Insects devastate Thailand's rice crop, institute says

Earth Times ^ | February 8, 2010 | dpa

[hennie pennie]

Bangkok - Excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides and other poor farming practices have led to an insect plague in Thailand's rice fields that was predicted to reduce yields by 30 per cent in vast areas, the International Rice Research Institute warned Monday. "This is the worst outbreak of brown planthoppers I have seen in my career since 1977," said Manit Luecha, director of the Chainat Rice Seed Center.

"Most of the paddy fields - probably more than 1 million hectares - will suffer rice yield losses of more than 30 per cent," he predicted.

Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter. Last year, it shipped 8.6 million tons abroad, earning the country 5 billion dollars in foreign exchange.

The institute blamed the current plague of brown planthoppers, or BPHs, on poor farming practices triggered by a jump in world rice prices in 2008.....

[hennie pennie]

Law of unintended consequences at work here.

[databoss]

how long boefore climate change and/or global warming is cited as being the cause?

[hennie pennie]

I wonder if similar conditions are creating massive rice crop failures in other major rice exporting countries?

Has anyone heard anything about rice shortages or rice riots or rice futures?

Were, perhaps, so many extra acres planted that there will end up being NO actual rice shortage, that supply will actually meet the demand?

[HighlyOpinionated]

Law of unintended consequences at work here.

But I'm sure someone in the 0bama administration will find a way to blame Bush.

[Sawdring]

Global warming increases the yield loss caused by insect pests in paddy field

[USMCPOP]

My wife is not going to be happy when the price of Thai jasmine rice skyrockets.

Years ago, I worked with Thai farmers. The stuff they did with pesticides scared me.

[muawiyah]

There is an ongoing rice shortage. The Chinese ceased rice exports which did lead to stability overall.

Remember, if the big guy on the block doesn't do something, the little guys get crushed. With China literally out of the export market, all the smaller countries further South in East Asia had a free hand.

Thailand overplanted. They'll recover. This part of the world has more than one crop a year anyway.

Viet Nam has heretofore produced more rice for export than any other country. They do quite well growing bamboo and rice.

[databoss]

of course...

[hennie pennie]

>>> "My wife is not going to be happy when the price of Thai jasmine rice skyrockets." <<<

I find it very interesting how to non-rice eaters, almost all versions of white rice taste just the same, with basmati being the only kind that distinctly tastes richer. But with people who've eaten rice from childhood, they definitely seem to be able to distinguish between all the varieties of what to others simply look like plain old white rice.

NPR did a story about how there is a Japanese rice grown in Califonia, which the DNA is absolutely indistinguishable from the Japanese rice grown in Japan, but the California grown is shunned in Tokyo markets as an inferior product.

Here's an interesting excerpt from somebody's blog how to make regular rice TASTE like Thai Jasmine rice, using secret ingredients --- LOL

Google Cache Text-only Version blog entry, entitled: I can do that!: It's Time To Buy US-Grown Rice

".....I have written about Thai Jasmine rice before and its origin being the Philippine ancient variety MILAGROSA. If you look closely all the sacks of Thai jasmine rice have MILAGROSA on it. The news reports have blamed the Chinese for the higher price of Thai jasmine rice because they are buying them in huge quantities.

And because of the law of supply and demand Thailand has increased the price of jasmine rice, it's just business, nothing wrong with that. We have been eating Thai rice for the past 20 years because it is better both in price and texture compared with the US grown (except for the Japanese variety).

Now that Thai rice costs a little bit more, it's time to buy US rice not just to save some cash but also to support US produce. There are several varieties to choose from: Japanese, Korean, and American short, brown, long, and medium long grains. Just add one or 2 pandan fronds to the rice before steaming to have the same fragrance and flavor of Thai jasmine rice. Let the Chinese pay the high price of Thai rice, they can afford it anyway.:-)

add a frayed pandan for fragrance and flavor

[USMCPOP]

I’m not sure that the quoted writer has his facts straight about the origin of jasmine rice. For you aggie types:

http://www.agcomintl.com/jasmin.htm

[SunkenCiv]

outbreak of brown planthoppers

I'm just glad it wasn't brown pant-hoppers. Thanks hennie pennie.

[nw_arizona_granny]

There are always countries with rice disease, check promedmail.org for the countries currently with food problems, due to crop failure.