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Navratri Sms, Wallpaper, Durga Puja 2009Health Care N Diet - Sep 18, 2009 by Arun on September 18, 2009 Navratri ,Dasara is one of the most important Hindu festivals . This festival is celebrated for 10 days. ... Navratri Maa Durga Best Wallpapers 2009 Island Crisis (blog) Celebrate The Indian New Year at a Dance Hall Near You The Faster Times Space, motion and emotionCalcutta Telegraph - 13 hours ago September 24 - 28 at Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, Howrah: Sri Sri Durga Puja 2009 (according to Vishuddha Siddhanta Almanac). ... Salt Lake treat: Around the world in four daysTimes of India - Sep 20, 2009 KOLKATA: Maya civilization, Paris Opera House, Shaktipeeth, Myanmar pagoda ... you can find them all in Salt Lake this Durga Puja. With a number of puja ... Kolkata potters join e-selling Business Standard Durga Puja starts in the city from tomorrowSakaal Times - Sep 22, 2009 The organisers of Kalyaninagar Sarbojonin Durgotsav 2009, Nandanik, a social organisation from Pune is gearing up to celebrate its sixth year of Puja, ... It's Pandal Hopping time! MyBangalore Security stepped-up in Kolkata for Durga puja India Business Blog (blog) Business, Entertainment, sports, National & International News India Business Blog (blog) Durga Puja 2009 begins with MahalayaSamayLive - - Sep 17, 2009 Kolkata: The six-day long Durga Puja festivities begin today with Mahalaya. The people of West Bengal and other part of country have been geared up to ... Railways put on alert for Durga PujaThe Hindu - Sep 22, 2009 The Railways have issued a red alert in preparedness to thwart any attack by terrorists on trains and its properties during the Durga Puja festivities. ... Pranab to don a priest's mantle during Durga PujaEconomic Times - 4 hours ago 24 Sep 2009, 1151 hrs IST, PTI SURI: Far from the hurly-burly of politics, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee plays another role at this time of the year ... Festive bond of fun & gamesCalcutta Telegraph - 13 hours ago Spot quiz: Participate in The Telegraph Hand In Hand spot quiz to test your Durga Puja quotient. Winners of this event will take home goodies courtesy ... Sahara Samay NCR & Brandsmith to roll out capital's first Durga ...India PRwire (press release) - Sep 22, 2009 ... association with leading brand promotions company Brandsmith, is all geared to put its own spin on the lights and festivities of Durga Puja this year. ... Biggest ever Statue of Maa Durga at Sarbojanik Durga PujaThaindian.com (blog) - Sep 21, 2009 Now in Andheri the youngest group Sarbojanik Durga Puja Committee 2009 has been formed to celebrate this Durga Puja at DNNagar Ground, Opp DNNagar Police ... |
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This Naxal leader studied at DoonTimes of India - - Sep 22, 2009 However, he went on to become one of the top Naxalite leaders in the country and a politburo member of the banned CPI(Maoist). Ghandy, who was arrested from ... Police believe Maoists may be hiding in national capital Hindustan Times Kobad Ghandy's campaign for naxals ends SamayLive Held Naxal had stayed in city too Times of India Delhi alters Maoist strategyCalcutta Telegraph - - 13 hours ago Asked whether these arrests were part of a broader drive to mop up not merely CPI (Maoist) members but also Naxalite sympathisers, a source said: "These ... Maoists crushed despite hurdle Hindustan Times New war against the Maoists Rediff 'CoBRA' men who took Naxal bullets to save colleaguesTimes of India - - Sep 20, 2009 ... the specialized anti-Naxal force with elements of the state police ran into a detachment of the rebels near the Maoist camp at Singanmadugu village. ... Govt launches ad blitzkrieg against Naxals Economic Times Maoist encounter toll crosses 60 Express Buzz Govt ad blitz to counter Naxals on their turf Times of India 'Govt fears our ideology, so projects us as criminals'Times of India - 15 hours ago ... he spoke of the reasons for the recent surge of Naxalism across the country. The Bastar region of Chhattisgarh is emerging as a Maoist bastion, ... Orissa Chief Minister favours Chhattisgarh type of anti-Maoist ...Orissadiary.com - 3 hours ago "I will meet Union Home minister, P Chidambaram on Thursday to discuss with him about Naxal problems in the state. Besides, I will meet several Union ... Orissa favours joint operation to counter Naxals Press Trust of India Signalling war ahead, CPM strikes back at Lalgarh NaxalsExpressindia.com - Sep 21, 2009 Kolkata After months in retreat, the CPM hit back at Maoists in Lalgarh, killing several Naxals in retaliation after coming under fire 15 km outside ... Armed Maoists swarm CPI(M) party office Times Now.tv UPA Cabinet Ministers are patronising Maoists: CPM Indian Express Maoist menace: Ministers grill CMIndian Express - 11 hours ago ... saying that the Centre might use special forces to crush the Naxal menace. Commenting on the situation in Lalgarh and its adjoining areas where Maoists' ... Naxals moving into stateTimes of India - Sep 20, 2009 NAGPUR: Maoist guerillas in large numbers are learnt to be gearing up to infiltrate into Maharashtra from neighbouring Chhattisgarh to disrupt the ... Cops launch assault on Naxals, kill 30Hindustan Times - Sep 18, 2009 A combined team of the elite anti-Naxal force, the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) and the Chhat-tisgarh police killed around 30 Maoist ... 24 Maoists killed in Green Hunt Daily News & Analysis Manmohan Singh and Naxal-Maoist upsurge clash of models of developmentIndianCatholic - Sep 16, 2009 In this article, Fr. Ambrose Pinto SJ, discusses the real issue behind the Maoist-Naxal armed struggle and suggests that when the global economy becomes ... Increasing infiltration major cause of worry Thelatest News Stay up to date on these results: |
Aug exports down 19.7 pct yr/yr - trade min
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's exports fell an annual 19.7 percent in August, Trade Minister Anand Sharma said on Thursday, as the global slump hit demand for Indian goods. Full Article
Food Grains & Cereals| Food grains and cereals directory is a vast collection of information related to the leading manufacturers of food grains and cereals in India. Web guide on food grains and cereals also presents insightful information on the leading Indian exporters and importers of food grains and cereals such as pulses, rice, oilseeds, corn, wheat flour, etc. Also presented below is a listing of websites linking to the leading manufacturers of food grains and cereals. |
Rare Indian lotus 'disappearing'
  In India this rare lotus plant is confined to a single privately owned pond A rare species of lotus is on the verge of disappearing from India, according to scientists. An expert told BBC News that efforts to save Nymphaea tetragona, found only in a small private pond in India, have not been effective. Despite a variety of methods of propagation, the plants have failed to grow in sufficiently large numbers. Leading botanist Pramod Tandon said that it is now as important to save the existing examples as to propagate them. N. tetragona, technically a water lily, is globally rare. In India the only surviving examples live on a small piece of private land in the north-eastern state of Meghalaya. 'Global problem' The private nature of the habitat is making conservation efforts even more difficult, said Professor Tandon, vice chancellor of the North Eastern Hill University in Meghalaya's capital Shillong. He said that the issues the plants raise stretch beyond the tiny pond where they cling to existence: "The conservation of rare and endangered plants is a global problem and requires a global answer." he said.
Conservation experts have tried to cultivate more of the plants by numerous means, including making cuttings, growing them from seeds and high-tech methods such as micro-propagation from tiny bits of sterile plant matter in a dish. "Lotus is the national flower of India," said Professor Tandon. "In spite of that, scientists are unable to effectively make this variety survive as micro-propagation and vegetative means have not yielded the desired result." Culturing the plants from seeds saw a few plants propagate, he explained but: "We were not able to really get these plants in large numbers to be reintroduced into their natural habitats." Ecosystem balance Without an immediate and concerted effort, Professor Tandon said he feared this species could disappear from India forever. As only 20 to 30 plants are left, it is the conservation efforts to protect the area where they are that are of paramount importance.
"Protection of the existing plants is even more important than multiplying them," said Professor Tandon. If that could be done successfully, then they could be propagated in their natural habitat in the Smit area of Meghalaya. Seeds that are available when the plant flowers could aid future micro-propagation efforts. Professor Tandon disagrees with the view that the government of India has not paid the necessary attention needed to save this critically endangered plant. He said that a global effort was needed to save many critically endangered plants from extinction as their survival was important not only for preserving natural heritage for future generations but also to maintain continuity in the ecosystem. |
Protection of the existing plants is even more important than multiplying them 
Spacecraft see 'damp' Moon soils
A surprising amount of water has been found to exist in the Moon's soil. Data from three spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan probe, shows that very fine films of H20 coat the particles that make up the lunar dirt. The quantity is tiny but could become a useful resource for astronauts wishing to live on the Moon, scientists say. "If you had a cubic metre of lunar soil, you could squeeze it and get out a litre of water," explained US researcher Larry Taylor. The rock and soil samples returned by the Apollo missions were found to be ever so slightly "damp" when examined in the laboratory, but scientists could never rule out the possibility that the water in the samples got in only after they were hauled back to Earth. Now a remote sensing instrument on Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to lunar orbit, has confirmed that there is real H20 signal at the Moon. Two other spacecraft to look at the Moon - Nasa's Deep Impact probe and the US-European Cassini satellite - back up Chandrayaan. Both collected their Moon data long before Chandrayaan was launched (in the case of Cassini, 10 years ago), but the significance of what they saw is only now being realised. The quantity of water is seen to increase the closer the observations are made to the poles. Water ice Scientists suspect the water is created in the soil in an interaction with the solar wind, the fast-moving stream of particles that constantly billows away from the Sun. Harsh space radiation triggers a chemical reaction in which oxygen atoms already in the soil acquire hydrogen nuclei to make water molecules and the simpler hydrogen-oxygen (OH) molecule. The amounts are small, say researchers, but boost the notion that astronauts based on the Moon could use it as a resource. "If it is a little or a lot, it's easy enough to split into hydrogen and oxygen and then you have rocket fuel," said Professor Taylor, a University of Tennessee researcher working on Chandrayaan. The Indian Moon mission was launched late last year but has already stopped working due to a fault. Nevertheless, the Indian space agency (Isro) will consider the water discovery a major triumph and a vindication of its endeavours. A Nasa probe is due to impact the Cabeus A crater near the Moon's south pole next month to see if it can kick up sufficient soil so that another satellite and Earth-based telescopes can detect the presence of water in the dusty plume. Researchers say the latest water results give them confidence that the experiment performed by the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission, known as LCROSS, could have a positive result. They speculate that the water seen elsewhere on the lunar surface may migrate to the slightly cooler poles, much as water vapour on Earth will be drawn to a cold surface and condense. This cold sink effect could result in vast quantities of water being retained in permanently shadowed craters in the form of ice, especially if it has being supplemented by water delivered comets. Nasa's Lunar Prospector probe in the 1990s saw a strong hydrogen signal in the far north and south. Some scientists on the mission suggested there could be up to 300 million tonnes of water-ice buried in crater soils that never see sunlight. Chandrayaan made its observations using a US-provided instrument, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3 for short. The M3 assessed the nature of lunar soils by analysing the way that light from the Sun was reflected off the surface. It could only see the top few centimetres of soil. Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter which is currently circling the Moon has the capability to see down to nearly a metre. Its data could determine if the presence of water is much more extensive. Dr Jim Garvin is the the chief scientist at the US space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center. He was asked if he thought Moon had become an exciting place again for science. "I think it always was; it's just we saw this big exciting Solar System and after touching the Moon with six human missions, we moved on - to Mars, to the outer planets, to comets and asteroids. "And now we are rediscovering the enigmas of the Moon and they're really in our own backyard, so they're tantalisingly close." Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
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Pawar said the shortage of rice would be caused by a dip in yield and it could further impact the rising prices.
