• Date: June 13th, Tuesday, 2023, 14:00 – 15:30
• Location: Room 304, SNUAC (Bldg. 101)

Presenter: Dochan Bae (SNUAC)

Rice is the most important main staple for Southeast Asian countries including Myanmar, and has played a core role in their economies. While the four countries in East Asia including Korea (Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan) have high yields, which is the main index related to rice cultivation techniques, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and the Middle East do not tend to have high yields. Globally, about 90% of rice is focused in Asia. Also, about 90% of the production is consumed within the domestic country, thus the market is very thin. Most of the producers are peasants with narrow farmlands. Therefore, rice is an item with a high possibility of food security issues occurring within the region due to climate change in the future.

In this lecture, we will first check the supply-demand situation of rice in Asia through statistics for global rice production and yields. Second, we will analyze the reasons for low rice production in the Ayeyarwady Delta region in Myanmar, the country’s major grain belt. Lastly, we will compare the Ayeyarwady Delta region with Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region, Asia’s largest grain belt to this day, in order to discuss ways to strengthen Asia’s food security by increasing the number of rice plants through agricultural cultivation methods.