Trade Liberalization
With globalization and the implementation of the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), control over rice production and agriculture in general has moved more and more from farming communities and peasants to agrochemical transnational corporations (TNCs) and developed imperialist countries such as the US, and those in Europe. Arrogant trade liberalization policies coupled with corporate agriculture have impoverished and wiped out peasant rice farmers all over Asia as well as small rural entrepreneurs who depend on rice for their livelihoods.