How Hormuz Closure Could Squeeze Asia’s Staple Crop

With the war in Iran creating a shortage of the fuel and fertilizer that farmers across Asia need to plant and harvest rice, many smallholders are seeking alternative supplies or pondering whether to plant at all.
On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, agriculture reporter Hallie Gu tells host Oanh Ha what the bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz means for rice farmers from Cambodia to India — and how the fate of the region’s staple crop shapes its economy and politics.

Read more: Fuel Shortages From Iran War Threaten Asia’s Biggest Food Staple (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-11/fuel-sh…)
Listen more: Asia Is Bearing the Brunt of the Iran War Energy Crisis (podcasts.apple.com/hk/podcast/asia-is-bearing-…)
Hosted by Oanh Ha; Produced by Yang Yang; Reported by Hallie Gu; Edited by Patrick Hirsch Fact-checking by Eleanor Harrison-Dengate; Engineering by Alex Sugiura Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.
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