ABSTRACT
This chapter considers more detailed account of the present economic and social organisation of paddy production, which lays the basis for speculations about the future. It deals with more aggregative issues at the sectoral level: output, demand and government policy towards the sector, the future course of which have a strong bearing on the incomes of the paddy farming community. As the growth of real output in the economy as a whole will probably be twice as rapid as that in the paddy sector, it is natural to look at the consequences for allocation and income distribution of subsidising paddy producers by keeping the domestic price of rice above the world level. Malaysia’s paddy sector is a relatively small branch of the national economy, accounting for about 2 percent of GNP and providing the principal means of livelihood for about 8 percent of the population.
