Drought in India, Typhoons in Philippines/damaged crops

CEBU, Philippines (AP) - A drought in India and typhoons in the Philippines have damaged large tracts of rice paddies, threatening to upset the fragile food market amid fears of shortages and riots, experts said Wednesday.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap of the Philippines, the world's biggest rice importer, told an international rice conference the impact of the next "perfect storm" will be greatest on vulnerable countries like his, and the world's poor.

He proposed an international food reserve that will safeguard against wild fluctuations in food prices. When prices are down, producers can build stocks to halt further decreases, while consumers can turn to the reserves when prices are rocketing, Yap said.

"We are not very far off from possibly another rerun of 2008," he said. Last year's record-high price of rice and other staples led to riots in at least 30 countries, according to the World Food Program.

The biggest rice producers, Thailand and Vietnam, had curbed exports to protect domestic supply. In the Philippines, people formed long lines to buy low-quality rice at subsidized prices while traders were suspected of hoarding.

Rice is a staple for half of the world's population, a big chunk of them poor, Yap said.

India and Philippines are the two main drivers of the market, and rice traders are waiting to see if and how much they will import.

"I can tell you any panic reaction by any of the countries can easily flare up this market which is already in a very tight situation," said Samarendu Mohanty, a senior economist at the Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute. The institute has been trying to breed high-yielding rice varieties that can survive extreme weather.

The Philippines — which imports rice every year to cover a 10-percent domestic production shortfall — says it has lost at least 925,000 tons (840,000 metric tons) due to recent back-to-back storms.

Officials earlier said there will unlikely be need for more imports this year, but on Wednesday Yap refused to rule it out, saying the government will do "what we have to do to protect our people's food security."

While there is no official estimate yet of losses due to low rainfall in India, a drought of similar magnitude in 2002 lowered rice production in that country by 23.5 million tons (21 million metric tons), Mohanty said.

"So it is very likely the crop yield will be 20 million less than what we had last year," he added.

Goat Penis Bacteria Scare

Goat penis bacteria adds to food safety scare

Ho Chi Minh City destroyed nearly 1.5 tons of goat penis contaminated with bacteria Wednesday in the latest chapter of Vietnam’s food safety saga, which has seen putrid pork and rotten beef flood local markets.

On Sunday, district inspectors found NDT Company in Tan Binh District had imported large quantities of the product from Australia. The shipments were labeled as inedible and not for human use. Nguyen Thi Thu Nga, chief inspector of the HCMC Animal Health Agency, said the products were contaminated with bacteria, including Salmonella and E.Coli, and also failed to meet other food safety criteria. However, inspectors said 47 of the 72 boxes imported had been sold as food. The inspectors issued fines against the company for trading animal products contaminated with bacteria. A representative of NDT Company said the product had been imported from Australia on April 13 and that the 72 boxes had been approved as food by the Animal Health Agency Zone VI. The case is not uncommon. A market watchdog official in Ho Chi Minh City seizes the pork which fails to pass animal health agency inspections Concerned agencies have reported an increase of tainted animal products imported from other countries for resell as food in HCMC recently. Last week, inspectors in Binh Chanh District found another 855 kilograms of goat’s penis in storage at a QT-VT Company warehouse. They have confiscated 57 boxes of 15 kilograms each. The company said they had sold 23 other boxes. Inspectors said the products had also been labeled as not for human food but had been approved to be sold for the purpose. Bacteria: tastes like chicken Early this month, inspectors from the HCMC Animal Health Agency found more than five tons of bacteria-contaminated chicken wings that had been sold out of a Truc Den Company store on Ta Quang Buu Street in District 8. The company had obtained approval of the Animal Health Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to import 80 tons of chicken wings, 10 tons of chicken entrails and 10 tons of chicken thighs from Hazeldene’s Chicken Farm Pty. Ltd. in Australia. Truc Den then imported 13.5 tons chicken wings, samples of which were tested by the Animal Health Agency Zone VI. The agency, which found the product failing to meet criteria under two examinations on June 12 and June 16, then requested the company to sterilize the products. Inspectors said Truc Den Company could only present proof of sterilization for one ton, conducted on June 17, and 12.5 tons on June 22. Only 8.2 tons of the total were found in store, while the rest had been sold without being rechecked, inspectors said. Chu Xuan Phuong of HCMC Market Management Agency said bacteria contaminated food must be destroyed and should not be sterilized for later use. Last Saturday, inspectors from Cu Chi District found a truck carrying ten tons of chicken products from the US and Thailand without any official documents. Inspectors are following up on the case. Where’s the beef? On Tuesday, animal health inspectors in Dong Nai Province found large quantities of illegal pork at Tam Hoa Market in Bien Hoa Town. Around 1,120 kilograms of pork were seized for being sold without proper certificates from animal health agencies. Inspectors said the meat smelled bad and showed signs of carrying diseases. Last month, the People’s Committee of Phu Nhuan District issued fines to CHM Trading JSC for violations related to the trade of over 800 kilograms of beef imported from the US. The fine of VND40 million ($2,246) was issued for failing to register with quarantine agencies before transporting animal products, importing beef without legal certificates of origin, trading products without legal labels and selling products after their expiry date. The authorities also destroyed 51 kilograms of expired beef without legal papers. At a recent session of the HCMC’s People’s Council, Nguyen Van Chau, director of HCMC Health Department, said they could manage only eateries through registration, while foods sold by hawkers and at markets were nearly impossible to keep tabs on. Reported by Thanh Nien staff

100 million people fast approaching! Vietnam

Photo:Chuck Kuhn
The birth rate in Vietnam is quickly rising again, posing many challenges for the country. Food shortages accompany enormous populations. The health sector will have to take drastic measures to prevent the “prospect” of a population of 100 million.
Limited land, crowded population
With limited land and natural resources, Vietnam has to nurture over 86 million people. At the current growth rate, Vietnam’s population would hit 115-120 million people in the not too distant future.
Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu said without drastic measures to curb the birth rate, Vietnam’s population could even reach 145-150 million.

