POVERTY: THAILAND: Rice pests multiply post-floods

BANGKOK, 12 March 2012 (IRIN)

 Photo: Sylvia Villareal/IRRI
Of pests and pesticide in Thailand: a province hit by the brown planthopper

Heavy flooding across parts of Thailand in 2011 has fuelled outbreaks of a rice pest that can decimate harvests, experts say.
The pest, known as brown planthopper (BPH), transmits two viruses that hit yields as well as eating away at rice plants.
"The floods have certainly made things worse," Kong Luen Heong, principal scientist for the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) told IRIN.
"Moreover, they will impact [on] upcoming harvests as well."
"BPH is attacking the rice bowl of the country for the eighth time in a row [over the past four years]," said Kukiat Soitong, from the Thai government's Rice Department, based in the Agriculture Ministry, adding that "150,000 hectares have already been seriously damaged in the central plains, in the basin of Chao Phraya river".
Affected provinces lost 30 percent of their rice production due to BPH in early 2010, amounting to around 1.3 million tons for the country, or more than 15 percent of the nationwide harvest, which takes place twice a year, reported the Rice Department.
According to the Thai Rice Exporters' Association, Thailand produces 4-5 percent of the world's rice, and is the largest exporter, with 10.8 million tons in 2011.
Last year's flooding, which affected more than two million people across 28 provinces and damaged more than two million hectares of farmland, worsened the longstanding pest problem by drowning natural enemies of BPH, including insect parasites and spiders.
"Because of the floods and the killing of BPH's natural enemies, farmers are more dependent on insecticides for several seasons. And the fact is that using insecticides makes BPH even stronger," added Kukiat.
Most insecticides kill BPH's natural enemies, rather than BPH itself. The brown planthopper has an "unmatched" capacity to become resistant to any molecule used against it, according to Keng Hong Tan, a retired entomology professor based in Malaysia.
He says the pest has even developed resistance to one of its own hormones when applied as a control measure.
And while IRRI and Thailand's Rice Department launched a campaign in July 2011 to ban the two insecticides most often used in rice cultivation, cypermethrin and abamectin - known to cause BPH's resurgence - the ban is unlikely to have a significant impact.
"This campaign will have limited immediate effects because of the floods," said Heong. "It will take some strong will to break the vicious circle that helps BPH."
Yet banning insecticides is the only way to control BPH outbreaks in the long term, said Ho Van Chien, director of the Vietnamese government's plant protection centre for southern Vietnam.
According to IRRI, BPH damaged hundreds of thousands of hectares across Asia, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production.
Since 2009, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam have been severely affected at least once.
"BPH puts the whole rice ecosystem in jeopardy," said Erma Budiyanto, director of plant protection in Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture.
"There could be a humanitarian situation because of this pest in the future if insecticides remain as widely used as today," said Heong.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95058/THAILA

MALNUTRITION: INDONESIA: No rice, no way

 JAKARTA, 17 February 2012 (IRIN) - Indonesia’s attempt to wean its population off rice has been hampered by a lack of viable alternative staples and cultural attachment to the grain, experts say. Following record-high food prices in 2008, the government launched a national campaign in 2009 to reduce rice consumption by encouraging citizens to go one day a week without rice; all 33 provinces were called on to boost non-rice crop production.
But experts say the drive has had limited success.
“The government should pay attention to farmers, giving them guarantees that they will benefit from growing crops like cassava. Right now there’s no fertilizer or seed subsidy, no price certainty or guarantee who will buy the [non-rice] products,” Mulyono Makmur, an adviser to Indonesia’s agriculture minister, told IRIN.
The State Logistics Agency guarantees rice prices by paying a “government purchase price” and distributing subsidized rice to the poor.
Rice production still far outstrips other crops, with the country producing 37 million tons in 2011, with palm oil, natural rubber, coconuts and cassava trailing far behind, according to the government.
“If we diversify our diets by including local crops such as sweet potato, corn and cassava, any increase in food prices won’t severely affect food security,” said Makmur.
The Asian Development Bank warned earlier this month that Southeast Asia should be prepared for a possible rise in food prices.
Indonesians on average consume 113kg of mostly white rice annually, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
This is a drop from 139kg in 2010 but is still high, said Makmur, citing averages in Malaysia and Japan of 80kg and 60 kg, respectively.

Diabetes
In addition to food security, the move to cut back rice consumption is also to improve people’s health through more balanced diets, say campaign supporters.
A 2010 survey by the US-based Harvard School of Public Health found that of the nearly 200,000 people surveyed, those who ate five or more servings of white rice per week had a 17 percent increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Almost 6 percent of Indonesia’s population (some 13.3 million people in 2007) were estimated to be diabetic, according to the most recent national health survey.

Rice is real
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago with 17,000 islands, is home to 77 crops, according to Makmur.
But as the popular local saying goes, “if you haven’t had rice, then you have not eaten.”
Because of the public’s lacklustre response to cutting back on rice, in 2010 the government changed the message from “one day, no rice” weekly to “one meal, no rice” daily.
But still, residents in a part of the world responsible for farming and consuming 90 percent of the world’s rice have resisted.

Roots of attachment
Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko, coordinator for the Alliance for Prosperous Villages, a local NGO working to provide access to food in rural areas, said there is a mistaken perception among Indonesians that only poor people eat tubers.
The same stigma applies to fruits and vegetables, said Ahsol Hasyim, director of Indonesia's Vegetable Research Institute.
“In Indonesia people eat rice three times a day and if they don't they are considered [to be] having a hard time economically," he said.
“There’s this image that if you eat rice or wheat, you are prosperous,” Jatmiko added. “I think the issue is how we present commodities like sweet potato and cassava to make them more attractive to Indonesians.”
Jatmiko said the previous government of President Suharto promoted rice as a symbol of prosperity in the 1970s and that image has stuck, even though 75 percent of the world’s poorest rely on rice, according to the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute.
President Suharto launched a "green revolution" in 1969 with the aim of achieving rice self-sufficiency. In 1984 for the first time domestic rice production exceeded consumption.
“At that time, Indonesians from Aceh to Papua were forced to eat rice,” Jatmiko said, referring to the country’s two geographic extremities.
But before rice became the main staple nationwide, many Indonesians had relied on corn, yams and sago, a local starch.
“[President] Suharto used rice as a political tool to stop communism because he believed if people were well-fed they wouldn’t be tempted to become communists.”
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94884

BANGLADESH: More urban poor depending on food subsidies

DHAKA, 8 July 2011 (IRIN)
 Photo: David Swanson/IRIN
Rice is a staple part of the Bangladeshi diet

More and more urban Bangladeshis, burdened by rising food prices, are seeking assistance under the government's open market system (OMS).
Under the scheme, rice and other commodities are sold at almost 30 percent less than the market rate, with each household entitled to 5kg of rice and 3kg of atta (wheat flour). The government sells rice, a staple, directly to the poor whenever there is a shortage of supply and prices go beyond their purchasing capacity.
"An increasing number of people are now dependent on the government-run OMS system," Sharifuzzaman Sharif, General Secretary of Citizen Solidarity, a national rights-based campaign group, told IRIN, noting longer queues than last year.
Close to 700,000 metric tons of rice, a staple, was sold under the scheme between January and June 2011, against about 260,000MT for the same period in 2010, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
At the same time, 23,369MT of atta was sold between January and June 2011, against none over the same period in 2010.

