The rice sector was the focus of considerable public investment and intervention in the 1970s with an extensive program of irrigation and valley bottom development, the construction of a series of industrial rice mills, and controlled paddy and rice sales. The government has gradually withdrawn from the rice sector over the past two decades, but continued to maintain a monopoly for imported rice supplies until 1995. In 1995, the government import monopoly was eliminated and price controls were lifted the following year. Upland rice is grown mainly in the hilly forest zone in the southwest and in the cotton-growing savanna areas in the north. Rainfed lowlands can be further distinguished as inland valley wetlands located throughout the country and seasonal floodplains along rivers located primarily in the northwest.
Most rice is grown using traditional, manual low-input techniques.
Land is still sufficiently available to permit land-extensive practices in upland systems based on long fallow periods to maintain soil fertility. Under such systems, the main constraint is drought risk, particularly in the bimodal rainfall zone in the south where the timing of the intervening dry period may vary considerably. Poor access to inputs, either due to weakly developed supply channels or lack of producer organizations and credit, also limits intensification. Low-yielding, robust traditional varieties still dominate. Attempts have been made to alleviate labor constraints through mechanization, but with the exception of animal traction introduced in cotton-growing areas in the north, most have not proved to be sustainable.