Food Security scheme needs active participation of farmersAdd to My PageRead more on:    National News | Tamil Nadu

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Emphasising on the importance of farmers in the wake of the food security bill, renowned agricultural

scientist Prof M S Swaminathan has said that it cannot be implemented without their active

participation. 

He was speaking after inaugurating the office-cum-laboratory complex of Indian Agricultural Research

Institute (IARI) at Aduthurai near here on October one. 

Located at the Tamil Nadu Rice Research Institute (TRRI) campus, the IARI Centre has been functioning

since 1968 in the name of Rice Breeding and Genetics Research Centre (RBGRC), a release said today. 

Swaminathan, also founder-chairman of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai,

emphasised the need of cutting-edge research in agriculture and appreciated the efforts of IARI in

contributing to the national development through improved varieties. 

He emphasised that the Centre at Aduthurai was his dream come true, since he started it as an off-

season breeding facility, a unique experiment of its kind in the world, 45 years ago as the Director of

IARI. 

Dr H S Gupta, Director and Vice-Chancellor of IARI lauded the success of RBGRC in contributing several

varieties of national importance. 

RBGRC has now grown to be a complete shuttle breeding facility for rice involving a three location

loop, between New Delhi, Karnal and Aduthurai, a unique feature in the world, after the successful corn

shuttle breeding of CIMMYT, Mexico, he said. 

A book on the success story of RBGRC was also released. 

Retired scientists of TNAU and IARI, Dr W Wilfred Manual, Dr S Vairavan, Dr P Parthasarathy and Dr U S

Natarajan were honoured during the occasion. 

Dr K Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, also spoke.

Slight’ rice price drop noted as more farm support urgedPhilippine Daily Inquirer

1:54 am | Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

 1 11 0

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said prices of commercial rice have slightly gone down in the last two weeks after farmers in rice-producing provinces began harvesting their crops.“We hope that the harvests will continue,” said Alcala, who opened this year’s Makina-Saka, an agricultural machinery roadshow of the Department of Agriculture (DA), on Tuesday.He said what pushed rice prices higher was the disruption of the delivery of middle-priced rice supply to traders because of the rain.Sen. Loren Legarda, in a statement, said what farmers need is more support mechanisms to increase their productivity.“What is certain is that government should spend more for irrigation development programs that will increase productivity,” said Legarda in her statement, reacting to previous reports that local rice supply is running low amid the DA’s refusal to allow the private sector to import the staple.Commercial rice prices shot up from P32 a kg to P35 a kg. A local rice trader said the price has gone down to P34 a kg.“The system in the delivery of middle-priced rice changed. Before, even middle-priced rice [supply] came from imported rice. But now, for the first time, the volume of imported rice is low,” Alcala said.In a speech before farmers and agriculture officials from several regions, Alcala said last year, the country imported 205,000 metric tons of rice, compared to the 2.4 million MT it imported in 2010.“What we imported last year were used by the NFA (National Food Authority) as buffer. So middle-priced rice now comes from locally produced palay,” he said.Despite the anticipated huge volume of palay, consumers should not expect a return of rice prices to the P32 level because supply would now come from local harvests, he said.“Our farmers, who are here today, can tell you that we have better rice,” said Alcala. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/499615/slight-rice-price-drop-noted-as-more-farm-support-urged#ixzz2gppvQTs1 Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

100 scientists from 29 countries to meet in LagunaBy Ronnel W. DomingoPhilippine Daily Inquirer

10:19 pm | Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

 2 79 64

The International Rice Research Institute in Laguna is gathering about 100 scientists from 29 countries on Oct. 6-11 in Los Baños to popularize and push for the further development and cultivation of the so-called “scuba rice” or flood-tolerant rice varieties.In particular, the 11th conference of the International Society for Plant Anaerobiosis (ISPA) will tackle how plants survive without oxygen as scientists strive to come up with food crops that can survive devastating floods.

The availability of such crops is becoming increasingly important especially in countries vulnerable to the effects of climate change.This year’s conference takes into account issues like climate change, food security and environmental sustainability.University professors, students and postgraduate fellows are also expected to attend.Scientists are highlighting rice varieties with the “sub1” gene, which genomics research identified as making rice flood-tolerant.According to the IRRI, vast rice-growing regions in countries like India and Bangladesh—where farmland are underwater and are thus useless during the rainy season—have been made productive since the sub1 gene was discovered and bred into popular existing rice varieties.“Farmers were happy because, even if their paddies were flooded, their rice crops with the sub1 gene survived the floods,” IRRI principal scientist Abdelbagi Ismail said in a statement.“More than 1.7 million hectares of flood-prone land in India is now planted with submergence-tolerant rice since the first flood-proof variety, called Swarna-Sub1, was developed,” he said.

Slight’ rice price drop noted as more farm support urgedPhilippine Daily Inquirer

1:54 am | Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

 1 11 0

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said prices of commercial rice have slightly gone down in the last two weeks after farmers in rice-producing provinces began harvesting their crops.“We hope that the harvests will continue,” said Alcala, who opened this year’s Makina-Saka, an agricultural machinery roadshow of the Department of Agriculture (DA), on Tuesday.He said what pushed rice prices higher was the disruption of the delivery of middle-priced rice supply to traders because of the rain.Sen. Loren Legarda, in a statement, said what farmers need is more support mechanisms to increase their productivity.“What is certain is that government should spend more for irrigation development programs that will increase productivity,” said Legarda in her statement, reacting to previous reports that local rice supply is running low amid the DA’s refusal to allow the private sector to import the staple.Commercial rice prices shot up from P32 a kg to P35 a kg. A local rice trader said the price has gone down to P34 a kg.“The system in the delivery of middle-priced rice changed. Before, even middle-priced rice [supply] came from imported rice. But now, for the first time, the volume of imported rice is low,” Alcala said.In a speech before farmers and agriculture officials from several regions, Alcala said last year, the country imported 205,000 metric tons of rice, compared to the 2.4 million MT it imported in 2010.“What we imported last year were used by the NFA (National Food Authority) as buffer. So middle-priced rice now comes from locally produced palay,” he said.Despite the anticipated huge volume of palay, consumers should not expect a return of rice prices to the P32 level because supply would now come from local harvests, he said.“Our farmers, who are here today, can tell you that we have better rice,” said Alcala. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/499615/slight-rice-price-drop-noted-as-more-farm-support-

urged#ixzz2gpr4zTDU Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook