Landlessness experienced by millions of farmers in Asia is worsened by liberalization dictated by the WTO and the monopoly of agrochemical TNCs over rice production. Debunking government s claim that HYVs improved the lot of farmers, AMGL Chair Joseph Canlas explained that while it is true that the average palay yield per hectare has grown, the cost of fertilizer, pesticides and other farm inputs has risen from 30 percent to 40 percent of the total production cost per hectare. Debunking...

Chookiat Ophaswongse said rice exports are expected to reach 8.7 million metric tons on increased demand, above the government's export estimate of 8.5 million tons. CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Chicago Board of Trade rice futures settled sharply higher Friday in a late rally as fund and technical buying pushed prices to their highest levels since mid-March, a floor trader said. Cash rice prices in Thailand and Vietnam were steady at high levels Friday in limited activity as the strong prices kept...

Still, some experts warn that the price has nowhere to go but down if the market is flooded, and not everyone has forgotten how a massive grain deal with the Soviet Union in the early 1970s and the 1996 drought in China shot corn prices to record highs prices that later wilted. Still, some experts warn that the price has nowhere to go but down if the market is flooded, and not everyone has forgotten how a massive grain deal with the Soviet Union in the early 1970s and the 1996 drought in...

The suit was brought on behalf of rice farmers based upon economic damages they suffered from contamination of their crops with an unapproved genetically modified strain of rice seed produced by Bayer Cropscience, a German-based agriculture company. Downing originally filed suit last suit on behalf of 279 rice farmers in Missouri and Arkansas. Discovery of the contamination in the farmers rice supply led to a dramatic drop in U. He has obtained a multimillion dollar settlement for a class...

Meanwhile rice production in the US and Australia is decreasing this year due to reports of discovereries of GMO-strains of the grain there, resulting in import bans in some markets such as Europe. While China is now the biggest importer of Thai rice, Chookiat expects Indonesia to become a major market in 2007 because of declining production in the archipelago nation. That's all good news for Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, that is expected to ship between 8. Hue blamed the...

The scientists said GM potato seeds would enhance the crop's overall resistance against blight, a commonly found disease in potato. This comes in the wake of a recent Supreme Court judgment, allowing field trials of GM potatoes, rice, mustard, tomatoes, cauliflower and groundnuts. Major potato producing state West Bengal is in the grip of blight disease and farmers are set to suffer huge losses this time due to the late attack of the fungi. The state, with the highest productivity of...