Rice in Asia

Lisa Le

Why Rice?

Dragon fruit?

Why rice in Asia?

• Most suitable for monsoon climate– 72 percent of food grain– Staple food -> malnourishment?No desire to switch out

• Governments in Asia have attempted to control imports and exports of grain because of the high priority they have placed on domestic price stability.

• “The fact that undernourishment would disappear with a proportional increase in all food suggests that there is no problem with a rice-based diet”

What about wheat?

• Increasing exports • Wheat is not an important dietary

component• Steady substitution: wheat> rice>

meat and dairy:: rice feed> corn and other feed grains.

Nevermind…• Despite a slowdown in high-income

countries of Asia, the continent as a whole demands more food to accomdate to the population growth (1997b:38).

• Urbanization has also encouraged more consumption of rice since it is “easier to store, more nutritious and easier to prepare than many other staple foods” (Boote 2008).

GREEN REVOLUTION

Technology

• Modern rice variety

• IR8- “miracle rice”• Labor saving

technology– Threshers, tractors,

direct seeding

• rice yields did not improve rapidly until post-Green Revolution period

Environment

• Pesticides

= really really bad for people

And the world

• Integrated Pest Management- promotes sustainability

Bangladesh• adoption of modern varieties in Bangladesh is

determined more by technical and environmental factors than by socioeconomic factors

• “Immediately after the flood, BRAC aggressively promoted Aalok 6201 . . . Farmers had to accept credit and pay very high interest, but at the same time had to accept the proprietary technology of ACI” (2000:11).

• Farmers held angry demonstrations and rallies throughout the country and even Bangladesh’s rice scientists are resisting the invasion of hybrid rice

India• Hybrid Rice technology 1990• Private sector domestic seed lenient

importation• Hybrid Rice International, the chief

producers of hybrid rice in India, is owned by Aventis, Mahyco which was bought by Monsanto, and Spic-PHI Biogene which is part of DuPont

• Striving for success

Philippines

• Accepted technology before Green Revolution

• greater resistance to pests, better tolerance for less favorable environments, shorter growth duration, and other improvements in the later which contributed to their wider adoption

Why wouldn’t some one accept the technology if it had that many benefits?

• With that said, it is noted that threats are often made if these technologies are not adopted, such as people will starve and wars will break out over resources, especially in developing countries.

Why wouldn’t some one accept the technology if it had that many benefits?

• Big Seven controls distribution and price of rice

• Forced contract farming

International Rice Year• 1966 (and 2004)• First agricultural commodity to be

declared Crop of the Year!• Promote rice + understand better• UN’s Freedom From Hunger campaign• Official agencies were willing to

change their approach so agriculture is priority in war on poverty

Conclusion

• Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines as they strive for self-sufficiency.

• Rice as a staple food in Asia has been important, even with the benefits and losses from technology and the Green Revolution, and hopes of sustainability.

• “Traditional farming systems exemplify efficiency and the careful management of soil, water, nutrients and biological resources” Altieri