UNDERSTANDING PADDY PRODUCTIVITY AT MADA ESTATE FROM A SYSTEM DYNAMICS PERSPECTIVE: A MAPPING TOOL OF CAUSAL LOOP DIAGRAM

Reviews of soft soil phenomena in rice cultivation at MADA, Kedah, Malaysia: Charactization and approaches

Malaysia’s stance on food security is largely translated in terms of achieving self-sufficiency in rice production at about 65-70% of the local consumption. Since Malaysia does not have the comparative advantage in rice production, it implements a wide range of market interventions to achieve the intended level of rice production. The policy instruments include among others: guaranteed minimum price for paddy, price control, price and input subsidies and import monopoly. These interventionist instruments may not be sustainable in the long-term as they incur a high budgetary burden to the government, misallocation of resources and liberalization demand from WTO. The industry faces challenges in terms of land competition for urbanization and industrial uses and declining soil fertility due to heavy use of chemical fertilizer. This paper examines the influence of the fertilizer and the cash subsidies, as well as land conversion and fertility on the level of self-sufficiency in rice. A system dynamics model is applied to analyse the causal and feedback relationships of these variables in the paddy production system framework. The study shows that Malaysia may not be able to sustain the targeted self-sufficiency level without adequate R&D to address the production constraints particularly below-optimum productivity and the threats of climate change. The consumption of rice on the other hand continues to rise due to the increase in population. Keywords: Paddy and rice, Malaysia, system dynamics, policy analysis.

This study was on cost and return analysis in major paddy production area in selected villages of Erode District, Tamilnadu. Specifically, the study described the socioeconomic characteristics of paddy farmers, estimated costs and returns from production and examined socioeconomic factors affecting paddy production in the area. The sample farmers in this revenue village were randomly selected from the list of framers in the revenue village. The random sampling technique was employed to obtained primary data from hundred respondents (100) with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. Conventional percentage method, average method, standard deviation, co-efficient of variation and analysis of variance were employed for the analysis of cost and returns data. The study revealed that paddy production in the area was heavy expenditure on transplantation, fertilizer application; manure application, ploughing and irrigation. After harvest cultivation activities consume a significant part of the expenditure incurred towards paddy production. Caste and size of land holding were the significant factors that affected cost of paddy production in the study area, other factor viz., education showed no variation in the cost of cultivation. However the net returns received by the paddy farmers varied across all the socio economic factors. The net return received from paddy cultivation is comparatively at a very low level as compared with that of the net return obtained from other commercial crop. The study recommended that the increase in the price of fertilizer is the reason for higher cost incurred towards fertilizers application. Hence, fertilizer price must be reduced through government subsidy or farmers can switch over to organic manures use which will reduce the cost in paddy cultivation.

Adequate food security does not guarantee the possibility of change in the future, so anticipatory measures are taken to ensure continuity of food availability. This article aims to describe socialization and assistance in strengthening food security through food security strategy seminars to increase economic independence and competitiveness in Jambenenggang village, Kebonpedes sub-district. This seminar method is carried out through various stages, including coordination, seminar implementation and evaluation. The conclusion is that, 1) Coordinating activities for the preparation of this seminar went smoothly, for speakers for this seminar, Mr. Ahmad Zenal Muttaqin then also invited the chairman of IWAPI (Indonesian Entrepreneurs Women's Association) Kebonpedes sub-district, Kebonpedes sub-district head and Jambenenggang village head. 2) Implementation of a seminar for the people of Jambenenggang village about food security has an impact on understanding the importance of food security to be able to think and act productively in order to have a competitive economy

Rice is a vital staple food worldwide, serving as a major source of calories for a significant portion of the global population. In India, where agriculture plays a pivotal role in the economy, rice production has witnessed remarkable growth over the past few decades. This growth is supported by advancements in agricultural technology, including the introduction of high-yielding seeds, chemical fertilizers, and agrochemicals. India stands as a key player in rice production, covering vast areas and contributing significantly to the nation's food grain output. Telangana, a state in India, has seen a substantial increase in paddy production, owing to government initiatives, irrigation projects, and investments. The development of high-yielding rice varieties that are well-suited to the region's soil conditions has played a crucial role in this growth. These varieties exhibit resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses, contributing to a sustained increase in paddy production. The state's remarkable progress in rice cultivation is evident through the data on area coverage, production, and productivity The study delves into the area coverage of popular rice varieties across seasons in Telangana. It reveals that coarse and fine rice varieties dominate Kharif and Rabi seasons, respectively, with MTU 1010 being the most extensively cultivated. This article provides valuable insights into the extent of adoption of popular rice varieties among farmers of Telangana.