For the common man reeling under the prices of fruits and vegetables during Navratra, there seems no respite in sight. After a shortfall in sugar production, paddy yield could be next in line.
Pawar said the rice production will take a dip this year as the total crop area under paddy reduced by 60 lakh hectare as compared to the previous year.
Pawar however refrained from commenting on any solutions that the government might put into place to deal with the shortage.
He said that importing rice was not a viable solution since very few countries produce paddy in abundance. As rice is already priced at approximately Rs 40 per kg, after the minister's comments prices are likely to rise further.
India's food grain production may fall by 29 million tonnes this year to 205 million tonnes due to drought, but large reserves may help avert a drastic demand-supply mismatch.
"In the worst case scenario, foodgrain production could fall by 29 million tonnes to 205 million tonnes -- a decline of 12 per cent. In this case, farm sector GDP may contract by up to six per cent," said an official note prepared on status of economy ahead of tomorrow's Full Planning Commission meet.
The projection came after nearly half of India witnessed drought or drought-like situation, triggering fears about the fate of summer-sown crops.
Even by optimistic projection, based on fall in areas under different summer-sown crops, output could still be down by about 15 million tonnes, the note said.
The output of summer-sown crops (Kharif) may be down by 16 million tonnes to 101 million tonnes mainly due to a slump in rice output. The production of winter-sown crops may remain flat at the last year level of 116.2 million tonnes.
India produced 233.88 million tonnes of foodgrains in 2008-09. The farm sector growth fell to 2.4 per cent during the April-June quarter of this fiscal, compared with 3 per cent a year earlier.
The note warned that the decline in production may push up prices of food items.
Prices of essential items like sugar and pulses have already surged by up to 50 per cent in the last four months on supply constraints.
However, the report said huge Central reserves may help avert a crisis in foodgrain supply. According to the latest report, the government had 50.4 million tonnes of foodgrains, enough to feed the entire population for nearly three months.
Nevertheless, the production of rice, a major foodgrain, has come under tremendous pressure, with the decline of about 69 lakh hectares in areas under the paddy crop.
Similarly, oilseed output this Kharif may decline mainly due to the slump in the coverage of groundnut by over 10 lakh hectares, the note said.
It, however, said better planning and government support for the Rabi season may help mitigate the impact of drought, especially if rainfall in September remains "reasonable".
India has witnessed 26 per cent less than the normal rains so far this season, affecting the prospects of major summer-sown crops.
Apart from crops, horticulture and animal husbandry may be impacted by the drought but the magnitude of the effect would still be less, compared with that on foodgrain, it said.
The farm sector accounts for about 18 per cent to the overall gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. Though its share is less than one-fifth of the total GDP, any dent in farm production will hurt rural consumption, as over 60 per cent of India's population still depends upon agriculture for livelihood.
TIMELINE-India's steps to tide over sugar shortage
NEW DELHI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - India will extend the deadline for duty-free white sugar imports beyond November, the farm minister said on Thursday.[ID:nDEL338646]
The country has taken a raft of measures to tide over a shortage of sugar, aggravated by shrinking supplies of sugarcane.
India's sugar output in the year to Sept. 30 is estimated to be about 15 million tonnes down 44.5 percent from 2007/08 and in the new season, production may be about 16-17 million tonnes.
The world's top sugar consumer has imported about 5 million tonnes of sugar in 2008/09 after exporting a similar quantity in the previous year.
In the new sugar year beginning October 1, it is expected to import about 4.5 million tonnes, according to a Reuters poll.
Here are steps the government has taken since Feb. 17: Feb. 17 - The government allowed mills to import duty-free raw sugar on condition that an equal quantity of white sugar would be exported within three years. Feb. 23 - India imposes stock limits on sugar to increase domestic supply. Restrictions to be in place until July 9. Apr. 10 - The country allows duty-free imports of white sugar. Asks three state-run trading firms and a farmers' cooperative to import up to one million tonnes of tax-free white sugar before Aug. 1. Also exempts mills importing raws until July 31 from an obligation to export whites. May 26 - India's Commodities Market Regulator barred the launch of new sugar futures contract until the end of 2009 to check speculation and price rise. June 19 - The government extends sugar stocks limit until Jan. 8 next year to ensure adequate supplies in the domestic market. June 25 - India raises the minimum price that mills must pay to farmers for sugarcane by a third to a record high of 107.76 rupees per 100 kg to encourage farmers to plant more. July 31 - India extends duty-free imports of raw and refined sugar beyond July 31. Aug. 25 - Large consumers were asked to keep sugar stocks enough to meet only 15 days requirement, down from 30 days earlier. Sept. 24 - Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said India will extend the deadline to allow duty-free white sugar imports to June.
(Reporting by Himangshu Watts; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
There's water on the Moon, scientists confirm
Print story
Post commentTrio of spacecraft provide 'unambiguous evidence'
Posted in Space, 24th September 2009 10:19 GMT
Analysis of the lunar surface by three different spacecraft has provided "unambiguous evidence" of water on the Moon, Space.com reports.
India's Chandrayaan-1, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and the agency's Deep Impact probe have all detected the presence of either water or hydroxyl - one hydrogen atom and one oxygen atom linked by a single bond.
The NASA-built Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) aboard Chandrayaan-1 "detected wavelengths of light reflected off the surface that indicated the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen".
The M3 suggested water/hydroxyl in the top few millimetres of the lunar surface - the limit of its penetrative capability - and detected a water signal which "got stronger toward the polar regions".
Cassini passed by the Moon in 1999, en route to Saturn, and also noted a globally-distributed water/hydroxyl signal, once again stronger towards the poles.
Deep Impact, meanwhile, detected the same signal at all latitudes above 10 degrees N, and confirmed the poles showed the strongest signals. The probe made multiple passes of the Moon on its way to a planned rendezvous flyby of comet 103P/Hartley 2 in November 2010.
Commenting on the trio of studies, Paul Lacey of the University of Hawaii said the findings "provide unambiguous evidence for the presence of hydroxyl or water" - data which "prompts a critical re-examination of the notion that the moon is dry".
There are two possible sources for lunar water - from water-bearing comets hitting the surface, or an "endogenic" process. Space.com explains that since the material which makes up the lunar surface is roughly 45 per cent oxygen, "combined with other elements as mostly silicate minerals", it could interact with the solar wind to produce water.
According to the M3 team, if the solar wind's positively-charged hydrogen atoms impact against the Moon's surface with sufficient force they can "break apart oxygen bonds in soil materials", and "where free oxygen and hydrogen exist, there is a high chance that trace amounts of water will form".
Regarding just why there appears to be more water/hydroxyl at the poles, Deep Impact was able to "observe the same regions at different times of the lunar day", and found that "when the sun's rays were strongest, the water feature was lowest, while in the morning, the feature was stronger".
This leads the researchers to suggest "the daily dehydration and rehydration of the trace water across the surface could lead to the migration of hydroxyl and hydrogen towards the poles where it can accumulate in the cold traps of the permanently shadowed regions".
Carle Pieters of Brown University in Rhode Island, who led one of the three studies, said: "If the water molecules are as mobile as we think they are - even a fraction of them - they provide a mechanism for getting water to those permanently shadowed craters.
"This opens a whole new avenue [of lunar research], but we have to understand the physics of it to utilize it."
Quite what benefit the lunar water will be to future manned Moon missions remains to be seen. The resolutely imperial researchers note that one ton of the top layer of the lunar surface would yield just 32 ounces of water.
NASA probe scents crusty bonanza in dark moon bottoms
Shadow icebergs of the lunar antarctic
Posted in Space, 18th September 2009 12:10 GMT
NASA says that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) probe in orbit around the Moon has detected neutron signatures indicating possible frozen water deposits hidden in craters at the lunar south pole.
Tough country for ice mining.
One of the LRO's main missions is to find water on the Moon, which would make it far less expensive and difficult to establish manned bases there. The deep crater bottoms of the lunar antarctic are considered to be a particularly promising place to look, as they are permanently in shadow - never receiving any sunlight which could evaporate ice deposits. It's also impossible to peer into the craters with Earth-based telescopes as their walls hide the bottoms from view, which is one reason why the LRO has been sent out.
According to a NASA statement released yesterday:
First results from LRO's Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector, or LEND, indicate that permanently shadowed and nearby regions may harbor water and hydrogen. Additional observations will be needed to confirm this. LEND relies on a decrease in neutron radiation from the lunar surface to indicate the presence of water or hydrogen.
"If these deposits are present, an analysis of them will help us understand the interaction of the moon with the rest of the solar system," said Richard Vondrak, LRO boffin at NASA's Goddard spaceflight centre in Maryland.
The space agency goes on to add:
According to the first measurements from the Diviner instrument [on the LRO] large areas in the permanently shadowed craters are about minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Kelvin), more than cold enough to store water ice or hydrogen for billions of years.
If minable icebergs are found in the lunar antarctic this would be good news for any future Moonbase programme. Astronauts and/or robotic machinery could harvest the icy bounty and crack it using electricity into hydrogen and oxygen, so creating a supply of rocket fuel. This would mean that outbound ships from Earth wouldn't need to haul all the return-voyage fuel along, greatly increasing their payloads. Such supplies would also make life support easier.
But even if the LEND neutron traces are right and there's ice in them thar craters, there are still problems ahead. NASA says that the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, or LOLA, indicates that the possible berg-bearing regions are rough badlands, difficult for rovers or suited ice miners to traverse or for lander ships to set down on.
Then there's the matter of power. The sunless crater deeps would rule out the use of solar cells, the mainstream means of 'leccy generation in space. There are likely to be permanently-sunlit areas up on the polar crater lips, which would be good news for solar as most of the Moon suffers weeks-long nights, but getting the ice and the power together could be tricky. It may be that nuclear energy is the only practical lunar option.
Assuming NASA can find ways round all these problems, it may still not receive the funds it needs to build a Moonbase. It's now widely acknowledged that the agency's budget as assigned by Washington is inadequate for any serious manned space effort, and the Obama administration is still deciding what to do about that.
There's more from NASA - vids, pics etc - here. ®
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SlashdotIndia capable of building N-deterrence up to 200 KT: Kakodkar
Bombay Stock
National Stock Exchange's Nifty closed at 4990, up 20.05 points or 0.40 per cent. The broader index hit a high of 5016.70 and low of 4904.05.
BSE Midcap Index was up 0.85 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index gained 0.53 per cent.
Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Bankex moved up 1.74 per cent, BSE Healthcare Index inclined 1.05 per cent and BSE Realty Index advanced 0.74 per cent.
BSE IT Index slipped 1.60 per cent and BSE Metal Index moved down 1.13 per cent.
Sensex gainers comprised HDFC (3.73%), HDFC Bank (3.57%), Wipro (2.47%), Reliance Communications (2.08%), NTPC (1.97%) and ICICI Bank (1.85%).
Losers were Hindalco Industries (-4.24%), Infosys Technologies (-3.41%), Hero Honda (-1.69%), ACC (-1.68%) and Sterlite Industries (-1.56%).
Market breadth on BSE showed 1473 advances against 1286 declines.
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Posted: 24 Sep, 2009, 1158 hrs IST
With half of India hit by drought and the country's food grain output expected to slump by millions of tonnes, the central government has sent detailed advisories to states on ways to maximise food production during the coming rabi season.
"The focus is on early district-level rabi planning. Consultants have been sent to a number of states to help them make district plans and guide them on various technical aspects," the agriculture ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
"States have also been advised to explore the possibility of increasing coverage under wheat, boro/summer rice and pulses. The need to take necessary steps to raise productivity of various crops has also been highlighted," the ministry said.
