Rice crops:all or nothing

Recently, I read an interesting article about rice farming in Africa. The cost of rice has gone up and down in the recent years. For rice farmers there, the price is now very high, which makes for a lot of competition- which they liked. When rice was cheaper, it was hard to sell because hardly anyone would make any profit on the rice. Obviously, the people cannot predict the market and the future prices of the crop. But, many people are buying and planting a lot of rice in hopes that the price will stay the same, in order to make more money. Mame Bassine Gaye realizes, “If I win, I will win big, but if I lose, I’ll lose big. I am worried because of my debts. If you don’t pay, they cut you off. I could lose everything.” This is a serious but very real thing and their lives really depend on the future price of rice.

Citation: Polgreen, Lydia. "West African Villagers Stake Their Fortunes on the Future Price of Rice". New York Times. 25 January 2009. 25 February 2009.