This study aims to examine the impact of cereals production and cross-border trade on food security in Nigeria between 1986 and 2017. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) econometric technique was employed to analyze the time series secondary data sourced from World Bank Development Indicators, 2017 in order to explain the relationship between food security and the cereal production and cross-border trade. The findings of this study reveal that both in short-run and long-run estimation of error correction model (ECM), cereal domestic production, cereal exports and cereal imports have significant impact on the food security. Accordingly, cereal domestic production and cereal imports have a positive sign, which implies that an increase in cereal domestic production and cereal imports influence food security. While, cereal exports have a negative sign, which suggest that Nigeria as a nation is experiencing deficit in cereal production and therefore, the little quantity produced and exported posit a treat to food security. Based on the findings of this study, it is therefore recommended that policy formulation such as government subsidies in the agricultural sector and any other intervention programmes that will encourage an increase in domestic cereal production as well as policy formulation that will not totally discourage cereal importation should be implemented since its impact on food security is positive. This can be achieved through trade liberalization. On one hand, in as much as cereal export have significant impact on food security; government should be mindful that policy formulation on cereal exports should take into consideration the level of domestic cereal production and consequently its negative impact on food security.

In the era of experience economy, the service industry becomes more and more important around the world. Delivering appropriate services to customers is an important issue for service firms. Hence, High quality services have to be considered critical factors (e.g., service operations, customer needs, service resources or service performance). Furthermore, service firms need to satisfy customers to maintain the long term customer relationship for high business profitability. That is, to achieve high customer satisfaction has been an important topic while delivering services to customers. Service failures are the main cause to influence customer satisfaction. Consequently, establishing a suitable service recovery mechanism is also an essential topic. The service recovery process is extremely complex and difficult for service firms to understand. Although previous studies have emphasized the importance of service recovery, there is less research discussing the effects of the macro viewpoint of the service delivery system. This study uses the system dynamics approach (i.e., causal loop diagrams and stock and flow diagrams) to analyze the influences of service recovery and model the whole service recovery process. Hence, we will conduct several simulations to test the models and policies based on the perspective of system dynamics.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the nexus among economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and food security, while also analyzing the mediating effect of financial inclusion in mitigating the adverse impacts of EPU and strengthening food security in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach Using a quantitative approach, panel data from 2004 to 2021 for 24 countries was evaluated to develop a comprehensive food security index covering four dimensions: food supply, food access, food utilization and food stability, which are further composed of 12 elements. The “Baron and Kenny Three Step Methodology” together with Sobel test was used to investigate the direct and mediating impact of financial inclusion on the association among EPU and food security. To mitigate the issue of endogeneity, instrumental variable technique and two-step generalized methods of moments (GMM) were used. For robustness, the authors use the average mean of EPU as a substitute and use Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 2 (No Hunger) as an alternative measure of food security. Findings The findings indicate that EPU adversely affects overall food security, including its dimensions such as food supply, food access, food utilization and food stability. This study further demonstrates that financial inclusion plays a significant mediating role in the association among EPU and food security. The results highlight that financial inclusion emerged as a notable factor in mitigating the negative effects of EPU on food security. Practical implications Governments and policymakers should prioritize and implement programs aimed at improving financial inclusion, which will help individuals and nations to adopt required tools they need to build resilience against EPU, and ultimately safeguarding their food security. This eventually leads toward attainment of not only SDG 2 (No Hunger) but also assists in achieving SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 10 (Inequality Reduction). These comprehensive efforts will also lead to the establishment of sustainable future for all. Originality/value There is limited body of research that explores the interplay of these three variables within a single study. Likewise, the role of financial inclusion as a mediator in the association among EPU and food security represents a novel contribution. The study uses a multi-indicator approach to comprehensively measure key variables such as food security and financial inclusion.

South Asia is world most densely populated region and houses the largest population of undernourished people. It remains the world’s second poorest region with more than 500 million people living on less than US$1.25 per day. Firstly this paper attempts to show the general situation and production trend of paddy, secondly, scrutinizes the role paddy has been playing in the economy and food security so far and that it is still the most potential means to improve the food security situation and tackle severe under-nutrition as other sectors are, until now, far less furnished to address this issue. This paper probes into various economic and historical perspectives of rice economy and culture in this region, and shows that self-sufficiency in paddy production is paramount to its domestic food security, and thereby proposes that emphasis should be given on increased rice production which is decelerating amid expansion of modern economic sectors.

