Diminishing land and water resources due to increasing pressure from industrialization and urbanization pose real threats to the global rice production and its future, Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said today. He said other factors like climate change and uncertainties over policy and trade practices had also greatly influenced the world’s rice situation.
Addressing the Thailand Rice Convention here, Surayud said the growth of world population could not be under-estimate as well, citing the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) projections that the population will grow to an estimated 8.3 billion in the next 30 years. “FAO further projected that unless global food production increases by 60 per cent, we would not be able to close the nutrition gaps, cope with the population growth and accommodate changes in diets,” he said.
To face the challenges, Thailand, the world’s biggest rice exporter, would strive for greater efficiency and productivity by using new technologies and modern farming techniques, he said.