- What are some types of technology that affects rice production in Asia and Australia (separate answers for Asia and Australia)?
- What are some environmental issues affecting rice production in Australia?
Answers
Answer:
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Explanation:
Rice is the staple food and principal crop in humid and subhumid Asia. From the Philippines in the east to eastern India in the west, from central and southern China in the north to Indonesia in the south, rice accounts for between 30 and 50 percent of agricultural production and between 50 and 80 percent of dietary intake (Hossain and Fischer, 1995). Because of its importance in providing national food security and generating employment and incomes for the low-income sectors of society, most Asian governments regard rice as a strategic commodity. Maintaining self-sufficiency in rice production and ensuring stability in rice prices have remained important political objectives in most Asian countries (Anderson and Hayami, 1986; Thiele, 1991).
Asia has done remarkably well in terms of meeting the food needs of its growing population over the last three decades. Since the mid-1960s, rice production has increased at a rate of 2.6 percent per year, keeping pace with population growth and the income-growth-induced changes in per caput food consumption. Over four-fifths of the growth in production was due to the increase in yields, made possible through gradual replacement of traditional varieties with modern cultivars developed in rice research stations, supported by public investment for expansion of irrigation infrastructure, extension system and supply of credit facilities (Barker and Herdt, 1985; David and Otsuka, 1994; Pingali; et al., 1997; Sombilla et al., 2002a). The downward trend in real prices of rice, observed in many Asian countries since the late 1970s, has contributed to poverty alleviation by empowering the rural landless and the urban labouring class to acquire more food from the market. Nevertheless, poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition are still widespread in many low-income Asian countries. Recent World Bank estimates indicate that nearly 1.2 billion people still live off an income of less than US$1 per day and 800 million suffer from hunger (World Bank, 2000; Bender and Smith, 1997). Asia is the home of two-thirds of these food-insecure people. In developing countries over 170 million children suffer from anaemia and 140 million from vitamin A deficiency. Asia accounts for 73 and 64 percent of these numbers (Mason et al., 1999). The prevalence of malnutrition is higher in South Asia than in sub-Saharan Africa (UNDP, 2002).