Traders' delegation to visit Russia Saturday, October 20,2007 PAJHWOK [1]

KABUL: A delegation of Afghan traders and businessmen will visit Russia and Kyrgyzstan on Saturday.

The 22-member delegation, officials said, would meet Russian and Kyrgyz entrepreneurs and the two sides would review ways and means to enhance commercial ties between their respective countries.

Dr. Omar Zakhilwal, head of the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA), told Pajhwok Afghan News the delegation would leave Kabul for Moscow on Saturday.

According Zakhilwal, the Afghan businessmen were formally invited by the two governments. They would stay for eight days and meet their counterparts from Russia and Kyrgyzstan to discuss cooperation in economic sector. Zakhilwal said the team would leave for Bishkek from Moscow.

He said there were plenty of opportunities for investment in Afghanistan, but the two countries so far did not come forward to invest here as was expected. The visit, he said, was part of AISA's strategy to establish and improve commercial ties with other countries.

Earlier, Afghan traders and representatives of the private sector had paid such visits to India, China, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries. The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency was established four years back to attract investment and encourage local and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in various sectors.

Textile festival opens in Thimphu Sunday, October 21,2007 BBS [2]

THIMPHU: The annual crafts festival started yesterday at the clock tower here in the capital. The festival was inaugurated by Her Majesty Ashi Sangay Choden Wangchuck. Also present were the Prime Minister, senior government officials, and officials from bi-lateral and international agencies and non-government agencies.

Speaking at the ceremony, the resident coordinator of the United Nations system in Bhutan Mr. Nicholas Rossellini said the potential to employ cultural resources as an engine of more inclusive growth to improve the lives of rural communities is enormous.

He said Her Majesty's tireless effort and support towards creatively utilizing a resource that has been often overlooked in the field of development, that is, traditional and indigenous skills and knowledge of communities, is truly commendable.

The festival features handicrafts from different parts of the country.

Singye Dorji the director of the textile museum said the participants have been selected from various parts of the kingdom and the festival allows them to market their products on a greater scale.

Non government organizations including Tarayana, RENEW and DrakTsho are also participating in the festival.

The festival will carry on till the 25th of October.

Sri Lanka tea: Saddled with low yields Tuesday, October 23,2007 Daily Mirror [3]

COLOMBO: The tea yield in Sri Lanka is only1,386 kg. per ha, which is very low compared to other tea producing countries such as India, which produces about 1,774 kg. per ha and Kenya, which yields 2,325 kg per ha. The main cause for such a low yield is the fact that most plantations are more than 50 years old and need replanting.

The total area planted with tea in Sri Lanka is about 221,969 ha but the extent that bears any produce is approximately 193,000 ha which includes 14 administrative districts, 123 Divisional Secretariats and 3,692 Grama Niladhari ranges.

Although the tea industry in Sri Lanka is celebrating its 140th anniversary since James Taylor introduced tea on a commercial scale to the country in 1867, it's a crying shame to see the industry in such a recession. According to the statistics of the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) the county's crop decreased from 310.8 mn. kgs. in 2006 to 194 mn. kgs. this year. Kenya which was marginally behind Sri Lanka in the production of tea in the world market, was able to produce 244.2 mn.kgs.

At present Sri Lanka is behind China, India and Kenya and is struggling to keep her position ahead of Vietnam. The main causes for this turn of events in the industry included trade union strikes and disastrous weather.

The SLTB however is confident of a better outcome in 2008 and intends to promote Sri Lankan tea to become the number one beverage in the international market. However, their work will be cut out for them as China is leading the world tea industry with 1,020 mn.kgs.

The downfall in the country's production affected its export market in 2007 as well. There have been significant reductions in almost all of the main export markets such as United Arab Emirates (UAE), Syria, Iran, Turkey, Iraq and the CIS (Former Soviet Union) countries.

The world tea industry in the meantime appears to be faring quite well as annual production grew by 2.5 percent. Global tea production increased to 3,524 mn.kgs in 2006 from 3,436 mn.kgs in 2005 while the gap between production and demand as per the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is 1-1.5 percent in 2007.

Iraq is the leading consumer in the world market for tea countrywise with 2.40 kg per head. Ireland, Libya and the United Kingdom are also great consumers of tea with 2.35, 2.28, 2.17 kg per head respectively.

