The quiet revolution in Asia's rice value chains

Abstract

There is a rapid transformation afoot in the rice value chain in Asia. The upstream is changing quickly-farmers are undertaking capital-led intensification and participating in burgeoning markets for land rental, fertilizer and pesticides, irrigation water, and seed, and shifting from subsistence to small commercialized farms; in some areas landholdings are concentrating. Midstream, in wholesale and milling, there is a quiet revolution underway, with thousands of entrepreneurs investing in equipment, increasing scale, diversifying into higher quality, and the segments are undergoing consolidation and vertical coordination and integration. Mills, especially in China, are packaging and branding, and building agent networks in wholesale markets, and large mills are building direct relationships with supermarkets. The downstream retail segment is undergoing a "supermarket revolution," again with the lead in change in China. In most cases the government is not playing a direct role in the market, but enabling this transformation through infrastructural investment. The transformation appears to be improving food security for cities by reducing margins, offering lower consumer rice prices, and increasing quality and diversity of rice. This paper discusses findings derived from unique stacked surveys of all value chain segments in seven zones, more and less developed, around Bangladesh, China, India, and Vietnam.

Restructuring the Vietnamese Rice Sector: Towards Increasing Sustainability

“…Such changes in consumer demand are creating new market opportunities, but also present novel challenges to small-scale farmers and traders, as new markets may have special requirements in terms of quality and delivery deadlines. Local markets are changing and supermarkets are taking a prominent place in most major cities in Southeast Asia [17,30,31]. Supermarkets play a first-mover role in labelling, food safety, and the certification of food [32].…”

“…This form of governance has important implications for entry points for varietal adoption and diffusion strategies. Increasingly, Vietnamese rice value chains are evolving from traditional procurement to modernized procurement, with a rise in direct sales from farmers to exporters ('disintermediation' as termed by Reardon et al [17]). In the traditional chain, a labor division between dehusking and polishing mills can still be observed, due to the coexistence of markets for brown (dehusked) and white (polished) rice.…”

“…A rapid appraisal was conducted through 'stacked surveys' [17] with actors along the MKD rice value chain in July 2013 (In a 'stacked' survey, a questionnaire is designed for different layers of vertically related actors within the value chain (farmers, traders, millers, food and export companies, wholesalers, supermarkets and retailers) [17]. It enables the value chain to be mapped out and trends in vertical coordination and integration between vertically related actors to be uncovered).…”

Agri-food Supply Chain Management: Literature Review

“…Naik and Jain [50] analyzed shift in the role of institutional infrastructure in farming sector of India and highlighted private sector, acting in coalition with public sector, gaining predominance in effecting growth of the agricultural sector at better pace, by better utilization of natural resources and knowledge. Reardon and Minten [51] have highlighted revolutionary changes drastically transforming Indian food SCM practices during past twenty years. Role of retailers is assuming immense significance with retail sales witnessing a whopping annual growth of 49%, penetrating both urban and rural markets, transforming lives of agriculturists.…”

Precarious Lives: Work, food and care after the global food crisis

“…where 'surplus' rural labour has been absorbed) in Asian countries are generating considerable excitement about development progress (Jacoby 2016; Cheng et al 2016;Zhang et al 2013;Zhang, Yang and Wang 2011). Agrarian production processes have become more integrated in and moved further along global value chains (Reardon et al 2014).…”