Urban poor
And while the government conducts the OMS each year, the programme has taken on added significance in Bangladesh's larger cities, where many urban poor are struggling to cope.
"We know cases in Dhaka where people from the lower middle class and the urban poor are forced to skip a diversified diet or [take out] loans, as well as working extra hours to buy food," Quazi Faruque, president of the Consumers' Association of Bangladesh, said.
"The lives of the urban poor with fixed incomes and even middle classes living in Dhaka city have been exhausted due to the wave of price hikes in food, transport and energy. They are barely managing to survive [and have no] social lives," Citizen Solidarity's Sharif said.
In mid-June the government began trucking subsidized rice and wheat flour to some of the poorest suburbs of the city under the OMS.
The programme deploys 150 trucks a day, each selling 3,000kg of rice at a subsidized price of US$0.32 a kilo in selected poor neighbourhoods, and will continue to do so until food prices fall, according to BD Mitra, secretary for the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management.

 Photo: Contributor/IRIN : Dhaka residents line up for OMS rice

To cool domestic prices, the government doubled rice imports to 1.2 million tons for the year ending in June, up from the 600,000MT target set in November, media reports say; three times more than the US Department of Agriculture's earlier forecast.
Yet despite those efforts, food prices remain comparable to peak prices during the 2008 food crisis.
Although the price of rice has declined by 3-4 percent since February, it still costs 10-15 percent more than in June last year - 37 and 41 cents per kg for wholesale and retail respectively, according to the June 2011 Fortnightly Food and Grain Outlook, a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) publication.
Meanwhile, other food prices have also been rising. "The inflation of non-rice foods has been accelerating, sustaining overall food inflation," added Ciro Fiorillo, FAO's acting country representative. "It has put pressure on the purchasing capacity of fixed income groups."
Mohammad Abdul Mannan's family has been forced to give up its traditional diet due to high food costs. "We usually had a rich diet of pilau rice, meat and vegetables once a week with the whole family, but for the past three months we are simply living on basic meals due to the price hike," he said.
The rate of child malnutrition in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the world, according to the UN Children's Fund and rising costs are now forcing people to trim their diets and work longer hours just to eat.
Mannan earns $100 per month as a messenger for a city textile firm and spends most of his salary on food. "As a father I feel hopeless that I can't feed my children well any more," he said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=93175

MALNUTRITION: Rice is king, but at a price

LONDON, 2 June 2011 (IRIN)
 Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN
Nigerian rice farmers have tripled their yields, but can’t compete with Asian producers

Most of us, when we worry about food prices, think short term - the price today compared with yesterday; the chance that the price will have gone up again tomorrow. But Oxfam this week risked some long term predictions, and came up with alarming results. They foresaw the steepest rise of all in the price of rice, with rice in China, for instance, becoming 80 percent more expensive by 2020, and 180 percent dearer by 2030.
The price of rice is obviously of huge concern in China, India and the rest of Asia, where it has always been the basis of the diet - just as the Middle East has traditionally depended on bread, Italy on pasta, northern Europe on potatoes and Africa on maize, cassava and root crops like yams.
But tastes in food are changing, driven by urban lifestyles and global communications. Consumers, no longer limited to what they can grow in their own area, look for foods which are easy to prepare and eat. The losers have been staples which need lengthy preparation - soaking, peeling and pounding. The winners have been pasta, noodles, and above all, rice, making the price of rice a matter of pressing concern far beyond the traditional rice-eating countries.
Nigeria has a rich tradition of foods based on local crops, amala (yam skin porridge) and eba (made from cassava), ogi (fermented cereal) and pounded yam. Rice used to be a party food, noodles practically unheard of. Now rice and noodle dishes are the staple of roadside food stalls, and every night in TV advertisements, smiling housewives feed their perfect families on instant noodles and jollof rice.
Forty years ago Nigerians ate an average of three kilograms of rice a year; now it is 35kg and rising. Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest rice importers, lying third (behind the Philippines and Iran) in 2008, the last year for which International Rice Research Institute figures are available.
Forty years ago Nigerians ate an average of three kilograms of rice a year; now it is 35kg and rising
It should add up to big profits for the international rice traders, and it does, but they are acutely aware of the vulnerability of the system. A senior executive from one of the world’s biggest global dealers in agricultural produce said this week he was really concerned about threats to, and the sustainability of the supply chain.
“Look at Africa,” Chris Brett, senior vice-president and global supply chain manager for Olam International, told an audience at the UK’s Institute of Development Studies. “It’s absolutely amazing how much food is imported. We know that the food security agenda is very important.”

Vulnerable to price fluctuations
Of all the world’s food commodities, rice is perhaps the must vulnerable to sudden shocks. The world may produce a huge amount of the grain, but nearly all of it is eaten in the countries where it is produced - only somewhere in the region of 5-7 percent is traded on the international markets. So there is a disproportionately large effect on the price when in a major producing country has a bad harvest, or stops exporting, as India did in 2008. The supply is not limitless. 1.3 million tons is the most rice Olam has traded on the international market in a year, but that has now fallen back a little to 1.1 million. Brett told his audience: “We seem to have hit a ceiling.”
The hunger for security of supply has led Olam into production and processing, and it is now working with 12,000 rice farmers and operating two mills in Nigeria, the country where it first started as a produce buying company more than 20 years ago. “We have decided that rice is a good business for us to be getting into. Nigeria imports 2.4 million tons of rice a year; it’s not rocket science to think that if you can produce it, there’s a market.”
Production has flourished. With help from US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) MARKETS scheme, an agribusiness initiative, the farmers’ associations have received loans for inputs and improved seed, and raised their yields from 1.5 to 4.4 tons a hectare. The once-derelict mills are turning out smartly packaged sacks of “Lobi” brand rice.
It is a secure source of supply within Nigeria and insulated from currency shocks, but Olam’s problem is that Lobi at the moment cannot compete with the popular imported brands from East Asia, either on quality or on price.

