RICE FACTS

The monoculture myth

by DAVID DAWE
Economist

The Green Revolution neither monopolized farmers fields nor impoverished nutrition

lmost everyone acknowledges that the Green Revolution has substantially increased the yield and supply of cereals in the developing world during the past 30 years. However, some critics maintain that these improvements in productivity perversely encouraged farmers to specialize in growing cereals at the expense of other, more nutritious crops. The Green Revolution, they say, worsened the nutritional status of people living in developing countries. While the availability of modern rice varieties may have encouraged some farmers to specialize in growing rice, there is no evidence that such specialization has been widespread. Rice harvested area (hectares under rice multiplied by the number of croppings per year) has declined as a percentage of total crop harvested area in nearly all Asian rice-growing economies since 1970 (Table 1). Thus, if some farmers increasingly specialized in rice, others must have diversified into other crops and done so over a larger harvested area. Despite a near doubling of the total rice harvest, rice is now less dominant in Asian agriculture than it was before the Green Revolution. Overall cropping diversity the variety of different crops planted also seems to have increased since the
Table 1. Share of rice in total crop area harvested. 1970 Bangladesh China India Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam 0.78 0.24 0.23 0.43 0.25 0.33 0.64 0.75 1985 0.72 0.23 0.24 0.43 0.16 0.26 0.54 0.66

0.70 beginning of the Green Revolution. 0.60 1970 A widely used 2001 measure of 0.50 concentration is the Hirschmann 0.40 Herfindahl 0.30 index, in which 1 equals absolute 0.20 uniformity and lower decimals 0.10 indicate greater diversity. Applied 0.00 Bangladesh China India Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam to cropping systems, it shows Fig. 1. HirschmannHerfindahl index of cropping uniformity. that farmers in most Asian countries plant a 19.3% wider variety of different crops 26.1% today than was the case in 1970 11.6% (Figure 1). 43.0% The bottom line, however, is not what farmers grow but the nutritional value of the food people eat. Despite some critics Womens status National per capita calorie supply impression that malnutrition Womens education Access to safe water in developing countries has worsened, the incidence of Fig. 2. Contributions of various factors to reduction in child malnutrition, at any child malnutrition in developing countries, 197095. rate, actually declined in these countries between 1970 and 1995, according to a recent study by Agricultural Economics,1 also shows Lisa Catherine Smith and Lawrence that the greater availability of calories Haddad of the International Food at the national level a direct Policy Research Institute. While consequence of the Green Revolution the incidence of child malnutrition contributed greatly to the easing of still stood at a dismal 31% in 1995, child malnutrition during this period. this reflected The authors credit more calories per a reduction capita with one-fourth of the total of one-third reduction (Figure 2). The only factor 2001 from the 46.5% making a greater contribution was 0.75 recorded in improved education for women. This 0.18 1970. provided more mothers with the 0.25 The study, nutritional knowledge to make better which appeared use of available food to safeguard 0.38 in the journal their childrens health. 0.12

0.32 0.57 0.62

1

Smith LS, Haddad L. 2001. How important is improving food availability for reducing child malnutrition in developing countries? Agricultural Economics 26:191-204.

Rice Today October 2003

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