There is an old joke: when will the world go hungry? The day the Chinese put down their chopsticks and eat rice with their hands. China has the most mouths to feed, and it grows the most rice — 148.9 million tonnes in 2017–18.
India, the world's second most populous country, is second in rice too, with 112.9 million tonnes. Indonesia follows a long way behind at 37 million.
Then comes Bangladesh, with 32.65 million tonnes — the fourth-largest rice harvest on earth. At independence the country grew barely a third of that; the tripling is the work of high-yielding varieties, irrigation for the boro season and the country's farmers.
The top ten (2017–18, thousand tonnes)
- China — 148,873
- India — 112,910
- Indonesia — 37,000
- Bangladesh — 32,650
- Vietnam — 28,471
- Thailand — 20,370
- Myanmar — 13,200
- Philippines — 12,235
- Brazil — 8,204
- Japan — 7,787
Photo: Harvesting paddy in a haor of Sunamganj — Balaram Mahalder / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Comments
(0)