Poor quality
Among Nigerian customers, local rice has a poor reputation, often well deserved. Ola Bassey, a young professional woman from Lagos, told IRIN she never bought Nigerian-produced rice. “Some people buy it, it’s cheaper, but it’s just too much stress. You have all the bother of picking the sand and stones out of it - they get the kids to do it for punishment. People would rather pay extra and not have the hassle.”
Olam’s rice mills can deal with the sand and stones, but Brett admitted to IRIN that the quality of the Lobi rice itself was still not as good as that of Mama Gold, Olam’s premium brand of imported rice, just because of the varieties of rice used by the farmers.
Growing rice in Nigeria is also more expensive than growing it in Thailand, the Philippines or China. It is dry upland rice, produced without irrigation, and only one crop a year is possible. Farmers in East Asia cultivate wet paddy rice and can have three harvests a year.
At the moment Olam can sell Lobi more cheaply than the imported varieties because of the duty that has to be paid on imported rice. That duty has already been suspended once, for six months, in 2008. Brett’s nightmare is that a new rise in global food prices will lead to the removal of protection.
“The threat is that I wake up one morning and find the Federal Government has decided to cut import duty on imported rice. Nigerian farmers are never going to be as productive, and at the moment we don’t have the tonnage. But give us another two years, and we should see a stronger commercial viability.”
Currently Nigerian farmers produce only 10 percent of the rice sold on the local market, according to a USAID survey, while Thailand supplies 74 percent of the rice Nigerians buy.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=92873

MALNUTRITION: SRI LANKA: Rice, wheat prices among highest in region

COLOMBO, 6 May 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN
Rice is a staple component of the Sri Lankan diet

Sri Lankans are experiencing steep increases in two staple food sources, rice and wheat, because of severe floods and global shortages, says the UN.
A World Food Programme (WFP) analysis states that rice and wheat prices increased by 30 and 26 percent respectively on a year ago, making Sri Lanka one of the worst affected by rising food prices in South Asia.
"In Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, both wheat and rice seasonally adjusted prices have increased the greatest compared to other countries in the region," according to WFP's April edition of Market Monitor, which tracks price trends in staple food prices in vulnerable countries.
The increase in rice prices in Sri Lanka has been directly attributed to two floods in January and February that hit the main rice production areas - the north-central and eastern regions.
According to latest UN assessments, about 720,000 of the annual 2.7 million metric tons from the main Maha harvest season (mid-February to March) were lost.
Kulugammanne Karunathileke, secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, said total losses could amount to about one million tons.
Rice and wheat, including bread, make up the largest portion of Sri Lanka's food basket. A March household income and expenditure survey by the Department of Census and Statistics shows per capita monthly rice consumption is 9kg and wheat, including bread, is about 1.9kg.

Rice for bread
Wheat prices have increased mostly due to global crop losses and previous governmental price hikes. In May 2010, after a hefty 2.6 million ton bumper rice harvest, the Sri Lankan government introduced a new tax of 10 cents per kilogramme of wheat to ensure rice farmers did not suffer losses.
Priyantha Geethanage, 43, a retail bread seller, said that with the sharp increase in wheat prices, more people had begun to opt for rice.
Overall bread consumption fell about 17 percent in 2010, according to the Census and Statistics Department.

Fallout eased
Even so, the effects of the price rises have been cushioned and could be mitigated. Harvest lost to floods could be alleviated by larger yields from areas outside the flood zones such as the Kurunegala and Anuradhapura districts, said Nimal Dissanayake, director of the Rice Research and Development Institute (RRDI).
"If the next harvest is a good one, suppliers will not be able to hoard buffer stocks," he said.
Susan Razzaz, senior country economist at the World Bank office in Sri Lanka, said despite such setbacks, the country had experienced accelerated economic growth last year and had increased overall spending power.
"Rice is the main staple of the population, including for the poor, but price increases will not cause large reductions in consumption. Instead, people are likely to consume less of other things if they have to," she said. GDP growth in Sri Lanka was 8 percent, with wages up and unemployment down.
However, Geethanage, father-of-three from the rural Galle District, whose income is directly tied to wheat prices, has found it increasingly hard to meet his family's food needs.
"It is very difficult to keep paying for all of this when the prices go up constantly," he said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92653

MALNUTRITION: Phillipines: Iron fortified rice

by ES Gorne


SOUTHERN LEYTE, Mar 16 (PIA) - The Department of Health (DOH) felt relieved with the onset of iron fortified rice program as it brings solution among the much needed micronutrients that are essential to growth, health, and wellness of all, especially the children and women.
DOH Provincial Health Officer I Dr. Noel Lumen, head of the Technical Department at Salvacion Oppus Yniguez Memorial Provincial Hospital (SOYMPH) said malnutrition is still among the top ranking health concerns especially the micronutrients deficiency which are prevalent in the province during the nationwide launching of the i-Rice spearheaded by the National Food Authority (NFA) Tuesday, March 15 at Maasin City.
“ Filipinos are rice eaters while one of the nutritional disorders among Filipinos is iron deficiency which can best be addressed by fortifying rice with iron,” he added.
He said the national government is spearheading the Food Fortification Law or RA 8976 which calls for the mandatory fortification of micronutrients namely, Vitamin A, Iodine, Iron or Zinc to the staple.
He further said the Iodine deficiency is now responded with the fortification of said micronutrient in the salt commodity and most Sangkap Pinoy products are now fortified with Vitamin A, which all are readily available in the market.
What is most important is that the remedy to the iron deficiency problem in the country provided by the government comes at a low cost as one kilo of the I-rice is priced at P27, it was learned.
Among the activities during the launching, a declaration of commitment was solicited among the government implementers to help promote i-Rice which will hopefully address iron deficiency and implement pursuant to the law, rice industry players to help promote and sell I-Rice and for consumers to patronize and help promote i-Rice consumption.
Then it was followed with taste test of champorado, pospas with chicken meat and fried rice with bagoong, all made from i-Rice were tasted by the same group.
http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=1&t=1&id=22581

MALNUTRITION: BANGLADESH: Bio-fortification - finding nature’s power foods

 Photo: Ayub Farhat/IRIN
Zinc-rich rice - coming soon to markets if scientists have their way

