Increasing the Rice Yield in South and Southeast Asia

Abstract

South and Southeast Asia's paddy cultivation area amounts to nearly 70 million hectares. In all the countries in the region, except Malaya, the area of paddy cultivation surpasses that of any other crop; in Malaya the area for paddy is second only to that for rubber. Tens of millions of people in the area live on rice, and in most of the countries more than 70% of the labor force is engaged in paddy farming. It goes without saying that one cannot correctly understand Asia's agriculture, economy or culture unless one pays due attention to the cultivation of this most important crop. Why is the yield per unit area of paddy cultivation so low in the region, and how can we increase the yield? We will discuss these questions from the viewpoint of agricultural techniques. With populations in much of the area rising almost 3%o a year, the South and Southeast Asian countries feel an acute and immediate need to raise their rice production for two different reasons. First, India, Ceylon, Malaya, Indonesia and the Philippines want to augment their abilities for self sufficiency in rice production in order to secure their staple food. Second, such countries as Burma and Thailand are in need of sustaining their national economies by increasing rice exports. How, then, to increase the rice yield? Rice output can be increased by expanding the area under cultivation and/or increasing the yield per unit area per cropping. The expansion of cultivation area is realized either by actually increasing -the space of paddy field or by practicing double or mul. tiple croppings in already cultivated fields. Theoretically, the latter is effec. tive in such countries as Malaya, where rice cultivation techniques are somewhat advanced, while the former is preferable in countries where farmers' technical standards are still not high. The improvement of irrigation facilities is a prerequisite for realizing double or multiple croppings, and for this purpose it is necessary to construct dams and water reservoirs and to utilize subterranean water. But financial difficulties often hamper such large projects. For expanding the area of paddy field there are difficulties in securing a sufficient water supply and finding land suitable for reclamation. Even in Thailand, which has an above-average potential of reclaimable land, it has been estimated that the annual rate of increase of paddy field by implement.ing irrigation projects will remain at 1.3%o for the next 20 years.' Taking the above-mentioned into consideration, we find that it is most important and