Risk management to increase cultivation of hybrid rice for improved food security in Bangladesh: a proposed framework

Abstract

Bangladesh and its more than 16 million people face an imminent food crisis as the population rises and arable land decreases due to urbanization, erosion, and climate change. To prevent mass hunger by 2050, we need to increase rice output rapidly, is to grow hybrid rice, as China did in the 1980s. This can work, but a government attempt to introduce hybrid rice in the 1990s and 2000s fell flat. Sticky hybrid rice consumption went against Bangladeshi food culture. This discouraged farmers as well as many other risks they encountered when trying to grow hybrid rice. Unlike traditional rice, hybrid rice gave no seeds for the next year, and hybrid rice seed markets were unreliable and often fake. So, fewer Bangladeshi farmers are growing hybrid rice than in 2009, as more hybrid rice is increasing exponentially. This paper considers all the risks faced by a Bangladeshi farmer trying to grow hybrid rice faces. Then it assesses what policy measures are needed to manage those risks. From this consideration, the authors develop an integrated policy to surge hybrid rice cultivation in Bangladesh to increase total rice production by 2050 by at least 83%. The authors used a qualitative survey, key informant interviewing with snowball sampling, focus group discussions, and used published materials for the research methodology. Thematic approach method using Nvivo 12 software was applied for data analysis. Yet, it all implicitly hangs on changing Bangladeshi consumers' cultural preference from non-glutinous to glutinous rice, without which all of the policy changes will be too much for Bangladeshis to eat.