June 2, 2008

More Asian countries switch to alternative feed grain as prices soar

Japan looks on using rice for animal feed due to soaring corn prices in the global market.

Last week, some Indian poultry farmers also switched to rice as an alternative feed in the face of escalating corn prices.

Analysts said that international grain prices could fall if Japan, the world's leading corn importer, feeds more of its livestock with domestically produced rice.

The Japanese government is offering farmers subsidies to boost non-food-use rice production and make Japan less dependent on food imports.

In the year that ended in March, Japan's planting acreage of non-food rice more than doubled to an estimated 286 hectares, producing a harvest of some 1,700 tonnes.

Japan's farm ministry aims to ramp up rice harvest to 1 million tonnes over the next five years, said Masaaki Okuhara, director-general at the ministry's staple food department.