World Production Potential and Costs of Japonica Rice

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This research was an interdisciplinary study and was conducted to investigate the current production of rice in general, japonica rice production/varieties and marketing, production costs, water resources, weather conditions and potential production of japonica rice in the world. This succeeded the one conducted for the same purpose during the 1991 fiscal year. Accordingly, the study was practically lasted for three years. Selected countries for investigation during the three years were the U.S.A., Peoples' Republic of China, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Spain, France, and the Great Britain.Through the investigation, it was found that there were enormous amount of areas for potential japonica rice production in the world. There are many areas where indica rice is currently produced. Those areas already growing rice and situated between north (or south) latitude 30 and 45 degrees, in particular, may be suitable for japonica rice also. Areas along th … More e Chang Jiang River in China, where there are currently about 20 millions ha. of rice production, and the State of Arkansas where there are over 1 million ha. suitable for rice production are major potential regions for japonica rice. Areas out side the latitude 30 and 45 degrees such as the Thai North regions where about 2 millions ha. of rice production going on may also be suitable for japonica rice production.In fact, rice production has been gradually shifted from indica to japonica in the Chang Jiang River area. In Arkansas, a rice farmer has been successfully producing Japanese variety japonica rice during the recent years. Also, Japanese varieties are produced in some limited areas in Thai North region during the last several years. Accordingly, the limiting factors of potential increase in japonica rice production are not climatic or soil situations but economic conditions. If incomes from japonica rice production are well above indica rice production, then japonica rice production will increase in the world.Japan's emergency rice imports started in the fall, 1993 because of Japan's crop failure.Meanwhile Japan declared to partially open its rice market starting in 1995. By the year 2000, Japan would possibly be importing over 700,000 metric tons of milled rice and be one of the largest rice importers in the world. If market prices of japonica rice in the world rise due to Japanese imports, then supply for japonica rice would certainly increase. Less