Constraints to Increased Production

Constraints can be broadly defined as limiting factors. In the case of rice, constraints cover a broad range of influential factors from physiological limits in the biology of the rice plant to governmental intervention in the rice market. ¹ Some constraints are under the control of human actors and may be directly influenced by policy or social change; others are determined by biological laws and, in the case of rice, are fixed norms that researchers must work around. Still other constraints may be removed or modified through the fruits of biological or technical research. A key fact in this discussion is that constraints cover a vast panoply of problems facing those interested in increasing rice production at all levels. Most researchers tend to view constraints on an individual basis according to their professional orientation. To biologists, constraints are forces that act on the rice plant to keep production below a maximum level. To economists, constraints can be artificially depressed prices or imperfectly functioning markets. To social scientists, the inability of people to organize themselves to exploit available technical potential may be a constraint. In the future, however, researchers and planners must take a more integrative approach as they attempt to overcome constraints. Constraints in one field act to modify conditions in another, and without a minimal consideration of all influential factors, improvement will be impossible.