Open AccessRice quality and its impacts on food security and sustainability in Bangladesh
Author(s) -
Indrani Saha,
Alvaro DurandMorat,
Lawton Lanier Nalley,
Mohammad Jahangir Alam,
Rodolfo M. Nayga
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0261118
Subject(s) - food security , sustainability , hectare , inefficiency , ceteris paribus , staple food , yield (engineering) , quality (philosophy) , agricultural economics , business , economics , biology , agriculture , ecology , philosophy , materials science , epistemology , metallurgy , microeconomics
Rice market efficiency is important for food security in countries where rice is a staple. We assess the impact of rice quality on rice prices, food security, and environmental sustainability in Bangladesh. We find that while price varies as expected for most quality attributes, it is unaffected by a broken percentage below 24.9 percent. This reveals a potential inefficiency, considering the average 5 percent broken rate observed in the market. An increase in the broken rate of milled rice within the limits supported by our findings can, ceteris paribus , increase rice rations by 4.66 million a year, or conversely, yield the current number of rice rations using 170.79 thousand fewer hectares and cutting emissions by 1.48 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. Thus, producing rice based on quality assessment can improve food security and its sustainability.