Part 1 Conceptual overview 1.Introduction Ian Christoplos and Adam Pain. 2. Food security and food crises: evolving realities, evolving debates Niek Koning. Part 2 New Trends and Challenges 3. Scenarios for global agriculture and food security towards 2050: a review of recent studies Dirk Willenbockel. 4. Strengthening food security through human rights: a moral and legal imperative and practical opportunity Wenche Barth Eide. 5. Large scale land acquisitions -- challenges, conflicts and partial solutions in a project lifecycle perspective Michael Bruntrup. 6. Water competition, water governance and food security Helle Munk Ravnborg. 7. Food insecurity in fragile states and protracted crises Adam Pain. Part 2 Case Studies 8. Sudan's permanent food emergency: a historical analysis of food aid, governance and political economy Susanne Jaspars 9. Food insecurity and agricultural rehabilitation in post-conflict northern Uganda Winnie Wangari Wairimu 10. Poverty, food security and local water conflicts in southern Zambia Mikkel Funder, Carol Mweemba and Imasiku Nyambe with Helle Munk Ravnborg and Barbara van Koppen. 11. State capacity and malnutrition: a critical analysis of capacity support to Sierra Leone's nutrition sector Lisa Denney and Richard Mallett. 12. Social inequality and food insecurity in Nepal: risks and responses Adam Pain, Hemant R. Ojha and Jagannath Adhikari. 13. Changing approaches to food security in Viet Nam Ian Christoplos, Le Thi Hoa Sen and Le Duc Ngoan. 14. Food security and insecurity in Afghanistan Adam Pain. 15. Food security and insecurity in India, Amit Mitra. 16. South Korea: food security, development and the developmental state Anders Riel Muller. 17. Food security, Nicaragua: food purchase or food production, which is best for the rural poor? Francisco J. Perez, Arthur H. Grigsby and Sandrine Freguin Gresh. Part 4 Conclusions 18. Towards new approaches Adam Pain and Ian Christoplos

Gender equality in agriculture is crucial to ensuring food security and economic development. This study provides new empirical evidence of the gender gap in rice productivity from the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar. The Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition reveals that seasonality affects the gender disparity in productivity. Women managers are 7 per cent less productive than men in monsoon paddy production, with 95 per cent of this gap explained by structural effects. Plots jointly managed by women and men outperform those managed by either women or men alone in summer paddy production. Divorced women account for a large portion of the productivity differential among non-married women. Addressing Myanmar’s gender rice productivity gap requires season-specific interventions to meet women’s unique needs and challenges.

Adoption of green fertilizer technology among paddy farmers: A possible solution for Malaysian food security

Agriculture is one of the important factors in the development of the economy in Indonesia as an agricultural country because most of Indonesia's population has work in the field of agriculture or planting. Concepts and elements to understand and apply the performance calculations of evaluation of rice production using Data Envelopment Analysis. In this article convey and receive the evaluation of paddy production performance to know the value of efficiency and support in the process of paddy production in 2 planting seasons to find out the optimization of paddy production through performance evaluation Production to improve quality and be able to enrich the people. Input and output processes that have significance to improve the optimization of rice production and level to efficiency in rice production. This article will discuss the performance analysis of rice production and the results that will be given to know the efficiency in production and to help agricultural officers and farmers to produce an optimal and efficient product. Decision Making Unit (DMU) which has an efficiency value of fewer than 1 means inefficient whereas Decision Making Unit (DMU) whose value is 1 means efficient.

Rice is the staple food of Indonesian society. Rice (Paddy) as a staple food for Indonesian people is an important commodity for the government in effort to maintain national food security. Food security can be fulfilled if a country has sovereignty over food. Food sovereignty can be realized if domestic production meet its people consumption needs. Therefore, this research pays attention to government policies in effort to increase rice (paddy) production optimally. The policies analyzed included the realization of subsidized fertilizer distribution, the realization of insurance for rice farming, the realization of activities for developing agricultural irrigation units, and farmer exchange rates. Analysis was performed using panel data regression. From this research, it can be concluded that the distribution of subsidized fertilizers, the development of agricultural irrigation units, and the availability of farmer financing in the agricultural financing index positively affect the increase in domestic rice production. Conversely, the occurrence of rice crop insurance claims indicates crop failure in a certain region. This disruption negatively impacts the quantity of domestic rice production. On the other hand, having agricultural insurance provides a guarantee of financing for farmers when they experience crop failure.

Climate change has negative effect on paddy production all over the world. Erratic rainfall and temperature variability are mainly responsible for yield loss as well as crop failure. This research is based on the impact of long term rainfall and temperature vaiability on transplanted aman rice (T. Aman) in four districts of south-western coastal part of Bangladesh. As rice paddy is a major crop in that part of Bangladesh and it is harvested during June to November, when temperature variability and rainfall anomalies are more prominent. Hence, impact of these meteorological phenomenon on T. Aman rice production is likely. To study climatic variability on T. Aman rice production standardized precipitation index (SPI), diurnal temperature range (DTR) and rice productivity index (RPI) were taken into consideration. According to the results, rice production was affected by rainfall anomalies and temperature variability, effect of temperature was more prominent than rainfall during aman season. Lowest technological rice yield was recorded from Narail disticts, where temperature and rainfall effect was more prominent followed by Bagerhat, Khulna and Satkhira, respectively. This research will help researchers to develop new climate smart technologies for that area.