Rapid urbanization, industrialization and demographic pressures have encouraged farmers to exploit marginal lands for increased rice production to meet family demands. Therefore, acid soils, tidal lands, forest lands, etc. have been reclaimed and put under cultivation, subsequently limiting crop yield potential. In tropical climates, the yield per season of IR 8 has never been bettered. The causes of the yield decline at the research stations are under investigation. At farmers' fields, it has also been observed that farmers are now using higher levels of inputs than before in order to maintain rice productivity.
Farm mechanization is one solution to the labor shortage.
However, the introduction of tractors, hand-powered tillers and other equipment has often encountered constraints such as lack of skilled personnel and spare parts and high cost of fuel. In particular they undertake the arduous tasks of transplanting, weeding and harvesting. Investments for the development of irrigation infrastructures in the continent have declined about 60 percent since the 1960s. Similarly, the growth rate in research expenditure in Asia declined from 7.4 percent in 1961 to about 4.6 percent during the 1980s. It is also reported that, in many developing countries, rice farmers are usually poorer than their counterparts who grow either fruit trees or vegetable crops or industrial crops.