Asia Today, the majority of all rice produced comes from China, India, Indonesia,
Bangladesh,
Vietnam, Thailand,
Myanmar, Philippines, Korea and
Japan. Asian farmers still account for 87% of the world's total rice production.
Indonesia Rice is a staple food for all classes in contemporary
Indonesia, and it holds the central place in
Indonesian culture and
Indonesian cuisine: it shapes the landscape; is sold at markets; and is served in most meals. Rice accounts for more than half of the calories in the average diet, and the source of livelihood for about 20 million households. The importance of rice in Indonesian culture is demonstrated through the reverence of
Dewi Sri, the rice goddess of ancient Java and Bali. Evidence of wild rice on the island of
Sulawesi dates from 3000 BC. Historic written evidence for the earliest cultivation, however, comes from eighth century stone inscriptions from the central island of
Java, which show kings levied taxes in rice. The images of rice cultivation, rice barn, and mice infesting a rice field is evident in Karmawibhangga bas-reliefs of
Borobudur. Divisions of labour between men, women, and animals that are still in place in Indonesian rice cultivation, were carved into relief friezes on the ninth century
Prambanan temples in
Central Java: a
water buffalo attached to a plough; women planting seedlings and pounding grain; and a man carrying sheaves of rice on each end of a pole across his shoulders (
pikulan). In the sixteenth century, Europeans visiting the Indonesian islands saw rice as a new prestige food served to the aristocracy during ceremonies and feasts.
Pakistan Pakistan is one of the 10 largest rice producing country in the world. Rice of different varieties are cultivated in 3.35 million hectares with an annual production of 8.5 million metric tons () (1.12% percent of global production). Pakistan constitutes 8% share in total world exports. Pakistan is the top exporter of
brown rice (). Pakistan exported around 415,053 tons of rice worth . Pakistan constitutes 22.1% share in brown rice exports. The main producing areas are
Sindh and
Punjab. Pakistan is the 3rd highest rice exporting country in the world in terms of quantity and 4th highest in terms of value. Pakistan exported around 5.8 million tons of rice worth .
Philippines ,
Philippines The
Banaue Rice Terraces () are
terraces that were carved into the mountains of
Ifugao in the
Philippines by the ancestors of the
Igorot people. The Rice Terraces are commonly referred to as the "
Eighth Wonder of the World". It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. The terraces are located approximately 1,500 meters (5,000 ft) above sea level. They are fed by an ancient
irrigation system from the rainforests above the terraces. It is said that if the steps were put end to end, it would encircle half the globe. The terraces are found in the province of Ifugao and the
Ifugao people have been its caretakers. Ifugao culture revolves around rice and the culture displays an elaborate array of celebrations linked with agricultural rites from rice cultivation to rice consumption. The harvest season generally calls for thanksgiving feasts, while the concluding harvest rites called
tango or
tungul (a
day of rest) entails a strict taboo on any agricultural work. Partaking of the
bayah (rice beer), rice cakes, and
betel nut constitutes an indelible practice during the festivities. The Ifugao people practice traditional farming spending most of their labor at their terraces and forest lands while occasionally tending to root crop cultivation. The Ifugaos have also Thailand has a large number of rice varieties, 3,500 kinds with different characters, and five kinds of wild rice cultivates. In each region of the country there are different rice seed types. Their use depends on weather, atmosphere, and topography. The northern region has both lowlands and high lands. The farmers' usual crop is non-glutinous rice The northeastern region is a large area where farmers can cultivate about 36 million square meters of rice. Although most of it is plains and dry areas, white jasmine rice 105—the most famous Thai rice—can be grown there. White jasmine rice was developed in
Chonburi Province first and after that grown in many areas in the country, but the rice from this region has a high quality, because it is softer, whiter, and more fragrant. This rice can resist drought, acidic soil, and alkaline soil. The central region is mostly composed of plains. Most farmers grow Jao rice. In the southern region, most farmers transplant around boundaries to the flood plains or on the plains between mountains. Farming in the region is slower than other regions because the rainy season comes later.
Companion plant One of the earliest known examples of
companion planting is the growing of rice with
Azolla, the mosquito fern, which covers the top of a fresh rice paddy's water, blocking out any competing plants, as well as fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere for the rice to use. The rice is planted when it is tall enough to poke out above the azolla. This method has been used for at least a thousand years. (1804)
Middle East and the Mediterranean Basin Asiatic rice (Oryza sativa), although a latecomer to Mediterranean agriculture, was relatively widespread in antiquity and was not a product of the Islamic Agricultural Revolution. During the
Hellenistic period, rice was well known as far west as
Parthia, in modern northeastern
Iran.
Diodorus (first century BCE) recognized rice as a significant Indian crop during the subcontinent's busy agricultural season.
