Rice shortage looms as prices shoot up

Jun 20, 2008

THERE are things that even a fortune cannot buy. Rice is fast becoming one of those highly treasured items. The grain’s price has not only more than doubled in barely a year; the giant producers — Bangladesh, India, Vietnam and Egypt — have all banned its exportation following the looming food

By Carol Natukunda

THERE are things that even a fortune cannot buy. Rice is fast becoming one of those highly treasured items. The grain’s price has not only more than doubled in barely a year; the giant producers — Bangladesh, India, Vietnam and Egypt — have all banned its exportation following the looming food crisis across the world.

This poses a worrisome picture for a country like Uganda which gets most of its rice imports from these countries.

According to the national agricultural statistics, Uganda produces an estimated 180,000 metric tones annually, while 35,000 metric tonnes of rice are imported. Consumption is estimated at a whopping 200,000 metric tonnes annually, implying that demand could, sometimes, be much higher than the supply.

As such, prices on the local market are high. A survey of the city markets shows that a kilo of rice ranges between sh2,000 and sh2,500 up from sh1,200 a year ago.

It is the same story on the global market. In fact, reports show that by now, the world’s exportable rice has reportedly been advance-booked up to 2010.
This means that even nations with the buying power are failing to buy rice, since exports have either been banned or booked in advance.

For instance, last month, the Sun Wing Loong Rice Trading Company of Hong Kong announced that for the past three months, they were receiving 50-60 tonnes against the orders of 100 tonnes. Recently, Bangladesh could procure only 0.487 million tonnes against, a programme of nine million tonnes even after floating tenders for 43 times.

In Thailand, one of the world’s biggest rice exporters, farmers are reportedly sleeping in their fields after reports that thieves are stealing the rice, now worth $600 (sh1m) a tonne, straight out of the fields.

Although the recent price surges apply to all food items, the present rice price has increased up to three-fold. Even more scary is that none of the world’s food agencies has anticipated the possibility of the prices coming down to the previous level.

Whether suppliers are taking advantage of the situation to hoard and charge exorbitant prices is another matter.

The question remains: Is there hope at all to have the next meal on the table? The biggest rice consumers, such as schools are crying foul.

“It is terrible! We are almost scraping rice off the menu,” says Sempala Kigozi, the proprietor of Aidan College in Kampala.

“The easiest choice would be to replace it with cassava, but that is equally expensive.”

Kigozi says they normally buy up to 12 bags of rice per term, each weighing 100kg. These supplement the staple diet of posho and beans.

“Each bag used to be sh72,000, but now it is up to sh180,000 or 200,000. And yet you can’t just wake up and double the fees,” Kigozi laments.
Dr. JC Muyingo, the headteacher of Uganda Martyrs, SS Namugongo, wonders what will happen if there is totally no rice.

“My students love rice very much. If you want to annoy them, don’t give them rice,” Muyingo says.

While the school has enough in store for the term, Muyingo says a finance committee will sit and decide whether or not to adjust the budget in favour of rice.
“If they see that the students’ meals should take precedence, it is okay,” Muyingo says.

In many Ugandan traditional homes, a festivity is nothing without a dish of rice. It is the one delicacy – after beef – that, especially children look forward to at Christmas time. And in the typical urban home, rice is a lot cheaper, readily available and more convenient to prepare, compared to the bulky food items, such as matooke, potatoes and cassava.

“The money I used to spend on two kilos now just buys one kilo. This is all consumed in one meal because my children love rice,” laments 40-year-old Ronah Apalat, a mother of five.
The traders also have their fears — will they be able to keep their businesses going?

“We have been importing from Pakistan, India and China. It is a challenge to the local manufacturer to give us what we need,” says Issa Sekito, the spokesperson of the Kampala city traders association.

“It is a pity that consumers feel we are draining their pockets, but it is not us, it is the circumstances at hand,” Sekito says.

However, the agriculture minister, Eng. Hilary Onek is optimistic.

“I am happy they (rice producing countries) are restricting exportation,” Onek says, emphatically.

“Our local farmers are going to be empowered. If we have been importing up to 40% of the rice, it means that it will now be produced by the local farmer, which gives him opportunity to sell at better prices,” Onek explains.
The minister, however, admits that Ugandans will be hit hard in the short term.

“We shall have a temporary shortage of rice because the demand for the local produce will go up,” Onek says.
He states that Uganda has favourable conditions that allow rice growing. He says while traditionally, rice was mainly grown in the swampy areas, new varieties such as upland rice grow anywhere.

President Yoweri Museveni launched the Upland Rice Project in March 2004. Since then, rice farming in Uganda has grown from 4,000 farmers in 2004 to over 35,000 in 2007. Uganda reduced its rice importation from 60,000 metric tonnes in 2005 to 35,000 in 2007, saving us about $30m (sh51b) according to the Uganda National Agricultural Research Organisation.

So, one can hope that Uganda will not suffer much. “We have been importing for a long time and that is not good for us, given the pace at which we are developing new varieties,” says Dr. Jimmy Lamo, a rice breeder, at National Crops Resources Research Institute, Namulonge.

“Our local rice industry has not been a priority; it’s time to put in more effort. Who knows, we could be richer, in the food crisis,” Lamo says.

Ugandan and Tanzanian rice breeders have developed and released three disease-resistant Nerica (upland rice) varieties, which are expected to increase rice production.

They also respond well to low rainfall, a minimum of 20mm per week. But the rain should be well-distributed during the three month growing season, according to minister Onek.

The varieties are Nerica 1, 4 and 10. Nerica 1 and 10 were released in 2002 and Nerica 4 in July, 2007.

Nerica 4 has stable yields in all ecological zones including flooding areas. Nerica varieties can be grown in places that were not possible before. “Nerica 10 referred to as special quality matures in 99 days, while 1 and 4 take between 110 and 115 days.

Nerica 1 is aromatic in cooking, even when it is flowering,” explains Dr. Lamo.
However, it requires huge resources to ensure that the varieties are multiplied in huge quantities, as well as getting them to every farmer at the grassroots. This requires breeding institutes to work closely with small private seed companies, helping to ensure that the needs of small-holder farmers are met.

Only then, perhaps, will we be able to boost production and smile all the way to the dining table.

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