- Agriculture supports over 2.2 billion people within the region.
- Rice is by far a very powerful crop in Asia, where 90 percent of world production and consumption takes place.
- Many economists have stated that rice is an inferior good resulting from statistics showing that rice consumption declines as incomes rise.
- Despite predictions of famine and famine, the Green Revolution helped most Asian countries turn into food self-sufficient within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties.
- In 2019, the world’s largest crop was sugarcane from Brazil, followed by sugarcane from India and corn from the United States.
- In 2019, China produced five of the world’s top ten crops. Corn, rice, vegetables, ground rice and wheat can be found.
- Declining investment in agriculture may be linked to stagnation and falling yields of major crops reminiscent of rice and wheat. In India, for instance, public investment in agriculture has remained stable since 2004.
- Biotechnology crops were projected to be grown on 160 million hectares of land in 2011, making them the fastest adopted crop technology.
- Asia was in three of the ten countries where probably the most transgenic plants were grown in 2011. The People’s Republic of China planted 3.9 million hectares of cotton, papaya, poplar, tomatoes and sweet peppers, while Pakistan planted 2.6 million hectares of cotton.
- Asia and the Pacific accounts for 37 percent of world agricultural emissions, and the People’s Republic of China alone accounts for greater than 18 percent of total emissions.
- Agriculture is the biggest user of water in most Asian countries, accounting for as much as 90% of total water use.
- The demand for food and feed crops will almost double over the following 50 years. Meat, milk, sugar, oils and vegetables require more water than grains, in addition to a special approach to water management.
- Agri-food trade is a vital sector of the People’s Republic of China’s economy, accounting for 25% of the world’s population and only 7% of the world’s arable land; projected imports of agri-food products in the approaching many years may have significant repercussions in Asia.
- The Asian Development Bank’s 2009 Operational Plan for Sustainable Food Security in Asia and the Pacific highlights the importance of integrating agricultural production, market linkages and resilience to make sure long-term food security.
Source: Asian Development Bank Report, beef2live.com