DHAKA, 8 March 2011 (IRIN) - Scientists are using selective plant breeding known as bio-fortification to mass produce a high-zinc rice in Bangladesh within the next five years that can reduce micronutrient shortages.
Unlike typical food fortification, when a mineral is added to a food once it has been harvested and processed, with bio-fortification, scientists seek out nature’s super foods to boost the nutrition of less enriched varieties either through genetic modification or selective breeding.
More rice is consumed per person in Bangladesh than in any other country where it is considered a staple food, according to local NGO Bangladesh Rice Foundation.
Most Bangladeshis cannot afford to eat animal products, which have a naturally higher level of zinc, according to HarvestPlus, the Washington-based NGO overseeing the high-zinc rice project.
That leaves rice as their main source - though insufficient - of zinc.
Trained bio-fortification breeders at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute are testing seeds selected from hundreds of thousands of rice strains chosen for their naturally high zinc content.
Scientists are then cross-breeding the zinc-rich rice with widely grown rice varieties to see what takes root in Bangladesh’s soil and climate.
“The very best lines are then tested at many different locations in Bangladesh on breeding stations and on-farm,” said HarvestPlus’s head of production development, Wolfgang Pfeiffer.
A small selection of top-performing seeds will be multiplied and released in 2013 “on a massive scale to farmers”, he said. The cost is still in question, but must be affordable enough for the poor, HarvestPlus said.
Getting farmers to agree to a new breed may be difficult said the NGO’s manager in Bangladesh, Rezaul Karim.
“Farmers are risk averse. However we are planning an educational campaign about the benefits of bio-fortified rice. If consumers are motivated, farmers will be motivated.”
The bio-fortified rice is expected to look and taste the same as non-fortified rice, which though comforting, may carry at least one risk noted Karim.
“It will be very difficult to distinguish the seeds [of different rice strains]. If [another] crop fails, this could lead to a bad reputation [for the zinc-rich hybrid strain].”
HarvestPlus is trying to develop high-zinc rice in other countries, as well as wheat, maize, cassava, beans and pearl millet said Pfeiffer.

Zinc and stunting
Zinc shortage is a “significant public health nutrition problem” for Bangladesh’s children under five years old, leading to a “pervasively high prevalence of stunting [low height- to-age ratio]”, said Tahmeed Ahmed, the head of nutrition and senior scientist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. (ICDDR-B).
In 2009, 43 percent of under-five children in Bangladesh had moderate or severe stunting, which is the most common measure of chronic malnutrition and the leading cause of preventable mental disability worldwide, according to World Health Organization.
In most cases of stunting and poor immune response, the absence of zinc is to blame; its absence also affects how the body processes other life-saving nutrients, according to HarvestPlus.
Seven out of 10 women in Bangladesh do not get enough zinc in their diets, according to preliminary studies by ICDDR-B.
Lack of zinc in pregnant women can boost the risk of pregnancy complications, including low birth weight babies or stillbirths, warned HarvestPlus.





A woman fetching water in Dhaka, Bangladesh


http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=92132

POVERTY: KENYA: Economics of rice production

3 March 2011 (IRIN)


 Photo: David Hecht/IRIN
Ahero farmers hope to boost their livelihoods by exploiting agronomical practices to improve their yields (file photo)

AHERO,  - After spending Ksh35,000 (US$437) on his 0.4 hectare rice plantation - preparing the land, paying for water, transplanting the rice and hiring casual labour - Vincent Opiyo hopes to make Ksh65,000 ($812) when he sells the rice, which takes about three months to mature.
"I expect to harvest 25 bags [50kg each] from this [land] but I know I could get more if I were to improve the yield," Opiyo, 49, father of eight, told IRIN at the Ahero Rice Irrigation Scheme in Nyanza province.
In addition to the high costs of inputs, the farmers, who are "licensees" on trust land, struggle to access credit as they lack title deeds.
Were it not for what he earns working for the National Irrigation Board (NIB) - which runs the Ahero scheme - Opiyo would not meet the needs of his family from farming.
"Poverty is very high among many farmers under the Ahero scheme because they never make enough to cover needs such as school fees and payment for medicine when children fall sick; look at the structures we live in, most of them are semi-permanent," Opiyo said.
"Many of us do not even own a cow or some goats. Our father managed to [send] us to school from the proceeds of his [1.6ha] of rice, but for us, his children, it is no longer enough."

Low yields, better prospects
According to NIB, the average yield of Basmati rice at Ahero is 13-25 (75kg) bags per 0.4ha when it should be 20-30 bags; while the yield for Sindano rice is 15-30 bags, when it should be more than 30 bags.
At the start of operations in 1969, the Ahero Irrigation Scheme had 519 farmers, each with 1.6ha held on trust by the government. The farmers have since sub-divided their farms among their children but they are not allowed to sub-divide below 0.4ha or sell the land.
In 2009, a farmer-oriented funding arrangement, known as the Revolving Fund, was set up to support the farmers' production and marketing efforts.
Jacob Ongere, a farmer at the Ahero scheme and an extension officer with the Ministry of Agriculture, told IRIN that with the Revolving Fund and the government's Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), things were now looking up.
"The profit that farmers are making is still way below average but we hope this will change with more funding and support in sectors such as marketing and capacity-building," he said.
Through the Revolving Fund Office, Ongere said, the Ahero farmers hope to boost their livelihoods by "exploiting agronomical practices" to improve their yields - transplanting on time and using pesticides and fungicides.


 Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN : The average yield of Basmati rice at Ahero is 13-25 (75kg) bags per 0.4ha when it should be 20-30 bags

He added: “The situation is so bad right now such that we are in the harvesting season but the majority of farmers with children who sat their primary school examinations last year cannot afford to take their children to secondary boarding schools. The best they can do is send them to day schools because the charges are lower."
He urged the farmers to explore consolidation and adopt a group approach to reap better yields.

Devolving responsibility
Laban Kiplagat, senior NIB manager at Ahero, said NIB encouraged farmers to take greater responsibility of the scheme.
He said NIB was concentrating on its core business: "The NIB's core activities include provision of water and maintenance of irrigation infrastructure as well as management of farmers' organizations," Kiplagat said.
"Therefore, the NIB would be offloading production, marketing and capacity-building so that farmers can manage themselves better."
He said Nyanza had a potential to irrigate up to 200,000ha in its Lake Basin region.
Kiplagat said the farmers should embrace a culture of saving because "they tend to spend all they get from their harvests without proper planning for the high costs of operations - ploughing, water abstraction [pump-fed water supply] and tractors, which are costly to hire; and other inputs such as fertilizer and seed".
Increasing cropping frequency would also help farmers increase their earnings, he said. "Currently many farmers plant the rice crop once a year, meaning the land is in use for only four months and then lies fallow for the other eight months."
Kiplagat said NIB wanted to expand the scheme and to open up more swampy areas for irrigation.
"Under Vision 2030, some 40,000ha is expected to be put under irrigation per year, with the NIB having the responsibility of ensuring 30,000ha goes under irrigation," he said. "We hope to do this by exploring the introduction of more crops, such as seed maize, cotton, as well as horticulture, for irrigation."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=92086

POVERTY: MADAGASCAR: Rice is 'becoming a luxury'

