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Research Facility at Macquarie University Joins International Proteomic Alliance.

Public Databases have Errors and no Quick Fix.

Genetic Viability of Australian Grasslands and Heathlands.

China Drafts Biotechnology Accord with Brazil.

China Calls for Closer Cooperation with US in Biomedical Research.

Opportunities in China's Biomedicine Industry.

China Aims to Be Leading Pharmacy Processing Center.

Geneticist Tsui Lap Chee Appointed as Vice Chancellor of University of Hong Kong.

India to Start Growing Pest-resistant Cotton.

Health Ministry Confirms Fourth Mad Cow Case.

Importance of Japanese Funding to Rice Genomics.

Bio Expo Korea 2002 Scheduled for September.

Korea Establishes an Arctic Science Base.

The Sciences not Popular among Korean Students.

Soya Bean the Only GM Food in the Malaysian Market.

Fear Prevents AIDS Patients from Getting Cheaper Treatment.

Biotech Industry Receives Big Funding.

Genome Institute of Singapore Moves to New Facility.

Scientist Lays out his Vision for the Life Sciences in Singapore.

Industry Conference on Lab Design and Management.

Singapore and University of Washington form Bioengineering Alliance.

Taiwan Hsinchu Science Park's March Trade Highest in One Year.

New Drug for ED Going on Sale Soon.

Traders Urged to Market Higher Quality Rice.

Hybrid Rice Meeting in Vietnam.

In the first decade of this millennium, rising food prices returned as a concern for policy makers, especially in developing economies. This paper examines how supply shocks, both domestic and foreign, impacted imports and consumption in the world rice market between 1960 and 2010. Such an investigation is important in assessing the role of trade in compensating for domestic shocks. If shortages lead economies to impose trade restrictions, then trade may not be allowed to play an important role in stabilizing consumption. The existing literature has highlighted the importance of these policy shocks in the world rice market and how they have worked to increase the volatility of prices and trade flows. Although trade cannot be expected to play a strong role when the major producing and consuming economies are simultaneously hit by negative yield shocks, such a scenario has occurred in only about 3% of all observed cases. We also find that consumption fails to stabilize even when domestic shocks are negative and foreign shocks are positive; however, imports do peak. Thus, while trade does help in coping with domestic risks, it is unable to achieve full risk sharing. Therefore, no matter the nature of foreign shocks, the principal concern is to stabilize consumption when an economy is hit by negative domestic yield shocks. The frequency of such shocks is about 12% in all observed cases, highlighting the importance of domestic responses. We find that domestic rice stocks have been important in stabilizing consumption. The reliance on domestic policies has, in turn, kept the rice market thin.