1999, Volume 2, Paper 22
ISSN: 2209-6612

The Asia-Pacific Rice Trade: A preliminary investigation of the issues

Dr. Brian Davidson – Department of Food Science and Agribusiness, Institute of Land and Food Resources, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria
Nanette Esparon – Department of Food Science and Agribusiness, Institute of Land and Food Resources, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria

Abstract

Rice is a vital food crop to a vast majority of the world’s population. With continuing growth in world population and with the added concerns of the Asian Economic Crisis, the pressure is growing to create another green revolution to meet the world’s food needs. Under such a scenario, it has been argued that investment in irrigation infrastructure projects and higher yielding varieties of rice is needed to feed more people. The importance of rice to many countries, especially in Asia, has meant that governments have instituted policies that promote greater self-sufficiency in rice. Consequently only four per cent of world production of rice is traded across national boarders. From a theoretical standpoint, the approach of promoting self-sufficiency by restricting trade is not beneficial to either the country that imposes the policy or to exporting countries, and yet it is the approach most commonly favored by legislators and producers concerned with food shortages. The aim in this study is to investigate the literature on patterns of rice production and trade in the Asia – Pacific region to ascertain whether the issues of trade liberalisation have been adequately addressed. It is concluded that what is required is an assessment of the political economy of the rice trade, so that the political economic processes are understood, and not just the economic and technical processes. The construction of current, comprehensive trade model would assist in the estimation of the effects of the trade liberalisation process. This dual political and economic approach overcomes many of the shortcomings of previous partial economic analyses of the rice trade.

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