Govt to reconsider stance on poppy-spray Tuesday, October 23,2007 BOSTON [4]

KABUL: In the face of pressure from the American government, the administration of President Hamid Karzai is seeking the formation of an international scientific committee to review the safety of chemical herbicides to combat Afghanistan's opium poppy crop, Afghan and Western officials say.

The Afghan government also has formed two committees to study the issue and, with a new growing season beginning this month, has vowed to conduct a speedy review process, Afghan officials said. "We are working around the clock," Obaidullah Ramin, Afghanistan's minister of agriculture, irrigation, and livestock, said in an interview last week.

The moves, which follow a visit to Kabul earlier this month by a State Department delegation that briefed Afghan Cabinet officials on the efficacy and safety of the chemicals, suggest a new willingness on the part of the Afghan government to reconsider its opposition to chemical eradication.

Since the beginning of the year, the Karzai administration has said it is adamantly opposed to using chemical herbicides to eradicate poppy fields. But in recent weeks, the American government has renewed its pressure on Afghans to endorse at least a trial ground-based spray program using glyphosate, a widely sold weed-killer that has also been used in American-financed counternarcotics programs in the Andes and elsewhere.

The Karzai administration has been reluctant, in part, because of concerns about the possible environmental and public health consequences. Afghan officials have also argued that a program with American-financed chemical eradication squads wiping out farmers' livelihoods would hand the Taliban rebels a major propaganda tool and risk driving farming communities into the insurgency's camp.

"We have no questions about its efficacy as a herbicide," Faizullah Kakar, the Public Health Ministry's deputy minister for technical affairs, said of glyphosate. "The issue is the health impacts and the social and political impacts."

Kakar and Ramin have been among the Karzai administration's biggest critics of chemical eradication. Western officials say endorsements by the two men would be critical in persuading the entire Afghan government to approve spraying.

Kakar, who received advanced degrees in toxicology and epidemiology in the United States, said in an interview last week that while living in the United States, he had used glyphosate to kill weeds in his yard.

But in the United States, he pointed out, the water supply is better protected and regulated. "In Afghanistan that's not the case," he said. Glyphosate "can run into ditches and run into rivers and that's the water that the whole population is using." Kakar also said he had encountered some findings that suggested there might be a link between glyphosate and health problems.

American officials in Kabul and Washington said the State Department was assembling a list of candidates for an international committee. "Our goal is to very quickly pull this together," a State Department official in Washington said by phone on Saturday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the topic.

Afghans promise not to plant poppy Tuesday, October 23,2007 AOP NEWS [5]

LASHKAR GAH: Afghan tribal elders and farmers in the world's biggest opium-producing region have promised not to plant poppies this year, the provincial governor said on Monday, only weeks before the time for sowing.

Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world's opium this year and more than half of that was grown along a narrow band of fertile land on the banks of the Helmand River that threads its way through the desert.

Profits from opium, worth more than $3 billion a year to the Afghan economy, also fund the insurgency which is at its most virulent in Helmand where Taliban rebels hold a key town and a number of villages. The militants engage mostly British and U.S. troops in almost daily gunbattles.

Asadullah Wafa, appointed governor of Helmand last December after this year's crop was planted, said promises by elders and farmers not to sow poppies in the coming weeks will help Helmand turn the corner and at least reduce its record-breaking opium crop.

"When I came here poppy had already been planted but now the people have given letters of guarantee that they will not grow poppy next year," he told Reuters at his heavily guarded compound in the Helmand provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

"I discussed the bad effects of poppy and that it was illegal according to Islam." Next year, he said the poppy crop "will decrease a lot", but he declined to make any prediction on the size of the reduction.

Pledges by farmers to stop growing opium in return for promises of increased aid have had some success in the more peaceful north of Afghanistan and can work as part of an 'Afghan solution' to the drug problem, Western officials say.

But many farmers are trapped in a cycle of debt to traffickers who lend them money to buy poppy seeds.

"In general it's a good idea, but in order to be realistic there needs to be something in return," said Christina Oguz, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan.

"It can have an impact if the decision (to plant poppy) is with the farmers and they must get something in return," she said.

LIMITED PROGRESS

Afghan and Western officials say only limited progress can be achieved in the fight against opium, which is processed into heroin and smuggled abroad, while security remains fragile at best in Helmand and other parts of the restive south.