 Photo: Ben Parker/IRIN: Rice seedlings

ANTANANARIVO, 15 February 2011 (IRIN) - The price of rice, the staple food in Madagascar, has doubled in the past two years, forcing residents in the capital, Antananarivo, to halve their consumption. "At almost 2,000 ariary (US$1) a kilogramme, rice has become a luxury item," Tiana Randrianirina, a rice seller at the main market in the capital, told IRIN.
"This is terrible for the Malagasy people - everyone is affected, especially those on minimum wage, or who have lost their jobs in the crisis. We wait and hope for a change from the government soon, so the crisis can end," Randrianirina said.
L'Observatoire du Riz, a state-funded organization that monitors the price of rice, estimates that it has almost doubled since early 2009. Many of Antananarivo’s about 1.5 million residents have adopted coping strategies like skipping breakfast, or eating manioc or maize.
"We've always been poor, but rice has increased so much that before a 'kapoaka' [a 250g serving] was for one person, and now it is half that," Claudine Rasoanandrsana, a mother of three who sells vanilla and spices to tourists on the streets of Antananarivo.
In the 1970s Madagascar was a rice exporter but has since become a rice importer, a consequence of outdated farming methods and poor infrastructure.
Rice inflation has tracked the country's political instability, which began with protests against President Marc Ravalomanana in January 2009 and led to Andry Rajoelina assuming power in March 2009, with the backing of the military.
The "illegal' transfer of power resulted in the African Union imposing sanctions and donor countries suspending all but emergency assistance to the donor-dependent state.
The US also suspended the country from its preferential trade agreement, the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), which permits some African states to export goods duty-free to the US. AGOA created around 50,000 jobs and provided work to a further 100,000 people.
One Malagasy can consume 136 kilograms of rice per year and food accounts for 75 percent of a household's budget
The upward pressure on the cost of rice is also being fuelled by a global rise in food prices and two years of a slowing economy in one of the world's poorest countries.
"Food prices in Madagascar can affect a household a lot. One Malagasy can consume 136 kilograms of rice per year and food accounts for 75 percent of a household's budget," Michael Rakotonirina, a monetization specialist for the development arm of Land O Lakes International, a US-based food company in Madagascar, said.
Rajoelina's government fixed the rice price at 1,180 ariary (US$0.59) a kilogram in early January 2011 and waived duties and taxes on imports, but according to local media reports this resulted in the staple becoming either depleted or unavailable.
On 11 February, trade minister Dominique Razaka said 10,000 tons of rice were imported under price-fixing measures, and 32,000 tons were expected to arrive at the eastern port of Tamatave by the end of February to help ease price pressures on rice until the end of the lean season in April.

Increasing poverty
Gerard Ravelomanantsoa, Director of the Institute of National Statistics, said the results of a survey between June and October 2010 showed poverty had increased from 68.7 percent to 76.6 percent since 2005.
About two-thirds of Madagascar’s around 20 million people are subsistence farmers, with the poorest living in the rural areas of Sava, a vanilla growing region in the northeast that was struck by Cyclone Bingiza on 14 February 2011. Other regions suffering severe poverty were Vatovavy Fitovinany, Atsimo Andrefana, Androy, and Anosy.
"Two successive seasons of drought have forced many vulnerable households in the south to sell their personal effects. These families have been particularly hard hit by the seasonal increase in the price of staple foods, which has pushed many to sell their livestock to afford those foods, driving down livestock prices. These families are counting on a good harvest next month to pull them through," Thomas Gibb, Food and Disaster Relief Officer for USAID's Madagascar office, told IRIN.
Cyclones are an annual event, but their frequency and severity differs from year to year. The National Office for Natural Disasters Preparedness (BNGRC) has warned of flooding in the south, while the country's breadbasket region, Analamanga, is expected to receive reduced rainfall.
"How much Madagascar produces is linked to the weather, and the cyclone season. In 2008 it [Madagascar] produced 3.6 million tons of rice, but the problem is that the population… [expands] while the production methods do not," Rakotonirina said.
A rice development expert in Madagascar, who declined to be named, told IRIN the country's economic insecurity and lack of resources made it difficult to promote new cultivation methods, such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), to farmers.
SRI, which has both supporters and detractors, suggests that rice fields be kept moist rather than permanently saturated, with a greater space left between plants to allow the leaves to optimize photosynthesis, and that plants be transplanted at a younger age, when they were less than 15 days old.
The rice expert estimated that SRI could be tried on 900,000 hectares of land, and could double or triple the yield, but that investment first be made to improve infrastructure such as roads and other facilities.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91934

POVERTY: SRI LANKA: Floods destroy over a third of rice harvest

 Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN : Food prices have increased after the floods

COLOMBO, 11 February 2011 (IRIN) - Sri Lanka will lose over one million tons from its upcoming paddy harvest due to recent flooding, officials say.
“We expected a yield of around 2.75 million metric tons from the harvest due in March to April,” Kulugammanne Karunathileke, secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, told IRIN. “After the heavy rains we will only get around 1.75 million.”
Karunathileke, the highest ranking official at the ministry, said the country had expected a bumper crop - until flooding, which began in January, left some paddy fields under water for up to 11 days. The worst-hit areas are in the eastern districts of Ampara, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee and the north-central district of Anuradhapura. Together they account for over 1.2m tons of the harvest.
Of the over 700,000 hectares cultivated this season, more than 200,000 have been destroyed, Karunathileke said.
Rice experts warn that yields will probably also be low in areas not directly affected by the flooding.
“The indirect damage is the spread of fungal diseases that will cause the harvest to drop even in areas outside the flood zones,” Nimal Dissanayake, director of the Rice Research and Development Institute (RRDI), said.
Meanwhile, the impact on rice stocks and prices is already being felt, with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) now having to buy supplies at higher prices due to lack of stocks, and flooded mills.
Rice, a staple part of the Sri Lankan diet, is included in rations being delivered to 500,000 flood victims by WFP as immediate assistance.
“We have made a request to the government to import rice for WFP rations,” Devesh Shankhdhar, WFP’s head of procurement in Sri Lanka, said.
WFP has warned that vegetable prices could also rise.

