Rice Demands: A Brief Description

Abstract

More than 90% of rice is consumed and produced in the Asian Region, contributing to 80% of world consumption and production. Among all the factors, rising incomes and urbanization are the predominant contributors’ consumption patterns. It can be inferred that rice by-products may increase substantially by 2050. In this regard, the annual cereal production is estimated to increase from 2.1 tonnes to nearly 3 billion tonnes, suggesting that an increase in consumption per capita, rise in population, and the use of cereals for biofuels may increase the rice demands. Extensive farming causes environmental issues, water scarcity, and soil salinity. Therefore, increased productivity and yield from new production and technologies are needed. Furthermore, it is hard to elevate rice production to meet these demands due to the water, labor, and land constraints as well as competition from the fast-growing non-farm sectors. In this chapter, we will describe the rice demands and rice production in Asia. Collectively, rice is considered as the life-blood in the Asia-Pacific Region that produces approximately 90% of the world’s rice, in which the demands of rice are expected to grow faster than production in most of the countries.