Rice

With chilli bringing tears to the growers with its rock-bottom price, the farmers in Bhadradri- Kothagudem are now switching to other crops. This Kharif, the farmers are going to cultivate paddy in 41,728 hectares and cotton in 36,647 hectares along with other crops. The district Kharif plan also focuses on cultivation of maize in 5,741 hectares.

The use of soil health cards has led to 16-25% reduction in cost of paddy cultivation and 10-15% reduction in pulses and oilseed farming in 136 districts of 16 states. After the introduction of soil health card scheme, there has also been 10-25% increase in paddy production, 10-15% in coarse cereals, 10-30% in pulses and 35-66% rise in output of oilseeds. Soil Health Card provides information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil along with recommendations on appropriate dosage of nutrients for improving soil health and its fertility.

Area under rice has gained momentum due to the recent rains and 349,000 heactres of land has been brought under cultivation of the water-intensive crop so far, higher than 329,000 hectares in the corresponding period last year. The weather department expects monsoon rains to be normal this year at 96% of the long-period average. Betting on good monsoon rains, the agriculture ministry is targeting food grain production at an all-time high of 280 million tonne in the new crop year that starts June, higher than this year record of 273.4 million tonne.

Rice prices fell in the key wholesale market of Kapurthala due to slowdown in export demand. The steamed variety of Pusa 1121 basmati rice was sold at 7,000-7,200 rupees per 100 kg in Kapurthala, while parboiled variety was sold at 6,000-6,100 rupees per 100 kg. Prices of both varieties were down 100 rupees from previous close. Prices of 25% broken non-basmati rice were unchanged and the grain was sold at 2,300 rupees per 100 kg.

The interagency National Food Authority Council (NFAC) has approved the recommendation of the National Food Security Committee (NFSC) to allow the NFA to import 250,000 metric tons (MT) of rice. NFA needs to import at least 752,560 MT of rice to meet its Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac)-mandated stock requirement of 30 days at the onset of the lean months. The national daily rice requirement is pegged at 32,720 MT. NFA imports committee is set to finalize and approve the guidelines for the importation of 805,000 MT of rice by private traders under the 2017 minimum access volume (MAV) scheme of the World Trade Organization. The NFA imports rice to augment its buffer stock during the lean months of July to September, when palay harvest significantly goes down due to harsh weather.

Philippine-based rice research company SL Agritech Corp. on Wednesday signed a collaboration agreement with Bangladesh firm EnP Solutions Ltd. for the seed production of SL-18H variety of hybrid rice. SL-18H is a high-yielding rice hybrid which could withstand both dry and wet climate. SL Agritech will sell 20 to 50 tons of SL-18H hybrid rice seedlings to EnP Solutions annually. This will cover 5 to 10 hectares of rice fields. With 163-million population and decreasing scope of arable land, the rice hybrid is expected to increase Bangladesh rice production.

Prices of rice exported from Thailand have increased due to continued demand for white and parboiled rice from the country. During the week ended May 22, prices of rice exported from Thailand increased 4-6% on week. It pegged rice production in Thailand in 2016-17 at 17 million tonne, against 15.8 million tonne the previous year due to higher recovery in off-season production. The estimate for exports from the country was, however, kept unchanged at 9 million tonne.

U.S. rice producers could see higher prices for their 2017 crops – and it not mainly because of the losses due to the flooding that occurred in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana and California in late April and early May. The long-grain rice price forecast is up about $1 per hundredweight – around $9.70 to $10.70.

Iraq precedent-setting purchase of 30,000 MT of U.S. long grain milled rice comes after more than 16 months without any Iraqi purchases of U.S. rice. The 30,000 MT sale for July delivery was awarded to ADM, and comes almost a full year since the MOU was negotiated between the MOT and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Thailand Prime Minister has asked the commerce ministry to sell 18 million tonne of stocked rice to save the huge cost of maintaining inventories. The government has already sold 13 million tonne of rice procured from farmers at a minimum support price. The government took three years to sell the rice stock and it fetched lower prices but deteriorating quality of the grain made the sale necessary. Thailand competes with India in the global rice export market.

With Met office forecasting rain from first week of June, farmers of Kalahandi district apprehend heavy loss of their paddy crop which is lying in the open at various mandis. 50 per cent of paddy crop have been harvested and brought to mandis or procurement centres. Of the total 89 mandis opened so far, 45 do not have permanent shed or store house. As a result, the hundreds of bags of paddy have been dumped in the open. Kalahandi administration has set a target to procure 16 lakh quintals of rabi paddy and toll date, 9,204 quintals have been procured from 125 farmers through 27 mandis of PACS.

The acreage is almost unchanged from that in the year-ago period–175,700 hectare. It is, however, lower than the normal area of 207,000 hectare for this period, based on the average of the last five years. In Odisha, one of India major rice producing states, paddy was sown over 300 hectare, up 200% from a year ago. In Assam, another major producer, the acreage was down 9.2% on year at 59,000 hectare. Sowing is yet to begin in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab.

May 28 Bangladesh received a lowest offer of $406.48 a tonne from Singapore-based Agrocorp International in a tender that opened on Sunday to import 50,000 tonnes of white rice. Five traders competed for the tender issued by the Directorate General of Food at a time when local rice prices have reached record highs and state reserves are at 10-year lows.

Bangladeshis buy the poorest quality of rice at the highest prices in the world. According to the government, a kilogramme of a coarse variety of rice is being sold at Tk 48, setting a record in the country economy. Another South Asia nation, Pakistan, stood second on the chart, but its nationals buy the same variety of rice at Tk 10 less than in Bangladesh. Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), in the past month, the price of rice has increased by 11 per cent and prices have doubled in the past one year.