Security had improved in Helmand, Wafa insisted, but the danger of suicide bombers is ever present and foreign forces only travel, even around the provincial capital, at break-neck speed in heavily armed convoys.

The governor said suicide attacks could only be stopped at source.

"The world should pay attention to the source of suicide bombers -- where they come from, who is funding them, who is training them and the resources of the suicide bomber should be destroyed," he said.

"They do not get training in Afghanistan, they get training in foreign countries. They get training in neighbouring countries."

Afghan officials say Taliban leaders and fighters enjoy a safe-haven in the Pashtun tribal areas along the porous border with Pakistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered face-to-face talks with Taliban leaders to try to bring a negotiated end to the insurgency, but a rebel spokesman demanded the withdrawal of the nearly 50,000 foreign troops first.

But some Taliban commanders, mindful of Western military successes in targeting mid-level rebel leaders, are showing increasing signs they might be willing to engage the government in talks, Western security officials say.

Wafa, a wizened, grey-bearded man previously involved in talks with rebel fighters, said he would soon be travelling to neighbouring Pakistan for talks.

"We will talk to those people who it is necessary for us to talk with," he said, declining to give details.

"This is secret. We cannot declare it to the media. When we return you will see."

Call to focus on agriculture Wednesday, October 24,2007 THE HIMALAYANT IMES [6]

KATHMANDU: World Bank (WB) has warned that the international goal of reducing extreme poverty and hunger by half by 2015 will not be reached unless neglect and under-investment in the agricultural and rural sectors over the past 20 years is reversed.

South Asian countries are facing an unprecedented opportunity to reduce massive poverty and confront widening rural-urban income disparities. The latest World Development Report entitled ‘Agriculture for Development', urges greater investment in agriculture in transforming economies, most of which are in Asia, is vital to the welfare of 600 million rural poor living in those countries.

The report has included Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka as transforming countries in South Asia, while Afghanistan and Nepal are agriculture-based countries.

In the transforming countries, agriculture is no longer a major source of economic gro-wth, contributing on average only seven per cent to GDP growth, but poverty remains ov-erwhelmingly rural (82 per cent of all poor). The scenario is still bleak in the agriculture-based countries where agriculture is a major source of growth, accounting for 32 per cent of GDP on average-mainly because agriculture is a large share of GDP-and most of the poor are in rural areas (70 per cent).

The report has pointed out that agriculture can be the main source of growth for the agriculture-based countries and can reduce poverty and improve the environment, albeit in different ways. This requires improving the asset position of the rural poor, making smallholder far-ming more competitive and su-stainable, diversifying income sources toward the labour market and rural non-farm economy, and facilitating successful migration out of agriculture.

For Afghanistan and Nepal, the report states that their main priority should be to increase productivity, especially among smallholders whose livelihoods depend strongly on agriculture.

For its part, WB has committed to increasing its support for agriculture and rural development, following a decline in lending in the 1980s and 1990s. In fiscal year 2007 commitment reached $3.1 billion, marking an increase for the fourth straight year. "Rural poverty accounts for an extraordinary 82 per cent of total poverty in transforming countries," said Robert B Zoellick, World Bank Group president.

Exports up by 13pc in 2nd quarter Wednesday, October 24,2007AOP NEWS [7]

KABUL: Afghanistan's exports had registered 13 percent increase during the second quarter of the current Afghan year as compared to the same period during last year, officials said on Sunday. Rohullah Ahmadzai, director public relations with the export promotion department, told Pajhwok the country's exports had reached $112 million during the second quarter of the current Afghan year.

Last year, the figure was 101 million US dollar, registering a 13 percent increase, said the official. One of the reasons behind the boost, he said, was removal of irritants pertaining to taxes and customs duties.

Following a gradual process, all kinds of duties and taxes on the country's exports would be withdrawn, said the official, who added that the step was being taken under a decree of President Hamid Karzai.

According to Ahmadzai, the country's exports were about $107 million during the first quarter of the current Afghan year. The exports had increased by 12 percent as compared to the first quarter of the last year.

He said the country's exports included handcrafts, fresh and dry fruit, minerals, leather products, cotton and precious stones.

Ahmadzai said most of those products were being exported to India, China, Pakistan, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Europe and the United States. He hoped the exports would further increase in the years ahead.