Since wheat contributes over 73 per cent to rabi crop production, stress is being laid on increasing wheat production substantially, the statement added.
"One effective measure suggested for raising wheat yield is early sowing, by the end of November, and the other is to bring maximum area under high yielding and high temperature-tolerant varieties," the statement added.
In the case of rice, "the second most important rabi crop", the stress is on planting in new areas, adoption of an improved package of practices, and planting hybrids that have high-yield potential.
Noting that another important rabi food grain, rabi jowar, has low productivity, the ministry said: "This is proposed to be tackled by encouraging the cultivation of new hybrids and high yielding cultivars and best possible agronomic practices."
States have also been asked to encourage the use of organic manures and micro-nutrients because "soil fertility has been decreasing due to low carbon content and increasing micronutrient deficiency".
This, the ministry said, was more prevalent in the northern states.
"The final strategy for rabi will be evolved after receiving inputs from the states and in consultation with the concerned central ministries over two days beginning tomorrow (Thursday)," the release added.
AFP reports:
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| An Indian man walks on the dried up lake-bed at Necklace Road in Hyderabad | ||
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India's monsoon was about 20 percent below strength just over a week before the official end of the rainy reason, putting the country on course for its worst drought since 1972, weather data showed Wednesday.
"Until September 21, for the country as a whole, the rain deficiency was 22 percent," said B.K. Bandopadhyay, a spokesman for the weather office.
"We expect the total rain deficiency will be roughly about 20 percent (at the end of the monsoon season). It depends on the rainfall, but it seems it will be around this number," he added.
Low rainfall early in the monsoon period ravaged India's rice, cane sugar and groundnut crops, and has disrupted the flow of water into the main reservoirs that are vital for hydropower generation and winter irrigation.
The drought is expected to dampen India's economic growth this year and has sent food prices rocketing, leading to huge hardship for India's poor masses.
Chicken prices, for instance, rose 16 percent in the week to September 5 and fruit and vegetables climbed eight percent from the previous week, official data shows.
In August, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted that the country faced a "severe drought" but he said that ample food grain stock would ensure no one went hungry.
Bandopadhyay said that a rain deficit of 20 percent would be worse than previous droughts in 2002, 1987 and 1979 when the shortfall was about 19 percent.
In 1972, the deficit measured 23.9 percent, he said.
The monsoon period in India runs from June to the end of September, though late rains have been experienced in October.
India's weather service said recent reports showed that more than half the country was affected by the drought and the key farming areas in the north, northeast and some parts of western India were worst affected.
Rains in the northwest were 34 percent less than average, in central regions they were down by 19 percent, and the northeast had a 26-percent shortfall.
Experts said the farming population faced tremendous pressure due to the severe water shortage this year. Much of India's farmland lacks irrigation, meaning farmers are dependent on the monsoon rains.
"This is a crisis for sure," Devender Sharma, a food policy analyst based in New Delhi, told AFP.
Sharma said India had 50 million tonnes of wheat and rice as buffer stock, ample to ensure steady food supplies.
"Food will have to supplied to the worst affected areas efficiently to prevent wastage," said Ravi Jalan, an agriculture scientist.
Jalan said India wasted more than 50 billion dollars of food grains every year, mainly due to the lack of post-harvest infrastructure such as appropriate storage facilities and transportation.
Officials at the weather service said they would collect all the rain distribution data at the end of the monsoon season to assess the drought situation.
| Counter-productive controls |
| Private trade could be an ally in fighting inflation |
| Business Standard / New Delhi September 24, 2009, 0:57 IST |
The Cabinet's decision to extend by a year the stock limits and other controls on the private trade in rice, pulses, edible oils and sugar, perpetuates a regime that has proved ineffectual in reining in food inflation. Restraints on the commodity trade have been in place since August 2006, when the enforcement of an earlier notification of February 2002 that allowed licence- and controls-free trading was held in abeyance. Futures trading in several items of mass consumption has also been suspended though, in cases like wheat, also reintroduced. None of these measures has checked the rise in food prices. While general inflation has disappeared after peaking in 2008, double-digit food price inflation has continued.
The stock ceilings may even have restricted the availability of essential commodities, rather than improving it, and thus fanned food inflation instead of dousing it. Besides, these curbs have created problems for food-based industry in planning their raw material inventories. Some states have fixed ceilings unrealistically, making it hard even for licensed wholesalers to conduct their normal day-to-day business. In the case of sugar, a tight time frame has been prescribed for inventory rotation, apart from low stock ceilings. Bizarrely, bulk sugar consumers like confectionary and soft drink units are required to produce chartered accountants' certificates even if they have inventories equivalent to just 15 days' requirement. Instances have come to light where 'notices' were served and raids conducted on food and beverage companies under the draconian Essential Commodities Act.
Instead of striking at the root causes of food price inflation, which are basically supply-side factors, the government is barking up the wrong tree by holding hoarding responsible for price increases. Raids carried out in various states have failed to unearth any big quantities of hoarded stocks. In the case of commodities such as rice, wheat and pulses, the government itself has proved to be the biggest hoarder. As of July 1, the official grain coffers were brimming over with a massive stockpile of 53 million tonnes of rice and wheat, twice as much as required under buffer stocking norms. The bulk of the post-harvest market arrivals of these grains, over 95 per cent in the case of wheat, was mopped up by government agencies, leaving insufficient stocks in the rest of the system. In the case of pulses, only three public sector firms have been allowed to import at zero duty. Similar facilities, if extended to the private trade, might have achieved better results. The government needs to revisit its knee-jerk responses to a price problem, and see if allowing markets to function normally delivers better results. The need also is for a long-term policy to boost the domestic output of essential items. Otherwise, food price inflation will keep returning as a problem.
Show cause notices to state, Centre
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ET SlideShow
Log on to 
 Rice land grabs undermine food sovereignty in Africa GRAIN In the wake of the 2008 global food crisis, African capitals have been buzzing with renewed talk of the need for food self-sufficiency, and rice is often at the top of government agendas. Although everyone agrees on the need to increase production, the solutions coming out of the corridors of power boil down to the tired old formula of getting more fertilisers and "high-yielding" seeds to farmers. In the eyes of the decision-makers, this inevitably means either Chinese hybrid rice seeds or the Nerica rice seeds developed by the African Rice Centre, and backed by the most powerful donors and research institutes operating on the continent.[1] The traditional knowledge and seeds of African farmers, which feed and provide livelihoods for the majority of people on the continent, are completely ignored. Just as troubling, and not disconnected from this top-down seeds push, is a rush for control over Africa's farm lands. While African governments proclaim their commitments to food self-sufficiency, behind the backs of their people they are signing an alarming number of deals with foreign investors that give these investors control over their countries' most important agricultural lands, including rice lands.[2] Take Mali for example. Mali, like several other countries in West Africa, recently went from being a net rice exporter to being a major importer. Now the government has embarked on a multimillion-dollar national rice initiative that is supposed to restore self-sufficiency by helping the country's farmers to produce more. Why then has the government handed over an enormous tract of prime rice land to a Libyan investment fund and Chinese companies? A couple of years ago, on the sidelines of a summit of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) in Bamako, Mali's President, Amadou Toumani Touré, offered up 100,000 ha of land within the Office du Niger, Mali's main rice producing area. Libya, a country flush with petrodollars but lacking in its own food production, effectively runs CEN-SAD and it jumped at the chance. Through an arm of its sovereign wealth fund,[3] the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAP), Libya signed a deal with Mali giving Libya control over the 100,000 ha as part of a larger infrastructure investment project for the area that includes the enlargement of a canal and the improvement of a road. The project will begin with rice production and will eventually add tomato production and livestock. Details of the how the project will operate are finally starting to emerge. LAP's subsidiary in Bamako, Malibya, is responsible for managing the project. The infrastructure construction has been contracted to CGC, a Chinese company owned by China's big oil corporation SINOPEC.[4] Another, unnamed, Chinese firm has been contracted to supply Chinese hybrid rice seeds for the project and to train local experts, some of whom are already in China, on how to cultivate them. This unnamed company is likely to be China's largest hybrid rice seed producer, Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture, which already has extensive programmes in Africa and a similar CGC project for hybrid rice production in Nigeria.[5] This is not the first big investment in hybrid rice production in West Africa for Libya's sovereign wealth enterprise. In December 2007, LAP invested US$30 million in a rice project in Liberia that it will manage in partnership with the local NGO Foundation for African Development Aid (ADA) on 15–17,000 ha of land that ADA had received from the Liberian government.[6] In both instances, the stated objective of the project is to help to meet local food needs. Yet there is plenty of reason to suspect that the real motivation is to export rice to Libya. In 2005, the latest year for which data is available from the FAO, Libya imported 177,000 tonnes of rice, valued at US$62 million. Those imports will certainly expand, as Tripoli moves forward with an ambitious US$130-billion infrastructure development programme that is forecast to require a million foreign workers, most of whom will come from Asia.[7] In December 2008, Libya signed an agreement with Bangladesh for the recruitment of a "large number" of workers. Libya, like other Arab countries, is seeking to escape its dependence on corporate-controlled global commodity chains for its food needs by outsourcing food production to other countries.[8] "Ensuring food security in rice also makes it possible to overcome another major difficulty: that is to say, the developed countries that monopolise agriculture production and the global companies that monopolise the prices of staple foods", says Malibya's director, Abdalilah Youssef.[9] The vice-president of the LAP told the Liberian Times in December 2007 that their project in Liberia would target both local and international markets.[10] With the Mali project, although the priority for the project is said to be the domestic rice market, there are clear signs that exports to Libya are part of the plan. During a visit to Mali, Amadou Kanté dit Bany, a senior director with LAP, told L'Indépendant newspaper that the project would produce rice "to meet the needs of Mali, Libya and all other countries of CEN-SAD".[11] Wherever the rice goes, however, its production will do little for local farmers. Indeed, in Mali the project is going to push some local farmers off the land and compete directly with others for water from the Niger river, the most important source of irrigation for the Sahel–Sahara. Already, Malibya is negotiating with the Malian government for priority in water allocation during the off-season, when the water levels are low. "When it comes to the reorganisation of people, meaning the villages that will have to leave their area, I say that any arrangement creates a disturbance, and I am asking for everyone's cooperation in this regard. For us this is not about chasing away the people or evacuating them, but simply about reorganising them", says Malibya's Abdalilah Youssef.[12] Mamadou Goita, executive director of the Institute for Research and the Promotion of Alternatives in Development in Mali, places the Malibya project within a larger reorganisation of the Office du Niger that is paving the way for the private sector to take control of farm land. "The projects in the Office du Niger, such as the Malibya project and projects financed by way of the US government's Millennium Challenge Account, are brutally pushing forward the industrialisation of agriculture and the privatisation of lands in the area", he says. Indeed, earlier this month, Lonrho, a London-based conglomerate, announced that it was in talks with the Malian government for a 25,000-ha rice project in the Office du Niger. This is in addition to a 25,000-ha rice-land deal that Lonrho has just concluded with Angola and a 100,000-ha land deal that it is negotiating in Malawi.