There is a growing sense of complacency about future food supplies in Asia and such complacency may be unwarranted. While rice productivity may increase due to technological innovations and policies promoting intensive rice production systems, this increase will be limited by a number of factors including withdrawal of land and labor from agriculture to other uses, increased competition for resources, and land degradation. Increased production is unlikely to match the increase in demand for rice because of population growth. This book provides a thorough assessment of the opportunities for increasing land productivity, including crop diversification, evaluates the successes and limitations of the Green Revolution for rice in Asia, and projects economic and technological trends forward over the next three decades.
