Handbook on rice policy for Asia

Abstract

Agricultural policies in Asia are historically pervasive, especially those pertaining to rice—a staple for half of the global population and a source of livelihood for nearly a billion people. Because of its strategic and political importance, the rice sector has been subject to a number of policy interventions. The objective of this handbook is to explain the current policy structure in the major rice-producing and rice-consuming countries in Asia. Many Asian countries have revamped their efforts in recent years to achieve rice self-sufficiency and stabilize domestic prices through stronger policy interventions. To insulate the domestic market from global uncertainty, a majority of Asian countries control the movement of rice in and out of the country through a variety of trade measures, including state trading and quantitative trade restrictions. A few rice-exporting countries set minimum export prices to ensure availability of rice for their domestic consumers by controlling exports and in some cases countries even temporarily banned rice exports. On the domestic front, many large rice-growing countries have increased the minimum support price for farmers and introduced many short-term policy measures to subsidize inputs such as fertilizer, seed, electricity, and fuel to expand domestic rice production. Net rice-importing countries, on the other hand, besides implementing policies to enhance domestic production by providing incentives to farmers, also provide a price subsidy on rice to make it affordable to poorer consumers. Governments often adopt highly crafted programs designed to raise the income of farmers by enhancing rice production. This includes the use of price floors, subsidized loans, payments to encourage fallow area, etc. The policies related to production, consumption, and stock of rice can be broadly categorized as domestic policies since any change in these policies mainly affects the behavior of local producers or consumers. In this handbook, rice policies pursued by the major rice-producing and rice-consuming countries in Asia are compiled. This handbook clearly demonstrates that a number of major rice-exporting countries adopted some measures to create a buffer domestic rice market, such as imposing an export ban for a short period and setting minimum export prices to ensure an available rice supply in the domestic market (India and Vietnam). In contrast, major rice-importing countries lifted the tariff on imported rice without giving any special treatment to domestic producers to ensure an available rice supply in the domestic market (Nepal and Bangladesh).