[13] There are also concerns about how these projects are destroying the area's rich diversity of local rice by promoting a few modern varieties, notably the Nerica varieties developed by the African Rice Centre. As reported in the recent GRAIN Briefing on Nerica, the widespread and heavy promotion of Nerica in Africa poses a major threat to the continent's farmer seed systems, which continue to supply up to 90 per cent of its seed needs. Dr Assetou Samaké, professor of plant genetics at the University of Bamako and a member of the Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage (COPAGEN), says that, in the area of the Office du Niger, Nerica is now displacing local varieties. She also says that the zone has been turned into a "forest of experiments" with no transparency about what seeds are being brought in, and she worries that it could become a testing ground for GMOs and hybrid seeds. In the case of the LAP projects in Mali and Liberia, they will both be supplied with imported Chinese hybrid rice seeds. Hybrid rice can achieve high yields, but only when high-tech machinery and high levels of chemical inputs are used.[14] As well as that, seeds from hybrid rice cannot be saved by farmers but have to be purchased every year, putting them out of reach and making them impractical for Liberia's or Mali's small farmers. Moreover, while its poor eating quality is a major deterrent to small farmers supplying local markets, hybrid rice is less of a problem when the goal is to supply migrant labourers with a cheap food source, which is likely to be the case with the LAP projects in Mali and Liberia. The LAP's use of hybrid rice could open the door to more large-scale hybrid-rice projects, setting a dangerous precedent for West African rice farmers and their seed systems. In early 2007, more than 500 people representing farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, food workers and civil society organisations from around the world gathered in Nyéléni, Mali to strengthen the global movement for food sovereignty.[15] They declared: "Most of us are food producers and are ready, able and willing to feed all the world's peoples." This movement is growing and gathering force, but so too are the forces threatening to take away the seeds and lands of small-scale food producers – the very basis of their capacity to feed people and to assure their livelihoods. The conflict between the two visions for the future of food and farming is a gathering storm that the flimsy "win–win" cover used by Libya and the other land grabbers will be unable to protect against – and the skies above Africa are clouding over. Further reading http://farmlandgrab.blogspot.com GRAIN, "Seized: The 2008 landgrab for food and financial security", October 2008, http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=212 GRAIN, "Nerica: another trap for small farmers in Africa", January 2009, http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=215 GRAIN, "Oryza hybrida blog – Information and analysis for the resistance to hybrid rice", http://www.grain.org/hybridrice/?blog GRAIN, "Seed aid, agribusiness and the food crisis", Seedling, October 2008, http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=564 GRAIN, "The food crisis and the hybrid rice surge", Seedling, July 2008, http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=551 [1] See the GRAIN briefing, "Nerica: another trap for small farmers in Africa", January 2009, http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=215 [2] See GRAIN, Oryza hybrida blog, "Mali: a Libya–Chinese rice landgrab strikes a blow to local farmers", posted 1 December 2008, http://www.grain.org/hybridrice/?lid=212 [3] Libya' sovereign wealth fund is the Libyan Investment Authority. [4] Temoust., "Signature de convention entre la Chine, la Libya et le Mali", 3 November 2008, http://www.temoust.org/spip.php?article7056 [5] Organization, CGC Overseas Construction Nigeria Co. Ltd, http://www.cgcoc.com.cn/en/org_content.asp?classid=L290202&newsid=712231659508670 [6] Cheetah Index, "$30m Libyan Investment in Rice Growing for Liberia", Tripoli Post, 23 December 2007, http://business.africanpath.com/article.cfm?articleID=48228 [7] Libyaonline.com, "Libya to recruit large number of workers", 13 October 2008, http://www.libyaonline.com/business/details.php?id=6433 [8] GRAIN, "Seized: The 2008 landgrab for food and financial security", October 2008, http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=212 [9] Maliweb, interview with Abdalilah Youssef, 10 November 2008, http://www.maliweb.net/category.php?NID=37605 [10] ReliefWeb, "Liberia: Liberia offers to assist Liberia in rice production", Liberian Times, 17 December 2008, http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/KKAA-79Z8B6?OpenDocument [11] Temoust, "Les investissements libyens sont une aubaine pour le Mali" , 15 May 2008, http://www.temoust.org/spip.php?article5388 [12] Maliweb, interview with Abdalilah Youssef, 10 November 2008, http://www.maliweb.net/category.php?NID=37605 [13] Tom Burgis "Lonrho secures rice land deal in Angola", Financial Times, 16 January 2009. http://farmlandgrab.blogspot.com/search/label/Angola [14] GRAIN, Oryza hybrida blog – Information and analysis for the resistance to hybrid rice, http://www.grain.org/hybridrice/?blog [15] See the Nyéléni conference website at http://www.nyeleni.org |
Hybrid Rice: Economic Assessment of a Promising Technology for Sustainable Food Grain Production in Bangladesh
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Mustafi, B.A.A.
Hossian, Mahabub
| Abstract |
Hybrid rice, one of the viable and proven technologies has been considered as a new frontier to increase rice production for meeting growing demand for staple food in Bangladesh. Using farm survey data this paper examines comparative profitability of hybrid and inbred rice cultivation and estimates a Stochastic Frontier Function to determine the effect of key variables on farm efficiency. Results show that hybrid rice gives substantially higher yield as well as net return compared to inbred rice which leads to increase and sustainable growth of food grain production. Analysis of Stochastic Frontier model shows hybrid rice farms are technically more efficient than inbred.
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- Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
- Aly, Hassan Y. & Belbase, Krishna & Grabowski, Richard & Kraft, Steven, 1987. "The Technical Efficiency Of Illinois Grain Farms: An Application Of A Ray-Homothetic Production Function," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 19(01), July. [Downloadable!]
- Lin, Justin Yifu, 1991. "The household responsibility system reform and the adoption of hybrid rice in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 353-372, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
- Battese, George E., 1992. "Frontier production functions and technical efficiency: a survey of empirical applications in agricultural economics," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 7(3-4), pages 185-208, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
- Coelli, T.J., 1995. "Recent Developments In Frontier Modelling And Efficiency Measurement," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 39(03), December. [Downloadable!]
- Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-32.
- Fan, Shenggen & Wailes, Eric J & Young, Kenneth B, 1997. "Policy Reforms and Technological Change in Egyptian Rice Production: A Frontier Production Function Approach," Journal of African Economies, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 391-411, October.
- Lin, Justin Yifu, 1994. "Impact of hybrid rice on input demand and productivity," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 153-164, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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In the 20th century, rice (Oryza sativa) has gradually become the most important food grain in Latin America and the Caribbean, supplying consumers with more calories than staples such as wheat, maize, cassava, and potatoes. It is surpassed only by sugar as a source of energy in the diet. |
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Rice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| It has been suggested that Oryza sativa and Oryza sativa#Merge into Rice be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) |
| Rice, white, long-grain, regular, raw, unenriched Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Energy 370 kcal 1530 kJ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient database | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
B: Brown rice
C:Rice with germ
D: White rice with bran residue
E:Musenmai (Japanese:無洗米), "Polished and ready to boil rice", literally, non-wash rice
(1):Chaff
(2):Bran
(3):Bran residue
(4):Cereal germ
(5):Endosperm
Rice is the seed of the monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family (Poaceae). As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East, South, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the West Indies. It is the grain with the second highest worldwide production, after maize ("corn").[1].
Since a large portion of maize crops are grown for purposes other than human consumption, rice is probably the most important grain with regards to human nutrition and caloric intake, providing more than one fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by the human species.[2]
A traditional food plant in Africa, rice has the potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development and support sustainable landcare.[3] In early 2008, some governments and retailers began rationing supplies of the grain due to fears of a global rice shortage.[4][5]
Rice is normally grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial and can produce a ratoon crop for up to 20 years.[6] The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and soil fertility. The grass has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long. The edible seed is a grain (caryopsis) 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick.
Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low labor costs and high rainfall, as it is very labor-intensive to cultivate and requires plenty of water for cultivation. Rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a steep hill or mountain. Although its parent species are native to South Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade and exportation have made it commonplace in many cultures worldwide.
The traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. This simple method requires sound planning and servicing of the water damming and channeling, but reduces the growth of less robust weed and pest plants that have no submerged growth state, and deters vermin. While with rice growing and cultivation the flooding is not mandatory, all other methods of irrigation require higher effort in weed and pest control during growth periods and a different approach for fertilizing the soil.
(The name wild rice is usually used for species of the grass genus Zizania, both wild and domesticated, although the term may also be used for primitive or uncultivated varieties of Oryza.)
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Preparation as food
The seeds of the rice plant are first milled using a rice huller to remove the chaff (the outer husks of the grain). At this point in the process, the product is called brown rice. The milling may be continued, removing the 'bran', i.e., the rest of the husk and the germ, thereby creating white rice. White rice, which keeps longer, lacks some important nutrients; in a limited diet which does not supplement the rice, brown rice helps to prevent the disease beriberi.
White rice may also be buffed with glucose or talc powder (often called polished rice, though this term may also refer to white rice in general), parboiled, or processed into flour. White rice may also be enriched by adding nutrients, especially those lost during the milling process. While the cheapest method of enriching involves adding a powdered blend of nutrients that will easily wash off (in the United States, rice which has been so treated requires a label warning against rinsing), more sophisticated methods apply nutrients directly to the grain, coating the grain with a water insoluble substance which is resistant to washing.
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Despite the hypothetical health risks of talc (such as stomach cancer),[7] talc-coated rice remains the norm in some countries due to its attractive shiny appearance, but it has been banned in some, and is no longer widely used in others (such as the United States). Even where talc is not used, glucose, starch, or other coatings may be used to improve the appearance of the grains.
Rice bran, called nukkah in Japan, is a valuable commodity in Asia and is used for many daily needs. It is a moist, oily inner layer which is heated to produce an oil. It is also used as a pickling bed in making rice bran pickles and Takuan.
Raw rice may be ground into flour for many uses, including making many kinds of beverages such as amazake, horchata, rice milk, and sake. Rice flour does not contain gluten and is suitable for people on a gluten-free diet. Rice may also be made into various types of noodles. Raw wild or brown rice may also be consumed by raw-foodist or fruitarians if soaked and sprouted (usually 1 week to 30 days); see also Gaba rice below.
Processed rice seeds must be boiled or steamed before eating. Cooked rice may be further fried in oil or butter, or beaten in a tub to make mochi.
Rice is a good source of protein and a staple food in many parts of the world, but it is not a complete protein: it does not contain all of the essential amino acids in sufficient amounts for good health, and should be combined with other sources of protein, such as nuts, seeds, beans, fish, or meat.[8]
Rice, like other cereal grains, can be puffed (or popped). This process takes advantage of the grains' water content and typically involves heating grains in a special chamber. Further puffing is sometimes accomplished by processing pre-puffed pellets in a low-pressure chamber. The ideal gas law means that either lowering the local pressure or raising the water temperature results in an increase in volume prior to water evaporation, resulting in a puffy texture. Bulk raw rice density is about 0.9 g/cm³. It decreases to less than one-tenth that when puffed.
[edit] Cooking
| Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on |
There are many varieties of rice such as laweed; for many purposes the main distinction is between long- and medium-grain rice. The grains of long-grain rice (high amylose) tend to remain intact after cooking; medium-grain rice (high amylopectin) becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for sweet dishes, for risotto in Italy and many arrossos -as arròs negre, etc.- in Spain.
Rice is cooked by boiling or steaming, and absorbs water during cooking. It can be cooked in just as much water as it absorbs (the absorption method), or in a large quantity of water which is drained before serving (the rapid-boil method).[9] Electric rice cookers, popular in Asia and Latin America, simplify the process of cooking rice. Rice is often heated in oil before boiling, or oil is added to the water; this is thought to make the cooked rice less sticky.
