Manila, March 19 -- The policy shifts in the Philippines and in India served as "game changers" that helped stabilize global rice prices, according to Indian-American agricultural economist and award-winning global food innovator Samarendu Mohanty.

Mohanty maintained that these moves led to the softening of global rice prices, which dropped by 18 percent.

"These concurrent policy changes created a perfect storm that ultimately stabilized and transformed rice markets worldwide," Mohanty said as quoted in a news release on Wednesday.

He was referring to India's lifting of the import ban on non-Basmati white rice and the Philippines' setting of the maximum suggested retail price for 5 percent broken imported rice.

Mohanty said the decisi...