The 2008 rice bumper harvest is coming to a close with better-than-expected production that could help ease prices, but there is expected to be an overall decline in global cereal production, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The agency has warned that the global economic slowdown could outweigh the gains for the poorest of the world’s rice consumers, because of falling incomes and rising job insecurity. The FAO currently predicts global paddy production in... ...Read more »