In Arab cuisine rice is an ingredient of many soups and dishes with fish, poultry, and other types of meat. It is also used to stuff vegetables or is wrapped in grape leaves. When combined with milk, sugar and honey, it is used to make desserts. In some regions, such as Tabaristan, bread is made using rice flour. Medieval Islamic texts spoke of medical uses for the plant.[10]
Rice may also be made into rice porridge (also called congee, jok, jook, or rice gruel) by adding more water than usual, so that the cooked rice is saturated with water to the point that it becomes very soft, expanded, and fluffy. Rice porridge is commonly eaten as a breakfast food, and is also a traditional food for the sick.
Rice may be soaked prior to cooking, which saves fuel, decreases cooking time, minimizes exposure to high temperature and thus decreases the stickiness of the rice. For some varieties, soaking improves the texture of the cooked rice by increasing expansion of the grains.
In some countries parboiled rice is popular. Parboiled rice is subjected to a steaming or parboiling process while still a brown rice. This causes nutrients from the outer husk to move into the grain itself. The parboil process causes a gelatinisation of the starch in the grains. The grains become less brittle, and the color of the milled grain changes from white to yellow. The rice is then dried, and can then be milled as usual or used as brown rice. Milled parboiled rice is nutritionally superior to standard milled rice. Parboiled rice has an additional benefit in that it does not stick to the pan during cooking, as happens when cooking regular white rice.
Instant rice differs from parboiled rice in that it is milled, fully cooked and then dried.
A nutritionally superior method of preparing brown rice known as GABA Rice or GBR (Germinated Brown Rice)[11] may be used. This involves soaking washed brown rice for 20 hours in warm water (38°C or 100°F) prior to cooking it. This process stimulates germination, which activates various enzymes in the rice. By this method, a result of research carried out for the United Nations Year of Rice, it is possible to obtain a more complete amino acid profile, including GABA.
Cooked rice can contain Bacillus cereus spores, which produce an emetic toxin when left at 4°C–60°C [13]. When storing cooked rice for use the next day, rapid cooling is advised to reduce the risk of toxin production.
Rice flour and starch often are used in batters and breadings to increase crispiness.
[edit] Rice growing ecology
Rice can be grown in different ecologies, depending upon water availability.[12]
- Lowland, rainfed, which is drought prone, favors medium depth; waterlogged, submergence, and flood prone
- Lowland, irrigated, grown in both the wet season and the dry season
- Deep water or floating rice
- Coastal Wetland
- Upland rice, Upland rice is also known as 'Ghaiya rice', well known for its drought tolerance[13]
[edit] History of domestication & cultivation
[edit] Asia
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Rice has been cultivated in Asia likely over 10,000 years.
Genetics shows that rice was first domesticated in the region of the Yangtze river valley.[14]
[edit] Africa
African rice has been cultivated for 3500 years. Between 1700 and 800 BC, O. glaberrima propagated from its original centre, the Niger River delta, and extended to Senegal. However, it never developed far from its original region. Its cultivation even declined in favour of the Asian species, possibly brought to the African continent by Arabs coming from the east coast between the 6th and 11th centuries CE.
In parts of Africa under Islam, rice was chiefly grown in southern Morocco. During the ninth century rice was also brought to east Africa by Arab traders. Although, the diffusion of rice in much sub-Saharan Africa remains uncertain, Arabs brought it to the region stretching from Lake Chad to the White Nile.[15]
[edit] Middle East
According to Zohary and Hopf (2000, p. 91), O. sativa was introduced to the Middle East in Hellenistic times, and was familiar to both Greek and Roman writers. They report that a large sample of rice grains was recovered from a grave at Susa in Iran (dated to the first century AD) at one end of the ancient world, while at the same time rice was grown in the Po valley in Italy.
In Iraq rice was grown in some areas of southern Iraq. With the rise of Islam it moved north to Nisibin, the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and then beyond the Muslim world into the valley of Volga. In Palestine, rice came to be grown in the Jordan valley. Rice is also grown in Yemen.[15]
[edit] Europe
The Moors brought Asiatic rice to the Iberian Peninsula in the tenth century. Records indicate it was grown in Valencia and Majorca. In Majorca, rice cultivation seems to have stopped after the Christian conquest, although historians are not certain.[15]
Muslims also brought rice to Sicily, where it was an important crop.[15]
After the middle of the 15th century, rice spread throughout Italy and then France, later propagating to all the continents during the age of European exploration.
[edit] Caribbean and Latin America
Rice is not native to the Americas but was introduced to the Caribbean and South America by European colonizers at an early date with Spanish colonizers introducing Asian rice to Mexico in the 1520s at Veracruz and the Portuguese and their African slaves introducing it at about the same time to Colonial Brazil.[16] Recent scholarship suggests that African slaves played an active role in the establishment of rice in the New World and that African rice was an important crop from an early period.[17] In either case, varieties of rice and bean dishes were a staple dish along the peoples of West Africa and they remained a staple among their descendants subjected to slavery in the Spanish New World colonies and elsewhere in the Americas.[18]
[edit] United States
In 1694, rice arrived in South Carolina, probably originating from Madagascar.[19]
In the United States, colonial South Carolina and Georgia grew and amassed great wealth from the slave labor obtained from the Senegambia area of West Africa and from coastal Sierra Leone. At the port of Charleston, through which 40% of all American slave imports passed, slaves from this region of Africa brought the highest prices, in recognition of their prior knowledge of rice culture, which was put to use on the many rice plantations around Georgetown, Charleston, and Savannah. From the slaves, plantation owners learned how to dyke the marshes and periodically flood the fields. At first the rice was milled by hand with wooden paddles, then winnowed in sweetgrass baskets (the making of which was another skill brought by the slaves). The invention of the rice mill increased profitability of the crop, and the addition of water power for the mills in 1787 by millwright Jonathan Lucas was another step forward. Rice culture in the southeastern U.S. became less profitable with the loss of slave labor after the American Civil War, and it finally died out just after the turn of the 20th century. Today, people can visit the only remaining rice plantation in South Carolina that still has the original winnowing barn and rice mill from the mid-1800s at the historic Mansfield Plantation in Georgetown, SC. The predominant strain of rice in the Carolinas was from Africa and was known as "Carolina Gold." The cultivar has been preserved and there are current attempts to reintroduce it as a commercially grown crop.[20]
In the southern United States, rice has been grown in southern Arkansas, Louisiana, and east Texas since the mid 1800s. Many Cajun farmers grew rice in wet marshes and low lying prairies where they could also farm crayfish when the fields were flooded[21]. In recent years rice production has risen in North America, especially in the Mississippi River Delta areas in the states of Arkansas and Mississippi.
Rice cultivation began in California during the California Gold Rush, when an estimated 40,000 Chinese laborers immigrated to the state and grew small amounts of the grain for their own consumption. However, commercial production began only in 1912 in the town of Richvale in Butte County.[22] By 2006, California produced the second largest rice crop in the United States,[23] after Arkansas, with production concentrated in six counties north of Sacramento.[24] Unlike the Mississippi Delta region, California's production is dominated by short- and medium-grain japonica varieties, including cultivars developed for the local climate such as Calrose, which makes up as much as eighty five percent of the state's crop.[25]
References to wild rice in the Americas are to the unrelated Zizania palustris
More than 100 varieties of rice are commercially produced primarily in six states (Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and California) in the U.S.[26] According to estimates for the 2006 crop year, rice production in the U.S. is valued at $1.88 billion, approximately half of which is expected to be exported. The U.S. provides about 12% of world rice trade.[26] The majority of domestic utilization of U.S. rice is direct food use (58%), while 16 percent is used in processed foods and beer respectively. The remaining 10 percent is found in pet food.[26]
[edit] Australia
Although attempts to grow rice in the well-watered north of Australia have been made for many years, they have consistently failed because of inherent iron and manganese toxicities in the soils and destruction by pests.
In the 1920s it was seen as a possible irrigation crop on soils within the Murray-Darling Basin that were too heavy for the cultivation of fruit and too infertile for wheat.[27]
Because irrigation water, despite the extremely low runoff of temperate Australia, was (and remains) very cheap, the growing of rice was taken up by agricultural groups over the following decades. Californian varieties of rice were found suitable for the climate in the Riverina, and the first mill opened at Leeton in 1951.
Even before this Australia's rice production greatly exceeded local needs,[27] and rice exports to Japan have become a major source of foreign currency. Above-average rainfall from the 1950s to the middle 1990s[28] encouraged the expansion of the Riverina rice industry, but its prodigious water use in a practically waterless region began to attract the attention of environmental scientists. These became severely concerned with declining flow in the Snowy River and the lower Murray River.
Although rice growing in Australia is exceedingly efficient and highly profitable due to the cheapness of land, several recent years of severe drought have led many to call for its elimination because of its effects on extremely fragile aquatic ecosystems. The Australian rice industry is somewhat opportunistic, with the area planted varying significantly from season to season depending on water allocations in the Murray and Murrumbidgee irrigation regions. Also to get rice to grow faster use magnetized water.
[edit] World production and trade
[edit] Production and export
World production of rice[29] has risen steadily from about 200 million tonnes of paddy rice in 1960 to 600 million tonnes in 2004. Milled rice is about 68% of paddy rice by weight. In the year 2004, the top four producers were China (26% of world production), India (20%), Indonesia (9%) and Bangladesh (5%).
World trade figures are very different, as only about 5–6% of rice produced is traded internationally. The largest three exporting countries are Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. Major importers usually include Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Brazil and some of the Persian Gulf countries. Although China and India are the top two largest producers of rice in the world, both countries consume the majority of the rice produced domestically leaving little to be traded internationally.
[edit] Price
In March to May 2008, the price of rice rose greatly due to a rice shortage. In late April 2008, rice prices hit 24 cents a pound, twice the price that it was seven months earlier.[30]
On the 30th of April, 2008, Thailand announced the project of the creation of the Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC) with the potential to develop into a price-fixing cartel for rice.[31][32]
[edit] Worldwide consumption
| Consumption of rice by country—2003/2004 (million metric ton)[33] | |
|---|---|
| China | 135 |
| India | 125 |
| Indonesia | 37 |
| Bangladesh | 26 |
| Brazil | 24 |
| Vietnam | 18 |
| Thailand | 10 |
| Myanmar | 10 |
| Philippines | 9.7 |
| Japan | 8.7 |
| Mexico | 7.3 |
| South Korea | 5.0 |
| United States | 3.9 |
| Egypt | 3.9 |
| Malaysia | 2.7 |
| Source: United States Department of Agriculture | |
Between 1961 and 2002, per capita consumption of rice increased by 40%.
Rice is the most important crop in Asia. In Cambodia, for example, 90% of the total agricultural area is used for rice production. [34].
U.S. rice consumption has risen sharply over the past 25 years, fueled in part by commercial applications such as beer production.[35] Almost one in five adult Americans now report eating at least half a serving of white or brown rice per day.[36]
[edit] Environmental impacts
In many countries where rice is the main cereal crop, rice cultivation is responsible for most of the methane emissions.[37] Rice requires much more water to produce than other grains.[38]
As sea levels rise, rice will become more inclined to remain flooded for longer periods of time. Longer stays in water cuts the soil off from atmospheric oxygen and causes fermentation of organic matter in the soil. During the wet season, rice cannot hold the carbon in anaerobic conditions. The microbes in the soil convert the carbon into methane which is then released through the respiration of the rice plant or through diffusion of water. Current contributions of methane from agriculture is ~15% of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, as estimated by the IPCC. A further rise in sea level of 10-85 centimeters would then stimulate the release of more methane into the air by rice plants. Methane is twenty times more effective as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.[39]
[edit] Pests and diseases
Rice pests are any organisms or microbes with the potential to reduce the yield or value of the rice crop (or of rice seeds).[40] (Jahn et al. 2007) Rice pests include weeds, pathogens, insects, rodents, and birds. A variety of factors can contribute to pest outbreaks, including the overuse of pesticides and high rates of nitrogen fertilizer application.[41] Weather conditions also contribute to pest outbreaks. For example, rice gall midge and army worm outbreaks tend to follow periods of high rainfall early in the wet season, while thrip outbreaks are associated with drought.[42].
