Agricultural Development in the World Periphery by Vicente Pinilla & Henry Willebald

Author:Vicente Pinilla & Henry Willebald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Area

Output

Yields

(‘000 hectares)

(‘000 tons)

(tons/hectare)

Palm oil

 Estates

5,654

19,343

3.42

 Smallholders

3,908

10,990

2.81

Rubber

 Estates

518

584

1.13

 Smallholders

2,973

2,410

0.81

Source: Central Statistics Board, Statistical Yearbook of Indonesia, 2015, 234–237

It has already been argued that by the 1960s, several countries in Southeast Asia were dependent on rice imports, while in others (Burma and Vietnam ) the exportable surplus of rice had declined compared with the 1930s. There was growing anxiety about food, and especially rice , availability; in both Indonesia and the Philippines food imports were using up a considerable part of scarce foreign exchange. In the 1960s new higher yielding varieties of rice were developed at the International Rice Research Institute by crossing the dwarf variety grown in Japan with local Southeast Asian cultivars. Trials on test plots showed that in irrigated areas, with high application of fertiliser , much higher yields could be achieved. The challenge for governments across the region was to persuade millions of farmers to grow the new seeds, and also to use appropriate amounts of fertiliser . At first, many observers argued that farmers were too risk averse to use the new varieties, and that only the better off farmers would be able to afford fertiliser . The new technologies would thus lead to higher incomes for the richest farmers who cultivated irrigated land, while smaller farmers and farm labourers were unlikely to benefit. Overall it was argued that the “Green Revolution ” in rice agriculture would aggravate income disparities in rural areas, and would not greatly increase output.

In fact these arguments were too pessimistic. The new varieties were adopted by many millions of farmers across the region, including those cultivating small parcels of land. Fertiliser use did increase, especially in those countries (such as Indonesia ) where governments subsidised its farmgate price. If we compare rice yields in the main rice-growing countries of Asia in the 1960s with those achieved in the early twenty-first century, it is clear that many countries have seen at least a doubling of yields (Table 9.1). These figures refer to averages on all types of land; while it is broadly true that farmers cultivating well-irrigated land have achieved greater increases in yields, the evidence suggests that there have also been increases on rain-fed land. Yields growth has also occurred in corn , although less progress has occurred in rootcrops, which are still consumed quite widely among poorer groups.

The impact of the new rice technologies was probably most dramatic in Indonesia where production growth was rapid in the 1970s and 1980s, and the country moved from being the world’s largest rice importer in the 1970s to a rice exporter in the latter part of the 1980s. This achievement was hailed by the Suharto government, and also by many international experts.7 But by the end of the 1980s, critics were raising concerns about the resource costs of the Indonesian “rice miracle”. Domestic prices of rice were above world levels, and when Indonesia exported its surplus, world prices fell. Thus the Indonesian government was subsidising its farmers to grow rice , through the provision of cheap fertiliser and

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