CEOs need to accelerate their action plans to safeguard the production of commodities critical to the global population and economy as heat stress and drought risk rise around the world, according to PwC's report, Climate Risks to Nine Key Commodities: Protecting People and Prosperity, published. The report, which analysed nine …
Even though farmers all over the world fear that grain yields are plateauing, Yuan Longping, the director of the National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Centre in Hunan Province, China says that a big jump in rice productivity is round the corner. Yuan claims he is on the verge of …
patenting of basmati rice by Ricetec Inc of the us has been in and out of the news since February 1998. In response to a public interest petition filed in the Supreme Court, the Attorney General of India says Indian scientists and the best legal brains in the us are …
Vietnamese farmers are going through a bad time due to persistent drizzle that has affected supply of coffee in the province of Dalak. "The weather is now dangerous for the coffee business,' said a trader. He said the drizzle in Dalak had disrupted the drying process. Dalak accounts for 60 …
Pakistan has decided to lodge a formal complaint with the United States Patents Office against a patent given to a US firm, RiceTec Inc. on a premium rice brand originating in the Indian sub-continent. According to the commerce secretary, M Iqbal Farced, a verbal complaint has already been lodged for …
Yields from the rice-wheat cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic plain are declining despite the increasing use of chemical fertilizers. Crop residues are important components of soil fertility management, but are burnt in some areas such as Punjab state. Not only does this mean a loss of nutrients but also causes …
•Haryana is in the grip of a severe drought. The principal Kharif crops such as jowar, bajra and gawar have been totally destroyed. Paddy and sugarcane crops have suffered a serious setback in the rest of Haryana because of inadequate supply of canal water. •A recent World Bank study shows …
THAILAND is all set to drag the us government to the dispute settlement panel of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for letting Rice Tec, the Texas-based seed company, use the name "jasmati" as a trademark for selling a variety of rice. The US company perhaps wants to mislead consumers into …
rice tec inc, the us seed company that sent shock waves across India by staking patent rights on a particular variety of basmati rice at the us Patent and Trademark Office, will not be able to pull the same trick on Thailand. Thai farmers have pledged to protect Khao Dawk …
A non-governmental organisation has moved the Supreme Court, asking the government to challenge a patent given to a Texas-based company for basmati rice, or move the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation. The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, urged the court to direct the government to …
Pakistan's rice exports will get a boost with the imminent reduction of the involvement of parastatals, following a recent merger of Rice Export Corporation and the Trading Corporation. Now, the private sector would play a much greater role. In its new dispensation, Pakistan, as a rice supplier to the global …
after basmati rice, it is the chickpea's turn. Western companies have made yet another attempt to put their brand names on a crop that Indian farmers have grown for generations. Last year, Rice-Tech, a us -based company, after hijacking the "basmati" name - their rice was artfully christened "Texmati" - …
poor farmers in Africa can now treble their rice yields at no extra cost. This has been made possible by hybrid plants that are suitable to African conditions. The hybrid combines in a single plant the hardiness of a long-forgotten native African strain with the high-yielding qualities of widely grown …
Agro-scientists at West Bengal government's rice research station have developed four high-yielding rice varieties which will increase current levels of yield by an average of 30 per cent. While the seeds for two of the varieties have been derived through a process of
The Karnataka High Court recently awarded damages worth Rs 21,000 to a petitioner Muniswamy Gowda, who had accused a rice milling industry of damaging his health. The court ordered the state government, the chairperson of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and the owner of the rice milling industry to …
In an effort to create more productive and disease-resistant strains of rice, Chinese researchers have created a gene 'map' that will eventually allow not only comparisons between different strains of rice but between other major grains as well. Scientists at Shanghai's Genetic Research Center have isolated and catalogued the individual …
India won a major trade victory recently when the statutory Trademark Administrative Committee in Greece rejected the trademarks filed by a US company Rice Tec Inc on rice varieties claimed to be similar to the basmati varieties grown here. The decision will strengthen the position of Indian farmers and rice …
genetic studies at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (ccmb) in Hyderabad has thrown up interesting results on the rice plant. One finding says that the 'leaf blight' might not have come from outside the country, but may well have existed in indigenous wild rices. The rice plant is …