Official figures show a big gap between exports and imports of the country. According to officials, the country's exports are $500 million a year while goods worth five billion US dollars are being imported each year.

Banks urged support fertiliser dealers Thursday, October 25,2007 NEW AGE [8]

DHAKA: The Bangladesh Bank has advised the scheduled banks to provide prompt service to fertiliser dealers to avert any shortage in the coming boro season, said an official of the Bangladesh Bank.

The BB on Wednesday issued a circular saying that the banks should provide all-out support to the fertiliser dealers, he said.

The agriculture adviser, CS Karim, recently sent a letter to the BB, asking it to take necessary action to ensure maximum support to the dealers, he said.

The aman crop has been hampered due to bad weather, therefore the government is determined to ensure sufficient supply of fertiliser in the boro season to keep the grain stock at an adequate level, said the BB official.

‘The government will increase the supply of fertilisers, especially phosphate and muriate of phosphate, in the boro season,' he said.

The Centre for Policy Dialogue and BRAC recently recommended open market sales of fertiliser.

According to their recent survey announced on October 11, they said most of the farmers preferred an open market system to the existing card system for purchasing fertiliser. Under the present distribution system, only 60 to 70 per cent of their requirements are fulfilled, complained the farmers.

About 16 lakh tonnes of fertiliser are needed in the boro season, out of which the government has only about 5.15 lakh tonnes, but in the next three months another 4 lakh tonnes will be produced locally, said the survey report.

The CPD-BRAC recommended that about 7 lakh tonnes of fertiliser should be imported to ensure adequate supply.

Govt allows non-basmati rice for export Friday, October 26,2007 Times of India [9]

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Thursday decided to exempt non-basmati rice varieties from export ban if they sold at $425 a tonne in the global market.

But this has got basmati traders divided over what the government's twist on rice exports might really achieve.

The decision comes after Haryana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh approached the Centre demanding relaxation in the ban on non-basmati rice it had imposed hoping to shore up domestic arrivals and make the job of central agencies picking up paddy for PDS supply easier.

India exported 3.7 million tonnes of non-basmati rice against the total production of 92.76 million tonnes in 2006-07. This year, the agencies are hoping to pick up 27.6 million tonnes of rice with about 11.61 million tonnes expected to be picked up from the three protesting states.

But a section of rice exporters believe that the decision will favour only those who sell both basmati and non-basmati rice - mostly north-based exporters.

"This will only help those who sell basmati and high grade non-basmati while 15 ships meant to carry rice are still sitting unloaded in Kakinada," said Prem Garg of Shrilal Mahal, one of the leading exporters who is bound to get hit by the decision.

The estimated loss due to this ban is around Rs 500 crore, including $1.5 million demurrages on account of the waiting vessels at ports, claimed the non-basmati export committee - a group of rice exporters.

They have asked that the government allow firms to export non-basmati rice where the Letter of Credit were opened prior to imposition of ban on non-basmati rice exports and where shipping bills have been either filed or where the shipping bills are in the process of being filed.

Rice grown in south India is considered of lower grade and fetches up to $300 a tonne in the export market.

"At the same time, these states are not considered traditional states for procurement and exporters raise doubts over how restricting exports would help domestic procurement," an exporter said.

'Flour prices may rise in coming days' Friday, October 26,2007 DAILY TIMES [10]

LAHORE: People could face another flour crisis in the coming days as flourmill owners have decided to increase the price of flour by at least Rs 0.8 per kilogram, sources told Daily Times on Thursday.

The sources said that the price of wheat was increasing in the market while the wheat provided by the government was not fulfilling the requirements of mill owners and they had, thus, decided to increase the price of flour.

The sources said the government had reduced the supply of wheat to flour mills after Eidul Fitr due to which mill owners are purchasing wheat from the market at a higher rate, resulting in a price increase.

It is expected that the price of flour will be increased by Rs 8 to 12 on a 20 kilogramme bag.

Sources said the government was issuing wheat to mill owners at Rs 540 per 40 kilogramme before Eid, but now the mill owners have been receiving wheat at Rs 605 per 40 kilograms.

Bilal Aslam Soofi, chairman of the FPCCI Zonal Committee on Flourmills, said that the price of flour would be increased in the coming days as the government had reduced the quota of wheat to flour mills.

