Asia’s bountiful rice fields have fed the world for centuries, but the industry now faces a threat from a weedy “cousin” of the staple that has proliferated due in part to poor farming practices.
Mealy in texture with dark pigmentation and unfit for consumption, weedy rice can grow rapidly and taller than the regular crop varieties, depriving the latter of soil nutrients and sunlight. As a result of the invasive weedy rice, harvest quality, yields and in turn market value of regular rice have declined significantly in recent years. “They have become feral through a sort of accidental selection. They will eventually stick out over a crop field, but the problem is that by the time they are visible, there can often be quite an infestation,” Kenneth Olsen, Professor of Biology at Washington University, told This Week in Asia. “A major weedy rice infestation can reduce crop harvests in a given field by over 80 per cent,” he said. According to the World Economic Forum, Asian rice producers account for more than 80 per cent of global supply. Olsen was part of an international team including biologists in the United States, Thailand, Malaysia and China who have analysed the menace in a new study. The origins of weedy rice are unclear, although farmers first reported its presence about two decades ago. A high proportion of its varieties in East Asia appears to be directly descended from hybrid rice varieties introduced in the 1980s, Olsen said. Other varieties of weedy rice have also crossbred with wild rice varieties in Asia. “These very aggressive weedy forms can outcompete other rice crops [in terms of growth],” he said. According to several studies, weedy rice appears to be linked to certain cultivated rice varieties in Japan, South Korea and China. It only requires a small amount of weedy rice plants per square metre to cause huge damage to the harvest of cultivated rice, Olsen said. For instance, the US saw crop losses equivalent to an amount that was sufficient to feed 12 million people due to the damage caused by weedy rice in the last few years, he added. Some of the weedy varieties are highly effective at dispersing their seeds in rice fields because of a certain genetic mutation. “These seeds can lie dormant and be perfectly viable for 20 years,” Olsen said. Major rice producer Thailand had reported losses of about 10 per cent of its output as a result of the weedy rice problem in recent years, said Tonapha Pusadee, one of the study’s co-authors. Some studies show that weedy rice varieties found in Southeast Asia have branched off into different evolutionary pathways, including several that originated from cultivated rice. Thai farmers have resorted to several ways to deal with weedy rice, such as cutting the panicles, or the top portions, of their rice crops, using a chemical in a bid to eliminate the problem and planting rice for only one season, Pusadee said.
0 Comments
From Jan. 15 through Jan. 19, 2024, more than 60 world leaders will join hundreds of business executives and campaigners at the Swiss ski resort of Davos Monday for the five-day annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, where they will discuss some of the biggest global challenges. Critics say the summit is a meeting of the super-rich and that it fails to tackle growing global inequality. The issues on the Davos agenda appear daunting: in the immediate term, worsening conflicts in many parts of the world along with Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea; and wider threats including potentially catastrophic climate change, a weak global economy and fears over the adverse impacts of artificial intelligence. In its Global Risks Report 2024, published Wednesday, summit organizers highlighted misinformation and disinformation as the biggest short-term risk. “The potential impact on elections worldwide over the next two years is significant, and that could lead to elected governments’ legitimacy being put in question. And this, in turn, could, of course, threaten democratic processes that lead to further social polarization, riots, strikes, or even intra-state violence,” report co-author Carolina Klint of the risk consultancy Marsh McLennan, told a London press conference Wednesday. The report labeled extreme weather events and climate change as the top long-term risks over a 10-year time frame. "Yes, it’s a very gloomy outlook, but by no means is it a hard, fast, set prediction of the future,” Saadia Zahidi, the economic forum’s managing director said. “The future is very much in our hands. Yes, there are structural shifts under way but most of these things are very much in the hands of decision-makers across different stakeholders and that’s where the effort really needs to be,” she told reporters. The Davos summit takes place against the backdrop of two major wars, in Ukraine and Gaza. Among those due at the Alpine ski resort are Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres will attend, along with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron. Alongside the political leaders will be hundreds of the world’s most powerful chief executives, including the head of OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Microsoft’s chief executive officer, Satya Nadella. Critics say the wealth of the world’s super-rich has increased, while billions around the world have become poorer over the past decade – and Davos will do little to reverse that trend. “Across the world people are feeling extraordinary hardship. And at the same time there’s a few sprinting off at the very top into the distance. And some of them will be in Davos,” said Nabil Ahmed of aid agency Oxfam International. “It is, yes, a space for dialogue, for important discussions, even for holding political and business leaders to account. It’s why organizations like Oxfam take part. But it’s also not an international, democratic space in which transparent, accountable decisions are being made,” The summit organizers say it’s vital to bring together political and business leaders to find solutions to the world’s myriad challenges.
The World Economic Forum just had their Davos Agenda 2021 meeting in January. Now The Great Reset has been something talked about in detail since the pandemic started. But are we seeing The Great Reset happening right before our eyes? I think we are starting to see the slow implementation of The World Economic Forum's Great Reset right now. It's like a chess match, nothing happens right away, many moves are made before the endgame.
The Great Reset that was proposed by the World Economic Forum is looking to forgive all the world's debt and has us live by the slogan, "You'll Own Nothing, And You Will Be Happy". Now first and foremost, we are starting to see a slow implementation of a universal basic income. It was actually what the World Economic Forum talked about and advocate for in the Davos agenda 2021 meeting that happened a few weeks back. Starting with the continual stimulus packages that we have received in the past few months to help stimulate the economy, seems like a slow inoculation into government dependency. Since we can't work where are we going to get our money from? Secondly, The Great Reset talks about how having ALL of our debts forgiven. Well who's going to buy them? The Federal Reserve? Sure, but with the sale of debt, comes the control of the debt. And whoever controls debt, controls YOU! The great reset is all about debt forgiveness but then we won't be able to own anything ever again......and we will be happy about it. I'm not completely convinced that the World Economic Forum is looking to do this for the good of the people. They literally said, "You'll Own Nothing and Be Happy" about it. Would you like to NOT own your home, car, business? I sure would like to own all of the things I've worked very hard for and I can speak on behalf of most people who own those things. Lastly, the Davos agenda 2021 got into cryptocurrency. Currently crypto is decentralized and lacks certain regulation from major regulatory bodies. That is a beautiful thing, but the World Economic Forum has already spoke about crypto in their Davos agenda 2021 meeting that happened a few weeks back. With the Great Reset, the fiat currency will crash because of the reckless printing from The Federal Reserve. So expect to see heavy regulation and government intervention with crypto. |
Thank you for choosing to make a difference through your donation. We appreciate your support.
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesCategories
All
Archives
April 2024
|