The increase of population, according to experts, will slow down economic growth and increase unemployment. Vietnam is now in a period of golden population, during which the number of working-age people is higher than that of dependent people (children under 15 and elderly people over 64). Annually, Vietnam has around 1.5-1.6 million people reach working age, posing challenges in creating jobs for new labourers.

The country will enter a period of old population structure in the next 15-20 years, and at that time, challenges in terms of social welfare will arise. The young population structure goes with pressures in terms of health, education, and child care.
As the number of couples having more than two children is on the rise, Vietnam will have to once again resume its campaign to call for each family to have no more than two children.

The re-increase of the birth rate has been said to originate from the dissolving of the Committee for Population, Family and Children, which was in charge of family planning and population tasks, in August 2008. Since this agency was dissolved, family planning and population tasks in localities have been suspended.

Risk of food insecurity

Each year Vietnam has an additional 1 million people, equivalent to the population of a province, even though each couple has two children at most. Its population is forecast to reach 100 million in the coming years. At that time, the current 40 million tonnes/year of cereals that Vietnam can produce now would be just enough to feed domestic demand.
While the population is rising, the land area devoted to rice growing is narrowing. This means that while the need for rice is increasing, rice output will not increase, and may even decrease.
In the 2002-2007 period, the area for rice decreased by 0.46 million hectares (around 4% of agricultural land area). The biggest drop happened in the Mekong Delta (0.26 million hectares); the figure was around 0.11 million hectares for the Red River Delta. At the same time, the birth rate increased quickly; in particular, the ratio of families with three or more children rose by 16% and it was even 19-20% in 2008.
Vietnam aims to become an industrialised country by 2020, with over 40% of its population living in urban areas. The challenges for maintaining rice crops will be great. Controlling birth rate, thus, becomes a key job.

(Source: Lao Dong)

Vietnam to protect its rice fields

Vietnam has announced plans to protect around four million hectares of rice fields, to ensure long-term national food security.

According to state media, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai instructed the Agriculture Ministry to prepare a Rice Cultivation Land Management decree.

Vietnam's economic boom has seen rice land in the Mekong and Red River deltas shrink, from about 4.5 million to 4.1 million hectares between 2000 and 2006.

Aside from the building of new factories, rice paddies are also being reduced by more than 120 golf courses that are either in operation or being planned.

Tags: vietnam

Vietnam plans to protect rice farms: state media

pFast-industrialising Vietnam plans to protect at least 3.9 million hectares (9.6 million acres) of rice fields to ensure long-term national food security, state media reported on Friday.

The move comes amid the global food price surge that has seen grain prices skyrocket and aims to preserve a core growing area of the national staple food from mushrooming industrial parks, urban areas and golf courses.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has instructed the Agriculture Ministry to prepare a Rice Cultivation Land Management decree and submit it for approval in the third quarter, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

Amid Vietnam's economic boom, rice land -- mainly in the Mekong delta around Ho Chi Minh City and the Red River delta around Hanoi -- has shrunk from about 4.5 million to 4.1 million hectares between 2000 and 2006, says the ministry.

Aside from the building of new factories, rice paddy is also being gobbled up by 123 golf courses that are either in operation or being planned, and which require large amounts of water and pesticides, state media has reported.

Development has seen thousands of rice farmers lose their ancestral lands, driving a steady series of demonstrations outside government offices by farmers who typically complain they received insufficient compensation.

In a protest last month, hundreds of angry farmers in central Nghe An province set up roadblocks to stop the building of an industrial park, claiming they were short-changed by developers, the Thanh Nien daily reported.

Rice prices have shot up this year, helping to drive inflation in Vietnam to 25 percent year-on-year in May, which has triggered about 300 labour strikes in the first quarter and sparked bouts of panic-buying and rice hoarding.

The communist government has sought to assure Vietnam's 86 million people that the country, the world's number two rice exporter, has sufficient stocks and has also threatened to punish speculators who are driving up prices.

Following what farm groups describe as a bumper crop, Vietnam plans to lift a temporary halt on new rice export contracts by July as planned, and aims to reach an export target of 3.5 million to 4.0 million tonnes this year.

The Agriculture Ministry also plans to set up a national rice reserve of 100,000 tonnes to help stabilise distribution and meet domestic demand when market prices fluctuate, the state-run Vietnam News Agency reported.

The latest plans -- which follow a proposal to gradually scale down annual rice exports to 3.8 million tonnes by 2020 -- aim to ensure that Vietnam keeps sufficient rice lands to feed an expanding population in the future.

"There are too many industrial parks, projects, golf courses, and so on," economist Le Dang Doanh, a veteran government advisor, recently told AFP. "The problem is now how to ensure food security as demographic pressures, the increase of the population, are still increasing."

World grain prices have risen sharply this year, a trend blamed on higher energy and fertiliser costs, greater global demand, droughts, the loss of farmland to biofuel plantations, industry and cities, and price speculation.