Agrikultura

PIRA’s Agriculture Analyst Calls Argentina’s Lower Crop Report, DA seeks partnerships for proposed Pinoy tablet computer to advance agricultural entrepreneurship, empower farmers through information and DTCC, EFETNET LAUNCH GLOBAL TRADE REPOSITORY FOR COMMODITIES DERIVATIVES

Posted on May 13th By dttc, da-phil-pira


PIRA’s Agriculture Analyst Calls Argentina’s Lower Crop Report


New York, NY, April 20, 2012 –  Agricultural commodities analyst Pete Meyer had been warning clients of PIRA’s Agriculture Commodities Retainer Service about the likelihood of lower-than-expected corn and soybean production from drought-ridden Argentina as early as February.  “Based on interactions with farmers in Argentina at the turn of the year, we had some serious concerns on the production numbers expected by the USDA and Argentine Government,” said Meyer on Thursday afternoon after Argentina’s Agricultural Ministry cut its expected production numbers to 20.3 million metric tons in corn production and 42.9 million metric tons in soybeans.

In a report sent to clients in mid-March and then again on April 9th, the day before the scheduled release of the USDA’s monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, Meyer estimated Argentina’s corn production at 20.0 million metric tons while setting their soybean production number at 42.5 million metric tons.  “While the April WASDE lowered corn to 21.5 million metric tons and soybeans to 45 million metric tons, we still had our doubts that the USDA was aggressive enough in its cuts considering what farmers had been telling us since January,” said Meyer, adding, “Even the Argentine government has a little bit more work to do in our opinion,” referring to the release on Thursday afternoon, which pushed both corn and soybeans higher into the closing bell on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Launched in March, the Agricultural Commodities Retainer Service (ACRS) is designed to update clients on global agricultural markets and ever-changing production and demand estimates, while offering insights on financial, as well as physical, trading opportunities through detailed price forecasts. The service is centered on corn, soybeans, soy products, and wheat, but includes coverage of other commodities such as cattle, hogs, and ethanol. While primarily quantitative in nature, ACRS also offers a unique view into the minds of major global farmers and Ags professionals on everything from fertilizer purchases and application tendencies to crop and seed choices.

For more information on ACRS, or on PIRA Energy Group, please contact:

PIRA Energy Group
3 Park Avenue, 26th Floor
New York, NY 10016
212-686-6808
sales@pira.com

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DA seeks partnerships for proposed Pinoy tablet computer to advance agricultural entrepreneurship, empower farmers through information


The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking partnerships for a proposed cheap Pinoy tablet computer that will advance agricultural entrepreneurship by empowering farmers with critical information such as soil nutrients and farm goods markets.

The DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), together with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), is seeking to develop a very affordable tablet computer that will give DA’s extension workers—technicians that educate farmers— ubiquitous access to critical farm information.

The tablet computer should have a 24-7 access to internet that must be purely focused on vital farm  information (possibly blocking entertainment sites) and geographic information system (GIS).

The GIS will be pivotal in enabling farmers to determine whether the crop they are planting in a particular location is suitable to that location.  It will help then determine if the type of soil needs certain types of fertilizer, or whether water or moisture needed in plant growth may be sufficient in this farm area.

“We have an idea to revolutionize Philippine agriculture.  We’re bringing a proof of concept tapping the power of Information Technology so we can inform farmers well. There’s no other than the DA (led by Sec. Proceso Alcala) that’s leading in enhancing the welfare of the farming community in the country,” said Dr. William D. Dar, ICRISAT director general.

ICRISAT’s network in India where Dar, a former DA secretary, is based will extend the Philippines assistance in fabricating the hardware, the tablet PC.

“If we want to move forward, we have to start the first step.  That’s what a famous Chinese philospher said,’ A journey of a thousand journey miles begins with a single step,’” said Dar.

BAR will provide content for the tablet. ICRISAT is also facilitating to provide the Agropedia, a farm management system that a consortium of seven institutions, including ICRISAT, developed to aid Indian farmers.