Hoarding
On 10 February the government warned that traders selling rice at above government-determined prices would be prosecuted, and at the same time it released a buffer stock of 25,000 tons onto the market.
Agriculture Ministry Secretary Kulathileke said the government was keen to stop bulk suppliers hoarding rice. “When stocks are low, we have seen that happening. This is something that we will have to keep a keen eye on.”
According to the RRDI, there were around 400,000 tons of 2010 rice stocks in the country.
“If those stocks are made available, we can keep prices in check till June or even July without shortages,” Dissanayake said.
The government is also planning to bring forward the secondary `yala’ harvesting season, which usually falls between March and September.
In recent years the `yala’ harvest has brought in high yields. `Yala’ is cultivated using irrigated water and Dissanayake warned that success would depend heavily on how fast damaged irrigation networks can be repaired.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91893

MALNUTRITION: Bangladesh to speed grain buys amid record prices

04 Feb 2011: Source: reuters // Reuters
By Ruma Paul

DHAKA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's state grains buyer plans to increase the volume of rice and wheat tenders to speed up imports and build stocks in the face of record global food prices and analysts' fears of social unrest.
"We are thinking to raise the volume of grains in tenders," an official at the Directorate General of Food, who declined to be named, said on Friday.
The government is under increasing pressure to contain prices. Analysts say Bangladesh faces unrest if prices continue to rise, given that nearly 40 percent of its population survive on less than $1 a day.
"If possible, for wheat tenders we may ask for 100,000 tonnes instead of the earlier 50,000 tonnes. For parboiled rice we can seek 50,000 tonnes from an earlier 30,000 tonnes to cut time and build stocks as quickly as possible," the official told Reuters.
"If it is not possible, we will issue tenders for wheat and rice every week," he said.
U.S. wheat futures rallied to near 2.5-year highs on Friday as concerns mounted about yields from the U.S. winter wheat crop and boosted by stronger oil prices. [GRA/]
Soaring prices pushed Bangladesh's food inflation rate to 11.01 percent in December, the highest level in three years.
"Domestic markets are facing supply shortages despite bumper food production in the country in the last crop season," said Mustafa K. Mujeri, director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
"This is because growers, millers, retailers are trying to keep their stores full, hoping to make windfall profits when prices go further up. Consumers are also storing grains in panic fearing that prices may reach beyond their buying capacity," Mujeri added.

IMPORT PLANS
The government seeks to import 2.2-3.0 million tonnes of rice and wheat in the year to June, up from around 550,000 tonnes in the previous year.
Bangladesh, which suffered badly during the 2008 spike in global food prices, wants to build reserves of basic commodities such as wheat, rice, oils and sugar to avoid a similar situation.
The United Nations said on Thursday its food price index rose for the seventh month in a row to 231 in January, topping a peak of 224.1 in June 2008. It is the highest level the index has reached since records began in 1990.
Rice is the main staple for Bangladesh's more than 150 million people, and the government is set to sell more rice at subsided rate to the poor. Thousands stand in long queues for rice, and many go home empty-handed when supplies run out.
Although it is the world's fourth-biggest rice producer, Bangladesh has emerged as a major importer this year and is desperately looking for dependable sources for rice.
"The government is making frantic efforts to import rice and wheat to ensure food security," Ahmed Hossain Khan, director general of the state grains buyer, told Reuters.
"The government is also negotiating with Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia for long-term deals to import rice as India, once the traditional supplier to Bangladesh, maintained its ban on wheat and rice (exports)," Khan said.
The government has reserves of around 850,000 tonnes of rice and wheat, and 125,000 tonnes are at ports while another 125,000 tonnes are due to arrive soon, a food and disaster management ministry official said.
A Bangladeshi delegation is now in Bangkok for negotiation to import up to 200,000 tonnes of Thai parboiled rice, while talks are continuing with India to buy 300,000 tonnes of rice.
"So we have nothing to fear about reserves," the government official said.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Anis Ahmed and Jane Baird)

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/bangladesh-to-speed-grain-buys-amid-record-prices/

MALNUTRITION: BURUNDI: Fortified rice for 15,000 school-children

BUJUMBURA, 5 January 2011 (IRIN)

  Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN : Just add micro nutrients: Ultra Rice is a blend of rice flour, iron, zinc and folic acid

Burundi is set to benefit from a rice fortification technology that will not only be the first in Africa but will also help check malnutrition in children through school-feeding programmes.
International organizations PATH and World Vision will introduce Ultra Rice, made from rice flour and enriched with micronutrients, including iron, zinc and folic acid, to about 15,000 children from April.
Marc Neilson, a public information officer for the World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN that "the purpose of the Ultra Rice project is to conduct a field trial to test the operational feasibility and biological impact of introducing fortified rice through a large food-aid programme".
Thomas Ruttoh, operations director for World Vision Burundi, said the project was "primarily about improving the nutritional quality of the food being taken by the children; anaemia is about 31 percent in Burundi".
The end result of the project, he said, would be to address malnutrition, which is considered "very high" in Burundi.
"Children can eat cassava, they can eat potatoes, but it is not the right food for a child because there is something missing," Rutto said, adding that the rice fortification was done mainly with iron as a micro-nutrient.

Data gathering
In October 2010, PATH received US$1 million from the US Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the project.
“With the USDA grant, PATH will bring the benefits of Ultra Rice to the African continent for the first time, and we are thrilled to do so in collaboration with World Vision," Dipika Matthias, director of PATH’s Ultra Rice Project, said in a statement. “Our pilot [project] will generate critical data and also serve as a model for improving the nutritional quality of rice-based food aid."
Matthias said the project would focus on generating both operational and biological impact data to demonstrate that PATH's Ultra Rice is an effective rice fortification method for food aid programmes.
World Vision Burundi will provide technical expertise and training as well as the warehouse facilities for the storage and distribution of fortified rice to about 15,000 children through a school-feeding programme supported by WFP.
The Burundi project will focus on the northeastern province of Muyinga, where WFP and the provincial education director have targeted 20 schools.
WFP's Neilson said Muyinga was chosen because it is among "the most food-insecure provinces and is characterized by low primary school enrolment rates.
"Muyinga shows, indeed, high malnutrition rates and vulnerability to natural disasters as well as a general lack of food security," Neilson said. "This is based on several joint vulnerability studies conducted with partners, including [the] government."
Ruttoh said a World Vision survey in the commune of Gashoho in Muyinga showed the rate of malnutrition was "very high. Results seem to be the same in other communes like Bugenyuzi in Karuzi province."
Taste test
Ruttoh said World Vision would conduct an acceptability test in April before beginning the rice distribution.
"The biological test has two components: is it tasty or not? You give a group a handful of rice; they close their eyes and are asked to tell if there is a difference. The second test is about the iron content in the blood before and after one year of use of fortified rice.
"In September, we will start again with some schools receiving plain and others fortified rice; the project will continue until September 2012," Ruttoh said. "In 2012, we will make an assessment to check if we have really contributed to reversing anaemia.
"It is anticipated that the lessons learnt from the project will inform partners of the need to improve the nutritional quality of food," Ruttoh said. "In future, the government, donors and the local community, especially entrepreneurs, may choose to adopt the practice of food fortification."
According to Neilson, the project will impact “on the attendance and retention of primary-school students. In addition, the students continue to receive nutrition education through the government health and education programmes."

