Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 2.3
Percentage of area sown to modern rice and wheat varieties
All six
Period
Bangladesh
India
Indonesia
Pakistan
Philippines
Vietnam
countries
Rice
1960s
1.9
8.2
8.0
—
31.0
—
12.3
1970s
14.3
33.1
40.9
—
65.6
4.7
31.7
1980s
31.4
56.6
72.2
—
85.8
31.1
55.4
1990s
49.4
61.9
70.8
—
81.7
64.2
65.6
Latest
61.8
71.9
76.7
—
96.3
85.6
78.5
Wheat
1970s
7.7
29.5
—
43.0
—
—
26.7
1980s
94.8
67.8
—
80.7
—
—
81.1
1990s
95.7
76.0
—
86.1
—
—
85.9
Latest
100.0
92.0
—
94.0
—
—
95.3
SOURCES
: Authors' calculations based on data from CIMMYT (2004), FAO (2004), and IRRI (2004).
NOTES
: The numbers reflect averages for the decade. — indicates not available.
requirements, such as irrigation facilities and low probability of flooding, which
constrain cultivation of HYV rice but not the traditional varieties.
10
A better in-
dicator would be to take HYV area as percentage of irrigated rice area, but such
disaggregated data are not available for all countries. Data from India and
Bangladesh suggest that, if irrigation is available, farmers allocate almost 100
percent of their land to modern varieties of rice. This fact implies that the farm-
ers have mastered the technology, and their land-allocation decision (to culti-
vate HYV or other crops) is dictated by the profitability of crops, not by the
technology risks.
Thinness and Volatility of Global Food Markets
Attaining self-sufficiency in food was one of the central drivers of food and agri-
cultural policies in Asia. The argument for this policy was that the world market
was highly volatile and too thin for these countries to bet on their food security.
The rice market was particularly volatile. Factors contributing to instability were
the geographic concentration of rice production, a thin and fragmented world
market with high transactions costs in trading, low domestic price elasticity of
demand, and relatively low world stockholdings (Jayne 1993). The situation,
however, has changed over the past two decades on all counts.
10. For example, in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh, farmers cultivate deep-water
aman
(a
long-stem traditional variety) that is more resilient to flooding. Therefore, it is perfectly rational for
the farmers to cultivate traditional varieties in such circumstances, and they will continue to do so
irrespective of price support programs.
