From a conceptual point of view, an analysis of food production situation should deal with food in the most cpomprehensive sense, i.e. including food crops, livestock products and fisheries. From a practical point of view, however , an analysis in such comprehensive terms is time consuming. Therefore, I propose to confine this presentation to cereal crops, that is rice paddy, wheat and coarse grains. These cereal crops account for 80 % or more of food production in various countries of Asia and, therefore, for all practical purposes, the production situation of these crops is broadly indicative of the overall food production situation in these countries.
The period for which I propose to present a review is broadly of this decade, the annual average production of cereals in the Asian Region for the triennium ending 1971 was 440 million tons. During the decade of the 70s, most countries in the Asian Region pursued fairly active agricultural development policies aiming at increasing cereal production. These policies including generation and spread of new technology particularly in the form of high-yielding varieties of paddy and wheat, strengthening of extention arrangements, modernization of agriculture through use of mineral fertilizers, mechanization, plant protection, etc. Alongside, many of the countries sought to develop suitable infrastructures in the form of agro- industries, storages, etc. Fertilizer use ( NPK in form of active ingredient ) in Asia increased from 25 kg/ha in 1970 to more than 60 kg/ha in 1980, registering an annual compound growth rate of 9 % . The other major production input, irrigation, etc. increased significantly. An additional 20 million hectare land in the Asian countries was brought under irrigation during the 1970s.
As a result of various agricultural policies and programs which I have briefly mentioned above, the level of annual production of cereals in the Asian Region as a whole, 10 years later , that is, in the triennium ending 1981, rose to 595 million tons from 440 million tons a decade earlier. In other words, the average annual production of cereals in absolute terms in the Asian Region increased by 155 million tons. This implied a percentage increase of 35 % in a ten-years period involving an annual compound growth rate can be reguarded as reasonably satisfactory if it is recognized that, during the same period, the population growth in the Asian Region was around 2 % . It may be pertinent to mention that Asia’s progress in cereal production also stands out if it is compared with the performance recorded in the same period in other developing regions. Namely Africa and South America. In Africa, for instance, during the same period while population was growing at over 3 % per annum, the growth in cereal production was only about 1.7 % . In South America , the growth rate reorded in cereal production is better , that is, 2.8 % . Even so, it was below the rate achieved in the Asian countries.