One of the challenges crop protection specialists are trying to help address is the development of rice pest management techniques which are sustainable. In other words, to manage crop pests in such a manner that future crop production is not threatened.([43] At present, rice pest management includes cultural techniques, pest-resistant rice varieties, and pesticides (which include insecticide). Increasingly, there is evidence that farmers' pesticide applications are often unnecessary.[44][45][46][47][48] By reducing the populations of natural enemies of rice pests,[49] misuse of insecticides can actually lead to pest outbreaks (Cohen et al. 1994). Botanicals, so-called "natural pesticides", are used by some farmers in an attempt to control rice pests, but in general the practice is not common. Upland rice is grown without standing water in the field. Some upland rice farmers in Cambodia spread chopped leaves of the bitter bush (Chromolaena odorata) over the surface of fields after planting. This practice probably helps the soil retain moisture and thereby facilitates seed germination. Farmers also claim the leaves are a natural fertilizer and helps suppress weed and insect infestations.[50]
Among rice cultivars there are differences in the responses to, and recovery from, pest damage.[51] Therefore, particular cultivars are recommended for areas prone to certain pest problems. The genetically based ability of a rice variety to withstand pest attacks is called resistance.[52] Three main types of plant resistance to pests are recognized as nonpreference, antibiosis, and tolerance.[53] Nonpreference (or antixenosis) describes host plants which insects prefer to avoid; antibiosis is where insect survival is reduced after the ingestion of host tissue; and tolerance is the capacity of a plant to produce high yield or retain high quality despite insect infestation.[54] Over time, the use of pest resistant rice varieties selects for pests that are able to overcome these mechanisms of resistance. When a rice variety is no longer able to resist pest infestations, resistance is said to have broken down. Rice varieties that can be widely grown for many years in the presence of pests, and retain their ability to withstand the pests are said to have durable resistance. Mutants of popular rice varieties are regularly screened by plant breeders to discover new sources of durable resistance.[55]
Major rice pests include the brown [56][57] the rice gall midge,[58] the rice bug[59] hispa, the rice leaffolder,[60] stemborer[61] rats[62], and the weed Echinochloa crusgali[63] Rice weevils[64] are also known to be a threat to rice crops in the United States, Peoples Republic of China and Taiwan.
Major rice diseases include Rice Ragged Stunt,[65] Sheath Blight[66] and tungro.[67] Rice blast, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe grisea, is the most significant disease affecting rice cultivation.
[edit] Cultivars
While most breeding of rice is carried out for crop quality and productivity, there are varieties selected for other reasons such as texture, smell and squishiness. Cultivars exist that are adapted to deep flooding, and these are generally called 'floating rice' [14].
The largest collection of rice cultivars is at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, with over 100,000 rice accessions [15] held in the International Rice Genebank [16]. Rice cultivars are often classified by their grain shapes and texture. For example, Thai Jasmine rice is long-grain and relatively less sticky, as long-grain rice contains less amylopectin than short-grain cultivars. Chinese restaurants usually serve long-grain as plain unseasoned steamed rice. Japanese mochi rice and Chinese sticky rice are short-grain. Chinese people use sticky rice which is properly known as "glutinous rice" (note: glutinous refer to the glue-like characteristic of rice; does not refer to "gluten") to make zongzi. The Japanese table rice is a sticky, short-grain rice. Japanese sake rice is another kind as well.
Indian rice cultivars include long-grained and aromatic Basmati (grown in the North), long and medium-grained Patna rice and short-grained Sona Masoori (also spelled Sona Masuri). In the state of Tamil Nadu, the most prized cultivar is ponni which is primarily grown in the delta regions of Kaveri River. Kaveri is also referred to as ponni in the South and the name reflects the geographic region where it is grown. In the Western Indian state of Maharashtra, a short grain variety called Ambemohar is very popular. this rice has a characteristic fragrance of Mango blossom.
Aromatic rices have definite aromas and flavours; the most noted cultivars are Thai fragrant rice, Basmati, Patna rice, and a hybrid cultivar from America sold under the trade name, Texmati. Both Basmati and Texmati have a mild popcorn-like aroma and flavour. In Indonesia there are also red and black cultivars.
High-yield cultivars of rice suitable for cultivation in Africa and other dry ecosystems called the new rice for Africa (NERICA) cultivars have been developed. It is hoped that their cultivation will improve food security in West Africa.
Draft genomes for the two most common rice cultivars, indica and japonica, were published in April 2002. Rice was chosen as a model organism for the biology of grasses because of its relatively small genome (~430 megabase pairs). Rice was the first crop with a complete genome sequence.[68]
On December 16, 2002, the UN General Assembly declared the year 2004 the International Year of Rice. The declaration was sponsored by more than 40 countries.
[edit] Biotechnology
[edit] High-yielding varieties
The High Yielding Varieties are a group of crops created intentionally during the Green Revolution to increase global food production. Rice, like corn and wheat, was genetically manipulated to increase its yield. This project enabled labor markets in Asia to shift away from agriculture, and into industrial sectors. The first "modern rice", IR8 was produced in 1966 at the International Rice Research Institute which is based in the Philippines at the University of the Philippines' Los Banos site. IR8 was created through a cross between an Indonesian variety named "Peta" and a Chinese variety named "Dee Geo Woo Gen."[69]
With advances in molecular genetics, the mutant genes responsible for reduced height(rht), gibberellin insensitive (gai1) and slender rice (slr1) in Arabidopsis and rice were identified as cellular signaling components of gibberellic acid (a phytohormone involved in regulating stem growth via its effect on cell division) and subsequently cloned. Stem growth in the mutant background is significantly reduced leading to the dwarf phenotype. Photosynthetic investment in the stem is reduced dramatically as the shorter plants are inherently more stable mechanically. Assimilates become redirected to grain production, amplifying in particular the effect of chemical fertilizers on commercial yield. In the presence of nitrogen fertilizers, and intensive crop management, these varieties increase their yield two to three times.
[edit] Potentials for the future
As the UN Millennium Development project seeks to spread global economic development to Africa, the "Green Revolution" is cited as the model for economic development. With the intent of replicating the successful Asian boom in agronomic productivity, groups like the Earth Institute are doing research on African agricultural systems, hoping to increase productivity. An important way this can happen is the production of "New Rices for Africa" (NERICA). These rices, selected to tolerate the low input and harsh growing conditions of African agriculture are produced by the African Rice Center, and billed as technology from Africa, for Africa. The NERICA have appeared in The New York Times (October 10, 2007) and International Herald Tribune (October 9, 2007), trumpeted as miracle crops that will dramatically increase rice yield in Africa and enable an economic resurgence.
[edit] Golden rice
German and Swiss researchers have engineered rice to produce Beta-carotene, with the intent that it might someday be used to treat vitamin A deficiency. Additional efforts are being made to improve the quantity and quality of other nutrients in golden rice.[70] The addition of the carotene turns the rice gold.
[edit] Expression of human proteins
Ventria Bioscience has genetically modified rice to express lactoferrin, lysozyme, and human serum albumin which are proteins usually found in breast milk. These proteins have antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal effects.[71]
Rice containing these added proteins can be used as a component in oral rehydration solutions which are used to treat diarrheal diseases, thereby shortening their duration and reducing recurrence. Such supplements may also help reverse anemia.[72]
[edit] Sayings
- A proverbial saying in Japan states: "The farmer spends eighty-eight efforts on rice from planting to crop." This teaches the sense of mottainai and gratitude for the farmer and for rice itself.[73]
- There is a Sri Lankan saying, 'deyyange haal kawila', meaning 'having eaten God's rice'. This is used to explain a crazy person or his actions in general with humour. The reasoning behind this is that when the rice harvest is collected, a small fraction of the best part is dedicated to the gods and that is sacred - if a person eats that, they will be afflicted with curses and lose mental stability/act crazy.
- The expression for eating food in Thai, "gin kow", literally means, "to eat rice". Vietnamese use the phrase "ăn cơm" in the same way. Likewise, the Chinese use the phrase "eat rice", "chi fan", in the common greeting "Ni chi fanle ma?" to mean literally "Have you eaten?", and by extension, "How are you doing?".
- In Hindi and Urdu the word for food itself, khānā, is used as a synonym for 'cooked rice'. Similarly, the words for lentils and cooked rice, dāl-bhāt, are synonymous with food itself.
[edit] See also
- Ambemohar
- Basmati rice
- Beaten rice
- Bhutanese red rice
- Black rice
- Brown rice syrup
- Fengyuan City
- Forbidden rice
- Inari
- Indonesian rice table
- Jasmine rice
- List of rice dishes
- List of rice varieties
- New Rice for Africa
- Nutritious Rice for the World
- Protein per unit area
- Puffed rice
- Rice Belt
- Rice bran oil
- Rice ethanol
- Rice wine
- Risotto
- Straw
- System of Rice Intensification
- Weedy rice
- White rice
- Wild rice
- Rice shortage
[edit] References
- ^ "ProdSTAT". FAOSTAT. http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/DesktopDefault.aspx. Retrieved 2006-12-26.
- ^ Smith, Bruce D. The Emergence of Agriculture. Scientific American Library, A Division of HPHLP, New York, 1998.
- ^ National Research Council (1996-02-14). "African Rice". Lost Crops of Africa: Volume I: Grains. Lost Crops of Africa. 1. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-04990-0. http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2305&page=17. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
- ^ Global rice shortage sparks panic - SBS World News Australia
- ^ BBC World Service - News - Global rice shortage
- ^ International Rice Research Institute The Rice Plant and How it Grows Retrieved January 29, 2008
- ^ Risks of Talcum Powder
- ^ Jianguo G. Wu; Chunhai Shia and Xiaoming Zhanga (2003). "Estimating the amino acid composition in milled rice by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy". Field Crops Research. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6M-44XK5WK-3&_user=918210&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000047944&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=918210&md5=65f76ac6c52c83d057a73ee21f915f0e#sec7. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
- ^ The latter method of using excess water is not desirable with enriched rice, as much of the enrichment additives are flushed away when the water is discarded.
- ^ Watson, p. 15
- ^ Shoichi Ito and Yukihiro Ishikawa Tottori University, Japan. "(Marketing of Value-Added Rice Products in Japan: Germinated Grown Rice and Rice Bread.)". http://www.hatsuga.com/DOMER/english/en/GBRRB.html. Retrieved February 12 2004.
- ^ IRRI rice knowledge bank
- ^ drought tolerance in upland rice
- ^ Vaughan et al (2008). "The evolving story of rice evolution". Plant Science 174 (4): 394–408. doi:.
