Rehabilitation and development of rice production
Townsend, Robert | Menand, Lev | Vickery, James | Gine, Xavier
The serious postwar shortage of rice supplies has not only resulted in the underfeeding of millions of people whose normal diet is mainly rice but has also created an abnormal demand for wheat and bread-grain substitutes, which are themselves in short supply for the millions who normally consume those commodities. Further, the rice shortage in many producing countries has resulted in the retention for domestic consumption of vegetable oils which would normally be exported, thus adding to the shortage of fats. Both the imports of wheat into the rice consuming countries and the need of Europe to purchase fats from the Western Hemisphere have created a dollar drain, particularly for the sterling area. The rice shortage is one which primarily concerns South and East Asia, where more than 90 percent of the world's rice is produced and consumed. The Japanese invasion of Burma, Indo-China and Siam was followed by complete dislocation of the rice trade of Asia. Foreign markets were cut off, surpluses piled up and eventually acreages were reduced. Before the war surplus areas of South and East Asia alone exported, mainly within the area, more than 7 million tons of rice annually. In 1946 and again in 1947, the IEFC was able to allocate only a bout 2 million tons annually from all over the world to deficit rice areas. This created enormous food problems for China, India, Ceylon, Malaya, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan.
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