Major rice exporters
Topic: Primary Activities: Gathering, Pastoralism, Agriculture and Mining · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A small group of Asian countries sells most of the rice traded across the world. India is the largest exporter, with about 40% of world rice trade. Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan follow (verify current). Export rice comes mainly from river deltas and irrigated plains, where water and flat, fertile land give large surpluses. This matters for food security, because a policy change by one exporter can move world prices. India curbed rice exports in 2022–24 and eased the curbs in 2024 (verify current).
Example
The Ganga–Brahmaputra delta in eastern India grows rice for export. Rice for export also comes from the Mekong delta (Vietnam), the Chao Phraya plain (Thailand) and the irrigated Indus plains (Pakistan).
Don't confuse with
- Largest rice producers: producing the most rice is not the same as exporting the most. A country with a huge population eats most of what it grows.
Related concepts
- Subsistence agriculture
- Jhum cycle
- Names of shifting cultivation worldwide
- Intensive subsistence agriculture
- Wet paddy dominated intensive subsistence agriculture
- Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by non-paddy crops