Strabo (first century CE) reported that rice was widely grown in
Bactria,
Babylon,
Susis, and also in
Lower Syria, based on second century BCE author Aristobulus. The crop traveled to
Asia Minor (in modern-day
Turkey) during the early centuries CE. Texts from the late first and early second centuries imply that rice was first introduced to
Palestine by Jewish farmers during the
Early Roman period. Palestine's main crop was fine, large kernel rice. According to the
Jerusalem Talmud (3rd to 4th centuries CE), rice was grown in
Caesarea,
Paneas-Caesarea Phillipi, and the Chrysopolis area to the north of the
Sea of Galilee (in modern-day Israel).
Spanish colonizers introduced
Asian rice to Mexico in the 1520s at
Veracruz, and the
Portuguese and Africans they enslaved introduced it at about the same time to
colonial Brazil. Recent scholarship suggests that
enslaved Africans played an active role in the establishment of rice in the
New World and that
African rice was an important crop from an early period. Varieties of
rice and bean dishes that were a staple dish along the peoples of West Africa remained a staple among their descendants subjected to
slavery in the Spanish New World colonies, Brazil and elsewhere in the Americas.
Chile The
Royal Governor Ambrosio O'Higgins was an early proponent of rice cultivation in Chile during his rule between 1788 and 1796. The first rice cultivation occurred however much later, around 1920, yielding mixed results. officials at a rice farm in California In 1694, rice arrived in
South Carolina, probably originating from Madagascar. The mastery of rice farming was a challenge for the English and other European settlers who were unfamiliar with the crop. Native Americans, who mostly gathered
wild rice, were also inexperienced with rice cultivation. However, within the first fifty years of settlement rice became the dominant crop in South Carolina. In the United States,
colonial South Carolina and
Georgia grew and amassed great wealth from the slave labor obtained from the
Senegambia area of West Africa and from coastal Sierra Leone. At the port of Charleston, through which 40% of all American slave imports passed, slaves from this region of Africa brought the highest prices due to their prior knowledge of rice culture, which was put to use on the many rice
plantations around
Georgetown,
Charleston, and
Savannah. From the enslaved Africans, plantation owners learned how to dyke the
marshes and periodically flood the fields. At first the rice was laboriously milled by hand using large mortars and pestles made of wood, then winnowed in
sweetgrass baskets (the making of which was another skill brought by slaves from Africa). The invention of the
rice mill increased profitability of the crop, and the addition of waterpower for the mills in 1787 by
millwright Jonathan Lucas was another step forward. Rice culture in the southeastern U.S. became less profitable with the loss of slave labor after the
American Civil War, and it finally died out just after the turn of the 20th century. Today, people can visit the only remaining rice plantation in South Carolina that still has the original
winnowing barn and rice mill from the mid-19th century at the historic
Mansfield Plantation in
Georgetown, South Carolina. The predominant strain of rice in the Carolinas was from Africa and was known as 'Carolina Gold'. The
cultivar has been preserved and there are current attempts to reintroduce it as a commercially grown crop. In the southern United States, rice has been grown in southern
Arkansas,
Louisiana, and east
Texas since the mid-19th century. Many
Cajun farmers grew rice in wet marshes and low-lying prairies where they could also farm
crayfish when the fields were flooded. In recent years rice production has risen in North America, especially in the
Mississippi embayment in the states of
Arkansas and
Mississippi (see also
Arkansas Delta and
Mississippi Delta). . Rice cultivation began in California during the
California Gold Rush, when an estimated 40,000 Chinese laborers immigrated to the state and grew small amounts of the grain for their own consumption. However, commercial production began only in 1912 in the town of
Richvale in
Butte County. By 2006, California produced the second-largest rice crop in the United States, after Arkansas, with production concentrated in six counties north of
Sacramento. Unlike the Arkansas–Mississippi Delta region, California's production is dominated by short- and medium-grain
japonica varieties, including cultivars developed for the local climate such as
Calrose, which makes up as much as 85% of the state's crop. References to "
wild rice" native to North America are to
Zizania palustris, and three other species in the related genus
Zizania More than 100 varieties of rice are commercially produced primarily in six states (Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and California) in the U.S. According to estimates for the 2006 crop year, rice production in the U.S. is valued at $1.88 billion, approximately half of which is expected to be
exported. The U.S. provides about 12% of world rice trade. Because irrigation water, despite the extremely low runoff of temperate Australia, was (and remains) very cheap, the growing of rice was taken up by agricultural groups over the following decades. Californian varieties of rice were found suitable for the climate in the
Riverina, encouraged the expansion of the Riverina rice industry, but its prodigious water use in a practically waterless region began to attract the attention of environmental scientists. These became severely concerned with declining flow in the
Snowy River and the lower
Murray River. Although rice growing in Australia is highly profitable due to the cheapness of land, several recent years of severe drought have led many to call for its elimination because of its effects on extremely fragile aquatic ecosystems. The Australian rice industry is somewhat opportunistic, with the area planted varying significantly from season to season depending on water allocations in the
Murray and
Murrumbidgee irrigation regions.
Australian Aboriginal people have harvested native rice varieties for thousands of years, and there are ongoing efforts to grow commercial quantities of these species. == References ==