Combined price support and fertilizer subsidy policies for food self-sufficiency: A case study of rice in Bangladesh

Output price support and input subsidies, particularly fertilizer subsidies, are used in many developing countries as short-term policies for stimulating food production. This paper presents a method of evaluating combined price support and fertilizer subsidy policies, allowing for differences in emphasis on each. Bangladesh is taken as a case study. The paper also indicates the likely distributional consequences of the various combined policies and formulates policy suggestions based on the results. The guiding hypothesis for the study is that some combination of price support and fertilizer subsidies is preferable to a price support or fertilizer subsidy monopolicy in achieving rice self sufficiency in Bangladesh.