He said the government should increase this quota to stabilise flour prices. "If the government fails to do so, the price of flour is expected to reach Rs 320 to 330 for a 20 kilogrammme bag," Soofi added.

He said another reason for the increase in flour prices was the export and smuggling of flour to neighbouring countries, since mill owners can sell a 20 kilogrammme bag for Rs 320 to 325 thus.

District Food Officer Chaudhry Munir denied the possible increase in flour prices and said the government had been supplying a sufficient stock of wheat to flourmills and action

would be taken against mill owners if they tried to increase prices. He said the government had fixed the price of a 20 kilogramme bag of flour at Rs 295.

Tea exports down by 38% Friday, October 26,2007 Daily Mirror [11]

COLOMBO: The Tea Industry experienced a major recession in Sri Lanka where the export capacity of the country reduced by 38 percent (310.8 Mn. kgs in 2006 to 194 Mn. kgs in 2007). As a leading authority, the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) intends to promote Ceylon tea to become the world's leading beverage by 2012.

The Tea Industry is at the moment facing a demand and supply imbalance as well as the issue of the stagnant world tea prices not depicting the real value.

Although there is a high cost of production there is a lower productivity range within the industry. There is a lack of product diversification, brand marketing and protection of intellectual property rights.

Poor infrastructure, low quality tea, unfair labelling by non tea products and tariffs as well as non tariff barriers are hindrances to the expansion of the tea industry.

There are more than one million employed directly and indirectly in the tea industry and more than 400,000 are tea small holders who contribute about two thirds of the entire production.

The SLTB implements quality systems to tea factories so as to maintain green leaf standard and it monitors the ISO 3720 minimum quality standard at all disposable points.

It introduced a subsidy scheme for factory modernization, rehabilitation and replanting and an incentive scheme for Value Added Tea exporters.

It actively engages in conducting national, generic and brand promotional campaigns through 4 tea promotion offices. Further, it registers and maintains the Lion Logo in 60 countries and protects the intellectual property rights of geographical indications of Ceylon Tea.

This year the SLTB constructed a tea analytical laboratory for chemical, microbiological and pesticides analysis however it has a strict monitoring process for new tea factories. It implements (Maximum Residue Level) MRL certificates for other origins of tea and it launches refuse tea processing activities connected to the requirements of the Food Act.

Another function of the SLTB is introducing strategies for minimizing post harvest damages and formulating policies to retain existing markets, regain lost markets and penetrating into new markets.

Coffee farming gaining popularity Friday, October 26,2007 THE KATHMANDU POST [12]

POKHARA: Rising demand in the international market has influenced farmers of Western Nepal to switching from farming traditional crops to coffee. Several farmers have planted coffee as a principal crop, something which was beyond imagination some years back.

Both public and private sector agencies are trying to develop coffee farming in Gulmi, Aragakhachi, Palpa, Syangja, Parbat, Baglung, Myagdi, Tanahu, Gorkha, and Lamjung districts as a model. Traders said as the coffee produced in these hilly areas are of good quality, the demand is rising. The region has a considerable contribution to the total coffee production in the country.

Over the last fiscal year, 391 metric tons of coffee was produced in Nepal out of which 165 metric tons came from this region alone. Around 12,393 farmers have planted coffee in 906 hectares of the region. Palpa, Gulmi, Syangja, and Aragakhachi are most popular for coffee farming areas.

Due to low volume of production, coffee is mainly consumed within the country. The coffee export was just 91.5 metric tons last year. "The demand is very high in Japan, the US, Korea, and Britain," said Binaya Kumar Mishra, executive director of National Tea and Coffee Development Board. "However, the supply falls far short of the demand."

Agro-experts said because of climate, soil, and altitude, 13 districts in the Western Region are highly appropriate for organic coffee farming. In total, coffee is being farmed in 40 districts of Nepal.

Farmers said that if the government provides technical assistance, subsidized seeds and helps in finding markets, coffee farming would be a great tool to lift many people out of poverty.

"Farmers in a large number are getting involved in coffee despite not having any incentive from the government," said Surya Prasad Adhikari, a farmer. "It is unfortunate that the government has been unable to bring in any concrete policy to promote it."

With increasing production at home, the country's dependency on import is on the decline. Five years ago, the country imported coffee worth Rs 46.2 million to meet the local demand, while it was just Rs 2.2 million last year.