- ^ a b c d Watson, p. 17-18
- ^ Slavery in America: Rice and Slavery
- ^ Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas by Judith A. Carney
- ^ National Research Council (1996-02-14). "African Rice". Lost Crops of Africa: Volume I: Grains. Lost Crops of Africa. 1. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-04990-0. http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2305&page=17. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
- ^ Slavery in America: Rice and Slavery
- ^ http://www.carolinagoldricefoundation.org/ Carolina Gold Rice Foundation
- ^ Farm Raised Crawfish
- ^ Ching Lee (2005). "Historic Richvale — the birthplace of California rice". California Farm Bureau Federation. http://www.cfbf.com/magazine/MagazineStory.cfm?ID=17&ck=70EFDF2EC9B086079795C442636B55FB. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
- ^ "California's Rice Growing Region". California Rice Commission. http://www.calrice.org/e7b_cas_rice_growing_region.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
- ^ Daniel A. Sumner; Henrich Brunke (2003). "The economic contributions of the California rice industry"". California Rice Commission. http://www.calrice.org/c3a_economic_impact.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
- ^ "Medium Grain Varieties". California Rice Commission. http://www.calrice.org/b6a_medium.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
- ^ a b c States Department of Agriculture August 2006, Release No. 0306.06, U.S. RICE STATISTICS
- ^ a b Wadham, Sir Samuel; Wilson, R. Kent and Wood, Joyce; Land Utilization in Australia, 3rd ed. Published 1957 by Melbourne University Press; p. 246
- ^ Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Climatic Atlas of Australia: Rainfall; published 2000 by Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Victoria
- ^ all figures from UNCTAD 1998–2002 and the International Rice Research Institute statistics (accessed September 2005)
- ^ "Cyclone fuels rice price increase", BBC News, 7 May 2008
- ^ "Mekong nations to form rice price-fixing cartel", Radio Australia, April 30, 2008.
- ^ "PM floats idea of five-nation rice cartel", Bangkok Post, May 1, 2008.
- ^ Nationmaster.com, Agriculture Statistics > Grains > Rice consumption (most recent) by country, http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/agr_gra_ric_con-agriculture-grains-rice-consumption, retrieved 2008-04-24
- ^ Don Puckridge, The Burning of the Rice [1]
- ^ United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service, Briefing Rooms: Rice, http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Rice/, retrieved 2008-04-24
- ^ Iowa State University (July 2005). Rice Consumption in the United States: New Evidence from Food Consumption Surveys. http://publications.iowa.gov/2781/.
- ^ Methane Emission from Rice Fields - Wetland rice fields may make a major contribution to global warming by Heinz-Ulrich Neue.
- ^ report12.pdf
- ^ IPCC. Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. United Nations Environment Programme, 2007:Ch5, 8, and 10.[2]
- ^ Jahn et al. 2000
- ^ e.g. Jahn et al. 2005 [3]
- ^ Douangboupha et al. 2006
- ^ Jahn et al. 2001)
- ^ Jahn et al. 1996
- ^ 2004a,b)
- ^ [4]
- ^ [5]
- ^ [6]
- ^ (Jahn 1992)
- ^ (Jahn et al. 1999)
- ^ (Jahn et al. 2004c, Khiev et al. 2000)
- ^ [http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/glossary/default.htm#Glossary/D.htm Definition of resistance
- ^ Painter 1951, Smith 2005)
- ^ Kogan and Ortman, 1978
- ^ (e.g. Liu et al. 2005, Sangha et al. 2008)
- ^ planthopper
- ^ [7] (Preap et al. 2006), armyworms[8], the green leafhopper,
- ^ (Jahn and Khiev 2004)
- ^ rice bug (Jahn et al. 2004c)
- ^ (Murphy et al. 2006), [9]
- ^ [10]
- ^ (Leung et al. 2002)
- ^ (Pheng et al. 2001)
- ^ Rice weevils
- ^ Rice Ragged Stunt
- ^ Sheath Blight
- ^ Tungro
- ^ Gillis, Justing (August 11, 2005). "Rice Genome Fully Mapped". washingtonpost.com. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081001054.html?referrer=email.
- ^ Rice Varieties: IRRI Knowledge Bank. Accessed August 2006. [11]
- ^ Grand Challenges in Global Health, Press release, June 27, 2005
- ^ Nature's story
- ^ Bethell D. R., Huang J., et al. BioMetals, 17. 337 - 342 (2004).[12]
- ^ proverbial saying, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan), (Japanese)
[edit] General References
- Cohen, J. E., K. Schoenly, K. L. Heong, H. Justo, G. Arida, A. T. Barrion, J. A. Litsinger. 1994. A Food Web Approach to Evaluating the Effect of Insecticide Spraying on Insect Pest Population Dynamics in a Philippine Irrigated Rice Ecosystem. Journal of Applied Ecology, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 747–763. doi:10.2307/2404165
- Crawford, G.W. and C. Shen. 1998. The Origins of Rice Agriculture: Recent Progress in East Asia. Antiquity 72:858–866.
- Crawford, G.W. and G.-A. Lee. 2003. Agricultural Origins in the Korean Peninsula. Antiquity 77(295):87–95.
- Douangboupha, B., K. Khamphoukeo, S. Inthavong, J. Schiller, and G. Jahn. 2006. Pests and diseases of the rice production systems of Laos. Pp. 265–281. In J.M. Schiller, M.B. Chanphengxay, B. Linquist, and S. Appa Rao, editors. Rice in Laos. Los Baños (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute. 457 p. ISBN 978-971-22-0211-7.
- Heong, KL, YH Chen, DE Johnson, GC Jahn, M Hossain, RS Hamilton. 2005. Debate Over a GM Rice Trial in China. Letters. Science, Vol 310, Issue 5746, 231–233 , 14 October 2005.
- Huang, J., Ruifa Hu, Scott Rozelle, Carl Pray. 2005. Insect-Resistant GM Rice in Farmers' Fields: Assessing Productivity and Health Effects in China. Science (29 April 2005) Vol. 308. no. 5722, pp. 688–690. DOI: 10.1126/science.1108972
- Jahn, G. C. 1992. Rice pest control and effects on predators in Thailand. Insecticide & Acaricide Tests 17:252–253.
- Jahn, GC and B. Khiev. 2004. Gall midge in Cambodian lowland rice. pp. 71–76. In J. Benett, JS Bentur, IC Pasula, K. Krishnaiah, [eds]. New approaches to gall midge resistance in rice. Los Baños (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute and Indian Council of Agricultural Research. 195 p.
- Jahn, G. C., S. Pheng, B. Khiev, and C. Pol. 1996. Farmers' pest management and rice production practices in Cambodian lowland rice. Cambodia-IRRI-Australia Project (CIAP), Baseline Survey Report No. 6. CIAP Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 28 pages. [17]
- Jahn, G. C., B. Khiev, S. Pheng, and C. Pol. 1997. Pest management in rice. In H. J. Nesbitt [ed.] "Rice Production in Cambodia." Manila (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute. 83–91.
- Jahn, G. C., S. Pheng, B. Khiev, and C. Pol. 1997. Pest management practices of lowland rice farmers in Cambodia. In K. L. Heong and M. M. Escalada [editors] "Pest Management Practices of Rice Farmers in Asia." Manila (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute. 35–52. ISBN 971-22-0102-3
- Jahn, G. C., C. Pol, B. Khiev, S. Pheng, and N. Chhorn. 1999. Farmer's pest management and rice production practices in Cambodian upland and deepwater rice. Cambodia-IRRI-Australia Project, Baseline Survey Report No. 7.[18]
- Jahn, G. C., S. Pheng, B. Khiev and C. Pol 2000. Ecological characterization of biotic constraints to rice in Cambodia. International Rice Research Notes (IRRN) 25 (3): 23–24.
- Jahn, G. C., S. Pheng, C. Pol, B. Khiev 2000. Characterizing biotic constraints to production of Cambodian rainfed lowland rice: limitations to statistical techniques. pp. 247–268 In T. P. Tuong, S. P. Kam, L. Wade, S. Pandey, B. A. M. Bouman, B. Hardy [eds.] "Characterizing and Understanding Rainfed Environments." Proceedings of the International Workshop on Characterizing and Understanding Rainfed Environments, 5–9 December 1999, Bali, Indonesia. Los Baños (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). 488 p.
- Jahn, GC, B. Khiev, C. Pol, N. Chhorn, S. Pheng, and V. Preap. 2001. Developing sustainable pest management for rice in Cambodia. pp. 243–258, In S. Suthipradit, C. Kuntha, S. Lorlowhakarn, and J. Rakngan [eds.] "Sustainable Agriculture: Possibility and Direction" Proceedings of the 2nd Asia-Pacific Conference on Sustainable Agriculture 18–20 October 1999, Phitsanulok, Thailand. Bangkok (Thailand): National Science and Technology Development Agency. 386 p.
- Jahn, GC, NQ Kamal, S Rokeya, AK Azad, NI Dulu, JB Orsini, A Barrion, and L Almazan. 2004a. Completion Report on Livelihood Improvement Through Ecology (LITE), PETRRA IPM Subproject SP 27 02. Poverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA), IRRI, Dhaka. 20 pages text plus 20 pages appendices. [19]
- Jahn, GC, NQ Kamal, S Rokeya, AK Azad, NI Dulu, JB Orsini, M Morshed, NMS Dhar, NA Kohinur 2004b. Evaluation Report on Livelihood Improvement Through Ecology (LITE), PETRRA IPM Subproject SP 27 02. Poverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA), IRRI, Dhaka. 42 pages plus 40 pages of annexes.[20]
- Jahn, GC, I. Domingo, L. P. Almazan and J. Pacia. 2004c. Effect of rice bugs (Alydidae: Leptocorisa oratorius (Fabricius)) on rice yield, grain quality, and seed viability. Journal of Economic Entomology 97(6): 1923–1927.[21]
- Jahn, GC, LP Almazan, and J Pacia. 2005. Effect of nitrogen fertilizer on the intrinsic rate of increase of the rusty plum aphid, Hysteroneura setariae (Thomas) (Homoptera: Aphididae) on rice (Oryza sativa L.). Environmental Entomology 34 (4): 938–943.[22]
- Jahn, GC, JA Litsinger, Y Chen and A Barrion. 2007. Integrated Pest Management of Rice: Ecological Concepts. In Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management (eds. O. Koul and G.W. Cuperus). CAB International Pp. 315–366.
- Khiev, B., G. C. Jahn, C. Pol, and N. Chhorn 2000. Effects of simulated pest damage on rice yields. IRRN 25 (3): 27–28.
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- Liu, L., Z. Van, Q. Y. Shu, and M. Maluszynski. 2004. Officially released mutant varieties in China. Mutat. Breed. Rev 14: 1:64.
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- Preap, V, GC Jahn, K Hin, N Siheng. 2005. Fish and rice management system to enable agricultural diversification. Paper presented at the 5th Asia-Pacific Congress of Entomology, 18–21 October 2005, Jeju, Korea.
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[edit] External links
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[edit] General
- V. Sankaran Nair, Nellum Samskrithiyum (Mal.), (rice and culture) Infocomm/UNCTAD
- International Rice Research Institute
- Rice Knowledge Bank
- Historical Price of Rice Historical Price of Rice according to U.S. CPI
- A Brief History of Rice
- History of antebellum South Carolina rice production with photos of old machinery used
- Rice Research in South Asia through Ages (PDF)
[edit] Rice research & development
- Intensify to Diversify: an IRRI rice intensification project in Cambodia
- Celebrating the Land (Part 1): video about an IRRI project to increase rice production in Laos
- Celebrating the Land (Part 2): video about an IRRI project to increase rice production in Laos
- Operation Rice Bowl of the Catholic Relief Service
- Rice-Fish Culture in China, an IDRC Project
- JICA rice project in Bolivia
[edit] Rice in agriculture
- American Phytopathological Society: Diseases of Rice (Oryza sativa)
- FAO: Animal Feed Resources Information System, Oryza sativa
- Origin of Chinese rice cultivation
[edit] Rice as food
- How to Cook Rice Step-by-Step Photos
- US Patent 6,676,983: Puffed food starch product
- How to Save a Bad Batch of Rice and Other Tips
- A Malaysian Food Heritage
- Different types of rice
[edit] Rice as fuel as in car fuel
- Japanese Rice Ethanol Plant to Start 2009.
