Foreword

FOREWORD
This periodical gives an overview of Asian agriculture by showing major agricultural statistics, as well as economic indicators related to agriculture, from selected Asian and Pacific countries.  It uses not only the statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations but also many statistical yearbooks, journals and internet web-sites from each country.

FFTC is an international organization that collects and disseminates information for the agricultural development of small-scale farmers in the Asian and Pacific region. We hope that this periodical may help each country to understand the agriculture of other countries in the region. This is particularly necessary now that both the volume and the value of the international trade in agricultural products are growing, as countries of the region become part of the global economy. FFTC hopes that this periodical will be of value to extension workers, researchers, and government officers in the region.

The distinctive features of this periodical are as follows. Firstly, it provides useful and comprehensive statistics on the status of agriculture in the Asian and the Pacific region – covering basic agriculture structures, production, trade, and agriculture sector’s role in each national economy. Secondly, it gives a distinct classification of agricultural statistics from China and Taiwan, unlike other sources and references which show statistics from China inclusive of Taiwan. Thirdly, it presents comparative statistical indicators for the past ten years of the agricultural situation of each country.

This periodical includes indicators from twenty-one countries － Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea (Dem. People’s Rep.; North Korea), Korea (Rep. of.; South Korea), Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan ROC, Thailand and Vietnam. The number of countries covered has been increased from sixteen to twenty-one, and one item (vegetables and fruits) has been added since the first issuance of 2001. We hope that we shall soon be able to expand further the number of countries and items. Graphs of some tables are also available in this issue.

This issue is being published not only as a paper edition but also as an on-line publication, available free of charge via the Center’s web site and database at http://www.fftc.agnet.org. Readers can find more graphs here.

I would like to express my thanks to the FFTC staff, in particular to Mr. In-Woo Lee, Agricultural Economists of FFTC, who has spent much time on this publication. My thanks are extended also to the Library of Council of Agriculture (COA), Executive Yuan, Taiwan ROC, which gave permission to our perusal of their statistical books.