Rice is not a staple food in Burundi, however.
A parent in the capital, Bujumbura, who declined to be named, said: "In our home villages, we eat rice only on special occasions, like Christmas or during other ceremonies. This will be interesting for children to get it at school on a daily basis; we hope its taste won’t be too different from the normal rice."
Athanase Ntiyanogeye, a university lecturer and nutritionist, said it would take time for the Ultra Rice “to make an impact because rice is still a luxury food and there is not enough rice production; it is not accessible to ordinary Burundians".
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91529

MALNUTRITION: In Northern Thailand

OUSA THANANGKUL M.D., JO ANNE WHITAKER M.D.and ELEANOR G. FORT
Department of Pediatrics, Chiengmai Hospital, University of Chiengmai, Chiengmai, Thailand

One hundred and eleven patients with protein-calorie malnutrition were admitted to the Pediatric Department of Chiengmai Hospital from January 1 to December 31, 1964, representing 9.1 per cent of total admissions. Blood chemical studies were performed and hematologic data were obtained in forty-five children, and another nineteen children were studied hematologically from January 1 to March 1, 1965. The age range, clinical behavior and biochemical results were essentially similar to the patterns reported from other countries where the disease represents a major problem.
Hemoglobin levels of less than 10 gm. per 100 ml. were found in 69 per cent of the patients upon admission. It is thought that the anemia of protein-calorie malnutrition is probably due to multiple deficiencies. The effects on bone marrow and peripheral blood of treatment with vitamin E, folic acid and iron, singly and in combination, are being investigated.
Low income is not the sole factor of etiologic significance in the development of protein-calorie malnutrition. "Displacement" of a child due to the birth of a sibling before weaning would ordinarily occur, and dietary habits which, by custom, include inadequate amounts of protein and large quantities of "overmilled" vitamin-depleted rice, are equally contributory.
http://www.ajcn.org/content/18/5/379.short

MALNUTRITION: ASIA: Water scarcity adds to food pressures

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN
HANOI, 12 November 2010 (IRIN) -
Millions more people across Asia will become food insecure due to increased water scarcities, reinforcing the need for greater efficiency in both irrigated and rain-fed rice production.
“The food security of hundreds of millions of people will be adversely affected,” Robert Zeigler, director-general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) told IRIN on the sidelines of the 3rd International Rice Congress in Hanoi.
The five-day conference - which concluded on 12 November - brought together more than 1,200 farmers, scientists and industry experts.
Rice is the staple food for more than half the world's population, including 640 million undernourished people living in Asia, where approximately 90 percent of all rice is grown.
Asia’s 200 million rice farms - most of which are smaller than one hectare - typically use about 3,000 litres of water in their paddy fields to produce 1kg of rice. Less than half of that water is consumed by the plant.
Areas of particular concern include the Indo-Gangetic Plain in India, China, northwestern Bangladesh, parts of Pakistan, as well as drought-affected northeastern Thailand, currently the world’s largest exporter of rice, Zeigler said.

Global demand
Global average rice yields need to rise by at least 1.5 percent annually to keep pace with expected demand. Over the past 20 years (1989-2009), average rice yields have increased by only 1 percent, IRRI reported.

In 2009, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated the annual global rice harvest at 678 million MT. But with the world’s population expected to top eight billion by 2030, keeping pace with demand will prove a challenge. Global rice demand currently increases by about eight million MT annually. In 10 years the world will need to produce 80 million MT more than it does today.
Compounding this are competition for domestic and industrial water usage, the impact of climate change, environmental pressures, less available land to grow rice, and the need to intensify rice research.
“It’s no longer business as usual,” Thierry Facon, senior water management officer for the FAO said, advocating for a more integrated approach. “We simply cannot produce enough with the water and land that is available,” he said.
“Water will be the single most important constraint to achieving levels of food production that are needed,” Norman Uphoff, head of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, added.
According to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), between 24 and 30 percent of the world’s accessible freshwater resources (rivers, lakes and aquifers) are used to irrigate rice, with as many as two billion people already affected by water scarcity worldwide.
The pressure on agriculture will thus increase, say experts, and climate change-induced higher temperatures will add to water requirements for crops, so shortages will become more serious.

Global Fresh Water Use by Sector:
Irrigated rice: 24 to 30 percent
Other agiculture: 40 percent
Domestic: 10 percent
Industrial: 20 percent
Source: Data from IWMI (2007) and WRI (2005)

By 2025, 15 to 20 million of the world’s 79 million hectares of irrigated rice lowlands - which provide three-quarters of the world’s rice supply – will likely experience some degree of water scarcity, the IWMI reported.
Meanwhile, drought in rain-fed lowlands reduces crop productivity, depending on when this occurs relative to the growth of the rice plant. Drought also affects the availability of soil nutrients for plant uptake and can increase weed pressure, experts say.
“Addressing the issue of water scarcity will not be done with one solution. We need an integrated approach,” Frederic Arboucalot, global head of rice seed and traits for Bayer CropScience, one of the world’s leading crop science companies, emphasized.
According to the recent international task force report, Never an Empty Bowl, Sustaining Food Security in Asia - nearly two-thirds of the world’s 1.4 billion poor live in Asia, and spend on average about half their income on food.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91069

MALNUTRITION: ASIA: Signs of hope for higher rice yields

17 August 2010 (IRIN) - Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) report signs of progress in their efforts to enhance rice's photosynthetic efficiency to boost yields. If successful, global yields could rise by as much as 50 percent, avoiding potential rice shortages, or even future famines, specialists say. According to IRRI, a global population increase of some two billion people by 2050 will require an extra 250 million metric tonnes of rice in Asia alone. "Fifteen months into the project, things are looking positive," Paul Quick, principal scientist and head of IRRI's C4 rice project, told IRIN in Los Banos, the Philippines. "We have identified at least 10 to 15 plant phenotypes that look like the type of plant we are looking for, plants that are starting to show a switch to C4." C4 plants - such as maize and sorghum - use a much more efficient photosynthesis process than rice (a C3 plant), produce a higher yield and use 1.5-3 times less water, he said. With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the first phase of the 15-year project is focusing on the discovery of the genes required for C4 photosynthesis. "Achieving this goal will be extremely challenging as many of the processes that need to be changed are poorly understood at the genetic level," Quick said. Plants typically have more than 30,000 genes so it is not easy to identify which genes are necessary to create the C4 engine. At the same time, thousands of plants need to be grown and screened for errors in their photosynthetic engine. "It's like making a cake. We still don't know the recipe, but we now have a better idea of what the ingredients are," Jacqueline Dionora, a senior associate scientist for the project said. New crop strains needed According to the UN, food production needs to rise by 50 percent by the year 2030 to meet rising demand, fuelled by population growth, competition for water and increasing use of agricultural products for bio-fuels. "Increased photosynthetic efficiency through the introduction of the C4 photosynthetic pathway is one mechanism by which this can be achieved," Quick said, citing its high light, water and nitrogen use efficiency. "The C4-Rice project is seen as a high-risk scientific venture but this is nothing compared with the potential future risks to human health if food supply cannot meet demand." A new study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) [http://www.pnas.org/] - a peer-reviewed, scientific journal from the US - warned that rice production would be affected with rising temperatures due to climate change. The study [http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/07/26/1001222107.full.pdf+html] by international scientists found evidence that the net impact of projected temperature increases would slow the growth of rice production in Asia. Rising temperatures during the past 25 years have already cut the yield growth rate by 10-20 percent in several areas. About three billion people eat rice every day, and more than 60 percent of the world's one billion poorest and undernourished people who live in Asia depend on rice as their staple food, according to IRRI. A decline in rice production would mean more people in poverty and hunger, the report's researchers warned. "If we cannot change our rice production methods or develop new rice strains that can withstand higher temperatures, there will be a loss in rice production over the next few decades as days and nights get hotter," said Jarrod Welch, lead author of the report. "This will get increasingly worse as temperatures rise further towards the middle of the century." On 18 August, scientists will gather in Shanghai for the 15th international congress of photosynthesis research [http://www.picb.ac.cn/PS2010/index.html]. The three-day meeting will bring together experts from various disciplines of C4 biology, including biochemistry, evolution, genetic regulation, gene discovery, systems modelling and genetic engineering.

