Rice Production
At least 114 countries grow rice and more than 50 have an annual production of 100,000 tonnes or more. Asian farmers produce about 90% of the global total, with two countries, China and India, growing more than half. Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam come next, accounting for 8.4%, 6.9% and 5.4%, respectively. Today, there are about 645 million tonnes of paddy produced annually over roughly 1.5 million sq km. Ninety per cent of it is grown in Asia over about 1.3 million sq km. The top exporters of rice are Thailand, Vietnam, India, the USA, and Pakistan in order of volume.
 

Cultivated Rice
Cultivated rice is generally considered a semi-aquatic annual grass, although in the tropics it can survive as a perennial, producing new tillers from nodes after harvest (known as ratooning). At maturity, the rice plant has a main stem and a number of tillers. Each productive tiller bears a terminal flowering head or panicle. Plant height varies by variety and environmental conditions, ranging from approximately 0.4 m to over 5 m for some floating varieties. The morphology of rice is divided into the vegetative phases (including germination, seedling, and tillering stages) and the reproductive phases (including panicle initiation and heading stages). A rice plant takes from three to six months to reach maturity, depending on the variety.

Rice is often grown in paddies or small portions of a field with raised boundaries. These portions act as shallow puddles and utilize the rice plant's tolerance to water. The water in the paddies prevents weeds from outgrowing the crop. Once the rice is well-established in the field, the water can be drained in preparation for harvest. Rice paddies have many important functions apart from being the growing areas for rice. They provide a habitat for birds such as herons and warblers, as well as for a wide range of amphibians, crabs and snakes. These creatures contribute to maintaining a healthy and sustainable ecosystem. It is also common for fish to breed in rice paddies, often among the rice plants. These fish are an important source of protein for the rice farmer and his family.

There is also floating paddy, dry paddy, and hill paddy which are grown on slopes and terraces in various Asian countries including China, the Philippines and East Malaysia.
 

Rice Varieties and Seeds
It is estimated that there are about 140,000 cultivated rice varieties in the world. No one can really be sure, however, how many native rice varieties existed before or still exist. For example, it has been claimed that India alone has lost about 300,000 varieties leaving approximately 100,000 varieties behind.

The rice grain, commonly called a seed, consists of the true fruit or brown rice (caryopsis) and the hull, which encloses the brown rice. Brown rice consists mainly of the embryo and endosperm. The surface contains several thin layers of differentiated tissues that enclose the embryo and endosperm.
 

There are four main types of rice: Indica, Japonica, aromatic, and glutinous. Rice seeds vary in shape, size, width, length, colour and aroma. There are many different varieties of rice: drought-resistant, pest-resistant, flood-resistant, saline-resistant, tall, short, aromatic, sticky, with red, violet, brown, or black; long and slender; or short and round grains.


Click here for Varieties of Rice

Rice Farming Communities
Small and marginal rice farmers make up about 70% of the people who cultivate the crop. They are among the poorest sectors in their countries and often do not own the land that they cultivate. Peasant women (who make up 50% of the number of rice farmers) have the least access and control over land and other productive resources.

Rice farming is very much part and parcel of the lives of many rural communities in Asia. The ‘community wisdom” or farmers’ wisdom of rice cultivation has been built up over centuries and inculcated into the culture of rice farming communities. Traditional farming methods have sustained small communities for generations, but in many places have either disappeared or are under threat due to economic development projects and the growth of modern day mono-cropping farms. Here are two examples of traditional farming methods practised by local communities.

The Shrinking Fields of Pokkali
by K. P. M. Basheer

A centuries-old organic farm in the backwaters of Kerala, making use of a symbiotic relationship between the rice crop and prawns, is slowly disappearing as it is not commercially viable anymore and because of the high demand for real estate.

Under threat: A farmer transporting harvested Pokkali rice crop.
Photo by K. P. M. Basheer.

Pokkali (pronounced Pokkaalli) is a unique variety of rice that is cultivated in an organic way in the water-logged coastal regions of the Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Thrissur districts of Kerala. Its resistance to salinity is remarkable. The rice is cultivated from June to early November when the salinity level of the water in the fields is low. From mid-November to mid-April, when the salinity is high, prawn farming takes over. The prawn seedlings, which swim in from the sea and the backwaters after the rice harvest, feed on the leftovers of the harvested crop. The rice crop, which gets no other fertilizer or manure, draws nutrients from the prawns’ excrement and other remnants.

“The Pokkali rice cultivation has not changed much over the centuries,” says Thomas Chettan, a Pokkali farmer. “We do not use fertilizers or manure; and insecticides are a strict no-no.” No ploughing or transplanting either. “It’s a purely natural way of cultivation that relies on the monsoon and the sea tides,” the farmer says. And, the prawn breeding that follows the harvest is also carried out in a natural way. “The rice plants and the prawns feed each other and there is no need for any other outside input,” Thomas Chettan explains. Modern farming technologies are alien to the Pokkali fields. The waterlogged, swampy fields have no use for labour-saving heavy equipment like tractors and harvesters.

The Pokkali system of cultivation evolved naturally in the saline and water-logged coastal strip of central Kerala. According to Pokkali Land Development Agency officials, there used to be some 25,000 hectares of Pokkali fields in Kerala a few decades ago, but now the extent is down to roughly 8,000 hectares. The biggest threat to the Pokkali fields comes from the real estate boom. In the past five years, real estate prices in the Kochi region have skyrocketed and the real estate companies, in their quest for more and more lands for construction, have bought up large tracts of Pokkali fields.

Thus Pokkali farming might fade into history….

Read the full article here
(This article was the winning entry of the 2007 Asian Rice Journalist Award competition organised by PAN AP and the IFEJ. Written by KPM Basheer of Kerala, it was first published in “The Hindu” on 26 August 2007 where Basheer is a Special Correspondent.)
 

Hill rice farming in Sabah, East Malaysia
By Pacos Trust

In a Dusun ethnic community in Bundu village in the Keningau district of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia, traditional hill rice cultivation is still practised. Bundu is a cluster of four villages located at the district boundary between Tambunan and Keningau towns. The people in Bundu depend on subsistence farming for livelihood, using both alluvial silt and hilly areas to grow wet and dry rice and other food crops. This not only maintains the diversity and vitality of the land but provides for the food requirements of the people.

As land suitable for wet rice cultivation is limited, most farmers practice hill rice cultivation, whereby each family opens-up about 1-2 hectares of secondary forest every year. Among vegetables, ginger has become very popular among farmers because of the good price and high demand outside Keningau. Selling handicrafts made from rattan and bamboo from the surrounding forest is also an important source of income. Rubber is a new source of income for those who have tilted land.

Like other indigenous groups in Sabah, the people of Bundu still maintain much of their community values and practices. The practice of helping each other in terms of labor (known as gotong royong) is still common – for example, in clearing, planting and harvesting rice and ginger. Generally, the community maintains a close relationship with the forest, farm land and streams. Some have extensive knowledge of the use and care of these resources. Traditional medicines derived from the forest are widely used for minor injuries and sicknesses.

However, the recent trend towards the large-scale opening up of privately owned secondary forest for ginger plantation is not only threatening the river-forest ecosystem but also the food security of the community.

For the full report of the study conducted by Pacos Trust on this community, please click here