Rice production

Rice, as Oryzae sativa L., is a leading food crop, the staple food of over half the world population. Rice is world’s most important food staple and 90% of the rice producing area is located in Asia. Globally, 23% of the total calorie supply comes from rice.

It is grown over a considerable geographic range from 45 °N to 40 °N to elevations of more than 2500 m, but with average daily temperatures in the range of 20-30 °C. Cold temperatures currently limit rice production in cooler areas of the temperate regions and mountainous areas.

Because of increasing water and land scarcities and climate change, a major challenge is to increase rice yield in Asia to meet the growing demand as Asia accounts for 90% of global rice consummation.

Rice varieties of the future thus need to be tolerant of stresses (such as high temperature, drought and submergence) and higher yielding to ensure that rice production can keep pace with the rising demand for the rice especially by the poor.

Although it is generally considered (land grown as) a semiaquatic annual grain plant, varieties grow in areas from deeply flooded land to dry, hilly slopes, and (like wheat) on every continent except Antarctica.

The gross yield of rice per unit of land area is second only to that of corn, but its net food yield is the highest of any cereal grain. The harvested grain before hulling before hulling is known as rough rice.

Rice is traded on the world market through government-to-government contract and/or private trade. Prices vary accordingly to type, quality and grade of rice. Pakistan’s Basmati rice and the U.S long and medium-grained rice command higher prices, but Thai rice are the most common in the world market.
Rice production