A significant drive from Asian rice producers has helped boost
global paddy production in 2004 to an estimated record 611 million
tonnes. But the Food and Agriculture Organisation says that supply
is still not meeting needs, writes...
Analysts believe that the ban on Vietnamese rice exports is likely
to give Thailand an added edge, helping to increase demand and
prices, while extending its leading position on the world export
market.
Yields of the Asian staple rice are plummeting at twice the rate
modellers had predicted due to the increasing effects of global
warnings, according to a report from the Philippines-based International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI)....
Although 2004 is now expected to yield a bumper grain harvest in
China, with provinces announcing record crop levels, Beijing is
taking action to halt the country's fall in per-hectare yield of
cropland over recent years.
A recent report from the Lund University in Sweden on the ongoing
invasion of the golden apple snail in southeast Asia claims that it
is now having a devastating ecological effect, something that will
continue to seriously farming...