MALARIA: Spain: Malaria resurgence risk in southern Europe

climate assessment in an historically endemic area of rice fields at the Mediterranean shore of Spain

Background
International travel and immigration have been related with an increase of imported malaria cases. This fact and climate change, prolonging the period favouring vector development, require an analysis of the malaria transmission resurgence risk in areas of southern Europe. Such a study is made for the first time in Spain. The Ebro Delta historically endemic area was selected due to its rice field landscape, the presence of only one vector, Anopheles atroparvus, with densities similar to those it presented when malaria was present, in a situation which pronouncedly differs from already assessed potential resurgence areas in other Mediterranean countries, such as France and Italy, where many different Anopheles species coexist and a different vector species dominates.
Methods
The transmission risk was assessed analysing: 1) climate diagrams including the minimum temperature for Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax development; 2) monthly evolution of the Gradient Model Risk (GMR) index, specifying transmission risk period and number of potential Plasmodium generations; 3) ecological characteristics using remote sensing images with the Eurasia Land Cover characteristics database and the monthly evolution of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI); 4) evaluation of A. atroparvus population dynamics.
Results
Climatological analyses and GMR index show that a transmission risk presently exists, lasting from May until September for P. falciparum, and from May until October for P. vivax. The GMR index shows that the temperature increase does not actually mean a transmission risk increase if accompanied by a precipitation decrease reducing the number of parasite generations and transmission period. Nevertheless, this limitation is offset by the artificial flooding of the rice fields. Maximum NDVI values and A. atroparvus maximum abundance correspond to months with maximum growth of the rice fields.
Conclusions
The Ebro Delta presents the ecological characteristics that favour transmission. The temperature increase has favoured a widening of the monthly potential transmission window with respect to when malaria was endemic. The combined application of modified climate diagrams and GMR index, together with spatial characterization conforms a useful tool for assessing potential areas at risk of malaria resurgence. NDVI is a good marker when dealing with a rice field area.
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/221

MALNITRITION: MALI: Water has become a "luxury"

BAMAKO, 23 July 2010 (IRIN) - In Mali's northeastern Kidal region water shortages - many say the worst in 10 years - threaten lives and the region's very stability, residents and local officials say. Local and national authorities - backed by international agencies - have sent truckloads of water and thousands of tons of rice and fodder to Kidal, where animals are dying daily and water for drinking and bathing is increasingly rare. While residents say the assistance has been significant, they say it is insufficient and long-term solutions are indispensable. "Catastrophe" is in store if water shortages are not resolved, according to a report the Kidal regional assembly recently submitted to President Amadou Toumani Touré following an evaluation in the region. A continuation of today's conditions "will set in motion a vicious cycle: chaotic displacement of people, tension and conflict and urban overpopulation." "The region's very stability is threatened." The local authorities call for building, reinforcing and maintaining wells and bore holes, but also innovative ways to conserve and manage "the precious little water we have". Kidal, like much of the Sahel, receives little rain every year. But in recent years rains have been particularly erratic, starting late and ending early. Housseini Maïga, president of a government and civil society water organisation in Mali, said a town north of Gao, Mali, "saw not a drop of rain in all of 2009 - nothing". Maïga was among water experts and authorities attending a series of meetings 23 to 27 July in the Senegalese capital Dakar, organised by Global Water Partnership. "Rains are cyclical and for a long time we have had good years and bad," Maïga told IRIN. "But in recent years we see only decline." Kidal needs "colossal investment" in water management in order to avoid the worst," Yaya Dolo, regional governor, told IRIN. Lack of safe drinking water is Kidal's principal problem, said Yacouba Sangaré, head doctor in Kidal. "The water table is getting lower and lower... Having water to drink and bathe has become a luxury."Most children coming for medical care have diarrhoea and dehydration, he told IRIN. He added: "I have been in Kidal since 2004 and this is the first time I have seen hunger to this extent - not only among the people but among the animals." "One loses count of the animals dying," Alhabass Ag Intallah, member of parliament from Kidal told IRIN. "The best we can hope for this year is to save one-tenth of the livestock. And in this region where people live off their animals, losing that much can only mean famine. Already we are seeing undernutrition in the population - particularly children - because of the disappearing livestock." Al Hamdou Amoune, like most people in the region, breeds livestock. "I don't know what will become of my family. I lost half of my herd and I'm frightened for the rest. Yes the government has sent help but it won't be enough." He said the region particularly needs water towers. "Life has never been easy in Kidal but these days it just gets worse and worse," teacher Walet Altanata told IRIN. "Without water, what can we do? The heat, the sun - we are used to that. But we cannot bear a lack of water. This is why we implore the government and its partners to help."

POVERTY: African rice varieties granted "elite" status

COTONOU, BENIN] Africa's indigenous rice varieties are to be granted 'elite' status by scientists in the hope that they will play a central role in making farmers' crops more resilient.
Elite rice varieties are recognised to be high-yielding and include Asian rice, which has sometimes been improved with individual traits taken from lower-yielding African rice. Now scientists have shown that African varieties are resilient and high-yielding in their own right.
According to Savitri Mohapatra, spokesperson for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, scientists from the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), Benin, did a series of studies on the yield of African rice and the factors that determine high yield — the latest of which was conducted last year (2009).
They concluded that, contrary to common belief, the yield of African rice is not inferior to that of Asian rice under the unfavourable growth conditions that often prevail in parts of Africa.
"This is contrary to the conventional thinking of rice researchers — that African rice has low yield potential," Mohapatra said.
African rice — Oryza glaberrima — was first domesticated in West Africa more than 3,000 years ago. Now it is on the verge of extinction and most African farmers have turned to Asian rice (O. sativa).
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/african-rice-gets-a-status-upgrade-1.html