Assessing the sustainability of rice production growth in Bangladesh

This paper identifies the sources of growth in rice production in Bangladesh over the 1973-99 period. The main contributor was found to be the conversion of rice growing areas from local to modem varieties. The most important conclusion, based on simulations, is that the current level of per capita production can be sustained only through increased yields of modem rice varieties. Population control is found to have significant long-run benefits, while faster conversion of remaining area to modem varieties has important short-run payoffs. The latter two actions, however, can only complement but not substitute efforts to increase the yields of modem varieties. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.