drought, water availability, obviously some of that is caused by drought but a
lot of it, a lot of it is caused by water reform that's occurred over 20 years.

MARYANNE SLATTERY, WATER CONSULTANT: Oh, I think they are absolutely right to
feel aggrieved.
NADIA DALY: Water consultant, Maryanne Slattery was a director at the Murray-Darling Basin
Authority for 12 years.
MARYANNE SLATTERY: The reforms have been pitched as an environment versus irrigation.
I don't see that as being the tension. The tension should be big agribusiness versus everyone and
everything else and that includes small irrigators as well.
NADIA DALY: She argues the rice farmers have been priced out of the commercial water
market.
MARYANNE SLATTERY: So water in the Murray-Darling Basin is allocated to whoever can
pay the most for it which means that any available water that we do have is going to much higher
yield crops.
NADIA DALY: The recent drought test tested the resilience of even the toughest rice farmers.
Only one in 10 of them actually grew the crop in the last harvest but some decent rain over the
past few months means it is hopefully going to be a very different story next year.
BARRY KIRKUP: So since we've got a 54 per cent allocation of water this year, it is really
good. We are back into irrigating, back into growing the crops after the rice.
NADIA DALY: After one of the lowest harvests on record, Barry Kirkup is preparing to sow the
seeds of next year's rice crop.
BARRY KIRKUP: We'll start sowing this evening and we'll go for the next couple of days.
NADIA DALY: While the easing of the drought has made more water available, the rice
industry is now at the centre of the debate about how one of our most precious resources, water,
is used and what rural industries should be supported into the future.
MARYANNE SLATTERY: I think we've got to have a public discussion about what do we want
at the face of our agriculture to look like, what do we want our regional communities to look
like. Do we want them because the current trajectory is we're not going to have these third and
fourth generation farmers any more. We're not going to have these small towns.
NADIA DALY: In a statement to 7.30 the New South Wales Water Minister called for projects
to make more water available to irrigators. The Federal Minister said it wasn't up to the
Government to intervene in the water market and that the Competition and Consumer
Commission is conducting an inquiry which will report in February.

There is often the argument made about rice, it shouldn't be grown here at all, in Australia. How
would you answer that as someone who is the president of the association but also, who is
actually a farmer yourself, working on the land?
ROB MASSINA: So, number one, the climate here in the Riverina is one of the best in the world
to grow rice. We use less than half the world average to grow, half the world average of water to
grow a kilo of rice.
When the water is removed off the paddock, that will be recycled, put back up and we'll actually
use that water to water pasture which then our sheep will go onto.
NADIA DALY: The rice planted now will be ready to harvest around April so Aussie rice
should be back on supermarket shelves by the middle of next year.
And despite the uncertainties of water availability, the farming families are certain their future is
here.
BARRY KIRKUP: It's a bit of a challenge but I think it is an enjoyable challenge.
GILLIAN KIRKUP: It's a sense of history. So there's that sense that we are bringing the farm
along, always improving and leaving it hopefully, in a better way than what we got it.
https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/rice-growers-warn-there-may-be-no-locally-grown
Rice exporters challenge Indian GI claims on basmati
in EU
KARACHI: Rice exporters have filed a detailed response to the European Union (EU) in a
Notice of Opposition against India‘s claim on geographical indicator (GI) of long-grain
aromatic Basmati rice in the EU. India, last month, had asked the EU to recognize the fragrant,
long-grain staple as originating in seven Indian states and territories, which would give its
producers exclusive rights to the basmati label in the lucrative European market. Pakistan rejects
India‘s claim, arguing that its farmers also grow basmati rice. ―Rice Exporters Association of
Pakistan (REAP) has filed a Notice of Opposition on (December 7) against India‘s claim on GI
of Basmati in the EU,‖ the association said on Tuesday in a statement.
“REAP has taken this step on behalf of rice exporters and farmers of Pakistan who are at
the risk of losing a billion-dollars‟ worth of income.”

Since 2006, the EU has applied zero tariffs on rice imported into the bloc that has been
authenticated by either Pakistani or Indian authorities as genuine basmati. Pakistan has a thriving
industry of export of Basmati, making the country one of the top five exporters of rice in the
world. REAP said it has previously been involved in developing and revising UK Code of
Practice and arranging trade delegations abroad to foster the export of Basmati from Pakistan.
“India had sought protection of its Basmati as a GI product in EU in a mala fide attempt to
deter Pakistan‟s growing export and appreciation of Basmati.”
Pakistan‘s export of Basmati to EU has almost doubled in the last five years and it has outpaced
India‘s exports of the same. The importers and customers in EU appreciate Pakistan‘s Basmati
more than that of India due to its exotic aroma, sweeter taste and soft texture and above all in
terms of food safety including Pesticides which has resulted in increased demand. Basmati, being
a centuries old heritage of Pakistan, could not be allowed to be monopolised by India in the
European market.
“Such a gross misrepresentation by India on the origins of Basmati is an attack on the
values of fair competition among farmers and exporters in EU,” the statement said.
Pakistan has a legal right to export Basmati with its original name in accordance with the
practice in EU which is decades old. European importers have also raised their objections against

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