The coastal areas and inland river valleys of East, Southeast, and South Asia are the agricultural cores of the continent. More than half of the crop area of these regions is used to cultivate food crops such as rice and wheat. Rice is the principal food crop of all Asian countries located east and north of India and for the people of southern and eastern India.
Rice is the staple food of more than half of the world's population, and 90 percent of it is grown in coastal and deltaic plains and in the river valleys of Monsoon Asia. This region encompasses a broad geographic area characterized by a distinctive climate, stretching from Japan in the east, through Indonesia in the south, and west to Pakistan. Rice farming there is practiced mostly at the subsistence level, using traditional methods.
Wheat is the primary food crop of northern and western India and all Asian countries located west of India. People of the wheat-producing region consume rice as a secondary staple. Eighteen of the twenty-five top rice-producing countries of the world are in Asia. India has the largest area devoted to rice cultivation of the world's countries, but China is first in total production. Indonesia and Bangladesh rank third and fourth in world rice production.
With the exceptions of Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan, yields of all crops particularly rice and wheat are low in Asia compared to world standards. Although crop yields increased significantly after 1970, typical yields in Asia remained low for several reasons: Fertilizer use and the area under irrigation are among the lowest in the world. Also, most Asian farmers practice traditional farming methods, where high yields are atypical. Another major obstacle to increasing crop yields is the preponderance of small farms. Because small farms do not have access to assured irrigation and cannot afford modern agricultural inputs, their average yield is generally much lower than that of medium and large farms.
See also: Slash, Export Crops, Forestry, Kinds of flowers
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