Rice quality and its impacts on food security and sustainability in Bangladesh

PLoS One. 2021 Dec 31;16(12):e0261118. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261118. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bangladesh
  • Commerce
  • Food Security* / economics
  • Models, Economic
  • Oryza / physiology*
  • Statistics as Topic
  • Sustainable Development*

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the University of Arkansas Chancelor’s Innovation and Collaboration Grant # IFA2019-019. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.