“The Agropedia will be very useful to our own farmers, initially to our extension workers.  We’ll discuss on how to implement this project with our partners in DA, the ITCAF (Information Technology Center for Agriculture and Fisheries), and the private sector,” said Dr. Nicomedes P Eleazar, BAR director.

Indo US Healthcare Chairman Arun Tiwani said Indian Telephone Industry, run by the Indian government, can fabricate the tablet for the Philippines given government’s approval.

“We’ll have a bilateral agreement.  William Dar is using his experience and influence in India to produce for the Philippines the kind of tablet computer that India will have for its students in three to six months,” said Tiwani in a discussion last April 10 in the Philippines on the tablet computer.

Tiwani envisioned a “Pnoy (to stand for Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III) Dar Tablet” computer  that will cost only around $100 (P4,300) each.

It may be provided for free by government.  In India, the tablet computer for students costs only $50 of which $25 is shouldered by the government, and the $25 is paid by the student.

Access to internet is provided by the Indian government, which also controls the telecommunications business, at only an equivalent of P100 per month.  An initial 100,000 tablet computers will be produced in India for the pilot stage of the project. A similar volume may be produced for the Philippines.

“When I first saw Agropedia in India, I thought it’s really revolutionary.  It will be a giant leap for us in sharing experts’ information and practical knowledge between us and our farmers.  We don’t want to miss the train.   We will seek enough support for it to be approved,” said ITCAF Director Gary Glenn B. Fantastico.

The Philippines must be fortunate that the Agropedia has an intellectual property nature that may be available to anyone.

However, the country also needs to partner with other institutions for internet connectivity and for customizing the software for Filipino farm workers and farmers.

“ICRISAT is partnering with Arun to make it a platform for agriculture utilizing initially Agropedia which was funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.  Since it’s for public good, we can use it globally.  We can customize it for Philippine condition.  That’s where we need partnerships,” said Dar.

Ching Natividad Caballero, chief executive officer of BAR IT consultant Optiserve, said a similar GIS system as that provided to Indian farmers through India’s National Remote Sensing Institute may enable Filipino farmers to have ready information on their soil and its needed fertilizers.

The GIS system in Karnataka, India has enabled an impressive increase of 50 to 60 percent on farmers’ harvest of crops like corn or soybean on over three million hectares of land even if these farm areas are really a dryland.

“We mapped Karnataka through GIS.  It was a real science-based solution that we depended on in increasing productivity.  That’s what we want to introduce in the Philippines in a big way because we have the components, said  ICRISAT Resilient Dryland Systems Chief Suhas P. Wani in the same tablet discussion.

“We have farmers assisted by multi-agencies that have a common path in a consortium approach.  It should be a convergence, or else farmers will be confused.”

Wani said that because of the success of Karnataka in using technology for productivity, this project is now being upscaled in several Indian states including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.

“If we can do it in India, why can’t you do it here?” said Wani.

Dr. Michelle C. Almendrala, Philippine Sugar Research Institute director general, said the tablet computer will have a big impact in raising sugarcane productivity and may supplement on-farm training of farmers.

“Instead of going from farm to farm doing lectures on soil analysis and irrigation, we can just use this tablet with programs in any dialect to teach farmers.  We can also try to input programs for fertilizer calculation, depending on the type of soil or fertilizer,” said Almendrala.

Content from the existing Open Philippine Academy for Philippine Agriculture run by the DA may already be installed on the tablet computer.

Aside from providing it to students, the Indian government also has a tablet PC project for its rural healthcare workers.

Likewise implemented by Arun’s Indo US Healthcare, the tablet for rural healthcare was spearheaded by former Indian President Abdul Kalam which has led India’s missile defense technology.

“While the Kalam-Raju stent created waves for its affordability, the Kalam-Raju tablet is aimed at arming healthcare workers at the primary level like doctors.  It is (a system to make healthcare workers become) first responders to an emergency with a ‘rugged’ tablet capable of performing a host of medical processes at the rural level,” according to Andhra Pradesh 7 AM.