- Using rice husks (chaff) to generate electricity in rural India
[edit] Rice economics
- Rice as a Commodity
- UNCTAD market information
- Grain Drain: The Hidden Cost of U.S. Rice Subsidies
- Vietnamese Rice Website
[edit] Rice genome
- Rice Genome Browser
- n:Chinese authorities question genetically altered rice allegation
- Oryza sativa The rice genome, a "Rosetta stone" for other cereals
- Rice Genome Research Program
- Rice Genome Approaches Completion
- The Genomes of Oryza sativa: A History of Duplications
- Biologists Trace Back Genetic Origins Of Rice Domestication
- Waterproof rice can outlast the floods—Researchers have tracked down a gene that allows the plant to survive complete submersion
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India Moon mission is 'mixed success'
India has abandoned its inaugural Moon mission, 10 months after it was launched. Science writer Pallava Bagla examines the mission's performance. So was India's inaugural Chandrayaan-1 Moon mission a success or a failure? Neither. By all accounts, it has been a mixed performance. Also, a definitive answer is not easy to give - it is possibly as grey as the surface of the Moon. This was an expensive scientific experiment with many objectives and conducted in full public glare. Most engineering goals have been fulfilled, but pious promises to deliver "good science" from the mission are still to be met. Big achievement India launched its $100m unmanned spacecraft on 22 October 2008 from Sriharikota on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. First, the spacecraft designed and built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) survived huge odds and successfully reached the Moon's orbit. This in itself was a big achievement since neither Russia nor America succeeded in their maiden attempts; and there were several failures even before they got anywhere near the Moon. So did India ride on the shoulders of earlier successes? Certainly not, since the know-how and technologies to go to the Moon are just not available for the asking. Each nation has to learn on its own. India experimented and did that with complete success. The only other country to have managed a similar maiden feat was China - its mission Chang'e-1 in 2007 lasted 16 months in space, according to the Chinese National Space Administration. The Indian mission survived for about 10 months in space; most other missions to the Moon have been much more short-lived. So did the Indian space agency, in its naivety, over-stretch and over-estimate the craft's life when it planned for a 24-month mission?
Possibly. The answer may emerge in the findings of the "failure analysis committee" that Isro has put in place after this debacle. Despite being dubbed by Isro as an "engineering success", the mission had a rough ride around the Moon. A fuel leak from the rocket almost aborted its lift-off. Within days of reaching the Moon, a power system failed, and a back-up system had to be activated. Soon, the spacecraft started overheating due to the intense heat on the Moon. Isro scientists say it was deft mission management that saved it from a total burnout. A few months into the mission the spacecraft lost its fine guidance system when the onboard "star sensor" packed up in the intense radiation around the Moon. But, every time an instrument on this 1,380kg robot gave way, mission controllers at Isro found an innovative solution to keep the mission alive. Finally on 29 August 2009, the space agency lost all contact with Chandrayaan after a catastrophic failure - possibly in its power supply system. A day later, the mission was "terminated", although Isro chief G Madhavan Nair declared it had been a "complete success". 'Two-in-one mission' The Indian mission was in certain respects much more challenging than the Chinese maiden lunar mission which was a simple national orbiter. Chandrayaan-1 was literally a two-in-one mission, since the main satellite was to orbit at 100km above the Moon and then a tiny gadget the size of a computer monitor was to attempt a "landing" on the Moon's surface. The mission did this on 14 November 2008. No nation to date had succeeded in both a lunar orbiter and an impactor at the first attempt.
This was more than an experiment. It was also a brave global geo-political statement since the probe that crash-landed on the Moon also permanently placed India's flag on the lunar surface. India became the fourth space bloc to have done this after Russia, America and the European Space Agency. This is hugely significant because, if ever the Moon's resources are to be divided, India's rightful share can be claimed having achieved what others have not been able to do. There are many other firsts to this mission. In a highly un-Indian trait, the Indian space agency delivered the Moon mission with no cost or time overrun at $100m and within eight years of it first being suggested. The spacecraft carried 11 different sophisticated instruments, one of the largest suites of experiments ever carried to the Moon. The objective was to remotely map the resources of the Moon, prepare a three-dimensional atlas of it and look for water. All instruments worked for about 10 months in the hostile lunar environment. Dr Nair calls it a "more than 100% success of Indian technology". India also created a new model of international partnership.
On its own initiative, India announced that it would be happy to piggyback instruments from global partners. After a huge competition, six instruments sourced from the European Space Agency (Esa), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and Bulgaria were chosen. Bernard Foing, the chief scientist for Space Sciences at Esa, calls the Indian mission "the first multi-continent, multi-country lunar mission ever to be undertaken". A little known fact is that India did not charge any money to fly these instruments 400,000km away: all got a free ride to the Moon, merely in exchange for sharing the scientific data. Search for water Chandrayaan-1 was also the first and the most detailed search for water on the Moon using radars - to date, water has never been found. A miniature American radar onboard the Chandrayaan peered into the Moon's deepest craters searching for "water ice". The Moon's surface is so parched that scientists feel the only location where water could exist would be in the permanently shadowed craters on the lunar poles. But these are so deep and dark that sunlight never reaches them - hence the only way to peep inside is to send a radar signal down into them. The global collaborative team of the mission is very excited about the findings. "Never seen before images of the permanently shadowed craters of the Moon have been captured," says Paul D Spudis, of the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, US, and principal investigator of the payload sent to search for water. "The new radar images are not only visually arresting, but they will be extremely useful in unravelling the complex geological history of the Moon as a whole," he says. Other scientific reports on findings are in the offing. But unless the results are published, questions will continue to be asked about whether the mission fulfilled its exalted scientific objectives. The termination of the Moon mission will, however, not affect India's plans in space. The country is already planning a second mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2, with Russian collaboration in 2011-12; a mission to an asteroid; an unmanned mission to Mars in 2013 and a human spaceflight in 2015. Upbeat Isro scientists are saying "Chandrayaan-1 is dead, long live Chandrayaan". The jury will be out - until the scientific papers come in. Pallava Bagla is the Science editor for New Delhi Television (NDTV) and author of Destination Moon - India's quest for Moon, Mars and Beyond. India nuclear tests 'successful' | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
India's 1998 nuclear tests were "fully successful", the chief of the country's atomic energy agency has said. Dr Anil Kakodkar was speaking in Mumbai (Bombay) following recent controversy over the tests. In August a retired atomic scientist closely associated with the tests said they were not as successful as claimed. That led some to call for more tests. India's 1998 tests led to similar tests by Pakistan, raising fears of a nuclear conflict between the two countries. 'Unnecessary controversy' Differences over the success or otherwise of India's 1998 tests emerged in public in August. K Santhanam, a respected atomic scientist who was project director of the tests, said one of the tests - on a hydrogen bomb - had not worked. He also said India would have to carry out more tests for a credible nuclear deterrent. Dr Kakodkar said: "There is absolutely no reason for any doubt about the yield of that test." He and R Chidambaram, principal scientific adviser to the Indian government, told reporters that "unnecessary controversy has been raked up" by Mr Santhanam's comments. They said the five nuclear tests on 11 and 13 May 1998 had achieved their scientific objectives, including the capability to build fission and thermonuclear weapons with yields of up to 200 kilotons. Mr Chidambaram said proliferation sensitive information such as the composition of materials used or their quantities had not been revealed so it was "speculative" on the part of others to calculate the yield. "No one outside the design team has the data to calculate this fission-fusion yield break-up or any other significant parameter related to fusion burn," the two men said in a statement. Dr Kakodkar stressed that the tests had given India the capacity to build deterrence and meet the country's security requirements. SEE ALSO UN 'inaction' in Nepal climate struggle | A crucial plan to help Nepal cope with the impact of climate change is at risk because of the alleged failure of the UN to recruit the necessary staff, reports BBC Nepali's Navin Singh Khadka.
As Nepal witnesses the rapid retreat of its glaciers, erratic rainfall and an increasingly unreliable monsoon, a question of recruitment is delaying efforts to battle the ravages of climate change. The issue is causing considerable unrest among Nepal's official classes. The failure to hire a climate change consultant by a major donor has seriously delayed work crucial for a country many fear is particularly vulnerable to climate change, government officials told the BBC. They argue that the absence of a climate specialist in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nepal means that it cannot help the government prepare the much awaited National Adaptation Programme of Action (Napa) within the required deadline. The UNDP stands accused of not hiring any staff in relation to the project for the last eight months. Arduous task Under the UN's Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), the world's least-developed countries are required to have completed Napa in order to apply for a fund that is designed to help them cope with the threat of climate change.
Of the 48 applicant countries hoping to access the fund, 41 have already prepared the plan - but only Bangladesh and Bhutan have actually received any money. But for Nepal, it has been an arduous task. It has spent almost three years in the process but has yet to implement the Napa plan. This is because of an earlier disagreement between the funding agency, Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the UNDP, the agency that is supposed to help Nepal prepare the document. GEF initially alleged that the UNDP had not prepared the proposal document correctly. The UN argued in response that the procedures of the Washington-based donor were too bureaucratic. After hearing nothing from the UNDP for almost a year, environment ministry officials last year found out that the proposal document had been returned for alterations to the UN agency by GEF. The BBC in December unearthed the claims and counterclaims which were behind the delays. The Nepalese government was granted an extra six months by the donors for Napa to be prepared and the new deadline was extended from February 2010 to August 2010. But officials now say it will be impossible to meet the new deadline because of the staffing issue. "The UNDP has not been able to hire the consultant and therefore the work of preparing the plan has not been able to move ahead," says Joint Secretary Purushottam Ghimire at the Environment Ministry. "We have made it clear that we will not be able to prepare Napa within the new deadline." 'Headhunt' Officials say they are caught up in a difficult situation as they are not allowed to prepare Napa on their own.
"When we say we will not wait for the consultant and will go ahead by ourselves, we are told by the donors that we do not have the capacity to do this," Mr Ghimire said. "But the trouble is they have not been able to provide us with the climate specialist who is supposed to build our capacity." UNDP officials in Nepal say despite their earnest efforts they have not been able to get a consultant who meets their criteria. "We tried to get the right person both by seeking applications and resorting to a headhunt but have not been able to get the right kind of candidate," said Vijaya P Singh, Assistant Resident Representative of the UNDP's Nepal office. "We realise that there have been delays in making this plan and we wish we could do it at the earliest but what can you do when there is a dearth of such experts in the market?" UNDP officials say that there are so few specialists because climate change is a relatively new science and most are already pre-occupied by the global climate summit to be held in Copenhagen in only three months time. Mr Singh insisted that some initial work related to Napa had been initiated and the absence of a consultant was not an insurmountable obstacle. 'Kathmandu to Copenhagen' But environment ministry officials say that they are increasingly frustrated over the delay to prepare the plan, especially when scientists have warned that poor populations will be hardest hit by climate change.
Changes in Nepal's climate have resulted in an increased number of dangerously full glacial lakes, more flash floods, landslides, droughts and wildfires. But there have been no proper studies to assess the direct impact of climate change and how it affects agriculture, human health, ecology and the economy. More than 12 donors - most of them Western - recently promised to help Nepal in its fight against climate change. They made the joint announcement a day after Nepal hosted a regional climate conference "Kathmandu to Copenhagen" in August. But without a comprehensive adaptation plan like Napa, experts ask, how effective can foreign help be? It is a question that is likely to prove controversial in coming months. | CLIMATE CHANGE  LATEST SCIENCE GLOBAL POLITICS EU/UK POLITICS IPCC ASSESSMENT FEATURES AND ANALYSIS BACKGROUND FROM ACROSS THE BBC RELATED BBC LINKS RELATED INTERNET LINKS The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites  News feeds
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