GUNTUR: The panel discussion on Asian rice economics during the Indian Economic Association conference at Acharya Nagarjuna University asserted on the need of technology enabled agriculture to turn rice into a profitable cultivation. Dr Samarendu Mohanty, Asia Director CIP-Asia Centre, Hanoi, Vietnam speaking on ‘The changing Structure of Asian rice economy’ stated that rice cultivating countries produce rice in accordance to their demographics but, are failing to provide a good market price.
Explaining the change in global middle-class population growth and the income inequality further changing food habits affecting rice utilisation. He concluded by forecasting that Asian rice farming would become a major income resources if technology is applied for rice cultivation by the year 2050. Prof. Keijiro Otsuko, Kobe University, Japan spoke about the changes in farm size and changes in productivity. He said that there has been a change from inverse relation to positive relation between size and productivity. He explained about the revenue and productivity in Japan between 1960-2008.
Studies predict that the future of the world grain market will be good if rice cultivation follows the advanced methods in Asian countries. Dr Humnath Bhandari, Agricultural Economist, Dhaka, Bangladesh spoke on the opportunities and comparative advantages of the rain fed rice areas in Asia. He spoke about the policy bias against rain fed areas and claimed that high poverty in Asian countries is due to policy bias. Dr Prakasam, EC Member, Chandigarh explaining the rice economy of India said that in India, rice is an economic and political commodity.
He said that rice cultivation, subsidies and market prices are linked to politics and politicos use them to attract voters towards their parties in the elections.
Dr Tin Htut, Permanent Secretary, Naypyitaw, Myanmar explained the changes in the calories intake of Myanmar further affecting rice production and usage.
He detailed the Myanmar rice export with respect to other Asian countries. He said Myanmar is planning to introduce innovative rice farming models and explained how farmers suffer due to the policies of the neighbouring countries.
He requested policy makers to be sensible while designing the policies and asked them to make sure it was farmer friendly. He concluded by quoting ‘Reform and recapture rice for resilience through research.’Dr Mercedita A. Sombilla, Manila, Philippines, Prof. Tahlim Sudaryanto, Ministry of Agriculture, Bogor, Indonesia, Dr Trihoan Nguyen, Ex-director General, field crop research institute, Hanoi, Vietnam and Dr Orachos Napasintuwong, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand spoke on the occasion.