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DTCC, EFETNET LAUNCH GLOBAL TRADE REPOSITORY FOR COMMODITIES DERIVATIVES

New York and Amsterdam, 19 April 2012 – EFETnet B.V. and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced today that, following their successful pilot program launched in January as the first global repository for OTC commodity swaps, they have begun accepting trade submissions from commodity market participants into the new Global Trade Repository for Commodities (GTRfC).  DTCC and EFETnet’s industry governed low-cost model provides users the ability to submit trades to a single repository in order to fulfill reporting obligations to regulators globally.

Since the US is scheduled for swap data reporting to regulators later this year, submission testing for Dodd-Frank Swap Data Repository (SDR) requirements will begin May 14.  This includes real time messages, Primary Economic Terms, Confirm Data and Valuation messages as required by the CFTC rules. At that time, the repository will accommodate single or dual-sided trade submissions, as well as support for Dodd-Frank specific fields.

The repository will offer a full range of commodities swaps, both physical and financial, and will be ready for Dodd-Frank Act reporting prior to October 14, 2012, when all OTC commodity derivatives must be reported to a trade repository if they are subject to the jurisdiction of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).  In addition, the repository is working with market participants and regulators from around the globe to promote a single, central location to which swaps and other trade types can be reported.  This will also include a single, central location from which regulators can view information on swaps positions which fall into their individual jurisdictions, thereby easing the reporting burden for all market participants.  Regulatory reporting through DTCC’s web-based regulatory portal will begin once the repository becomes fully operational in October, and the publishing of public data is expected to follow.

With the guidance of the commodity market participants, the repository functionality is being phased in over time.  The first phase allows participants to create positions in the repository with reports of Snapshots, Primary Economic Terms or Confirmation Data.  Companies can maintain positions in the repository either by reporting a daily snapshot of all their OTC commodity positions or by reporting changes to their OTC commodity positions.  The second phase will focus on enriching the data, meeting Dodd-Frank specific requirements and expanding the product coverage in conjunction with market participants to ensure a full range of commodity coverage.  Initial coverage consists of contracts for natural gas, power, oil, agricultural, emissions, financial freight and weather.

“DTCC is delighted to be working with EFETnet to provide a repository for commodities that will support regulatory reporting requirements for this sector,” said Stewart Macbeth, President and CEO of DTCC’s Deriv/SERV subsidiary.  “We have been working for some time with the commodities industry on an implementation plan that both provides improved trade reporting timelines and quality standards and is compliant with existing and upcoming global legislation. The Global Trade Repository for Commodities is the result.”

“The launch of the Commodity Derivatives trade repository by DTCC and EFETnet is another important step forward in improving regulatory transparency in the OTC derivatives markets,” said Julian Day, Head of Market Infrastructure for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA).  “Policymakers around the world will have greater insight and access to OTC derivatives trades across the range of interest rate, credit, equity and commodities asset classes.”

Trade reporting for the repository will be provided to regulators through DTCC’s web-based regulatory portal.  Currently, the portal is utilized by more than 38 regulators globally.

About DTCC
DTCC, through its subsidiaries, provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, government and mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments and over-the-counter derivatives. In addition, DTCC is a leading processor of mutual funds and insurance transactions, linking funds and carriers with their distribution networks. DTCC’s depository provides custody and asset servicing for almost 3.7 million securities issues from the United States and 121 other countries and territories, valued at US$39.5 trillion. In 2011, DTCC settled nearly US$1.7 quadrillion in securities transactions. DTCC has operating facilities and data centers in multiple locations in the United States and overseas. For more information, please visit www.dtcc.com.

About EFETnet
EFETnet was established by the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET), an organization founded in 1999 by Europe’s leading energy companies, and is used for EFET and non-EFET energy trading contracts.

EFETnet B.V. is an independent company, 100% owned by the EFET. It was set up in 2004 by EFET to serve those actively involved in energy trading and is intended to deliver the benefits of electronic data exchange standardization.

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