Half of humanity eats rice, yet little of it crosses borders
Rice feeds more than half the people on Earth, and 800 million tons were grown in 2023. Yet only about 8 percent is sold between countries. Most is eaten close to where it is harvested, and a surprising share in poorer nations spoils before it ever reaches a plate.
Two species were tamed on two continents. Asian rice, Oryza sativa, was domesticated in China somewhere between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, while African rice was brought into cultivation separately in West Africa around 3,000 years ago. By tonnage it now trails only sugarcane and maize, and China, India and Indonesia eat the most. The English word arrived in the thirteenth century through Old French ris and Latin oriza, and is related to a Sanskrit term for the grain.
The plant is a grass that usually tops a metre, though deepwater varieties stretch to 5 metres. It takes about six months from seed to harvest, and each flowering head can carry up to 350 spikelets. Much Asian rice is still transplanted by hand, which saves seed but costs labour. Despite its paddy image, rice does poorly if kept permanently underwater. Alternate wetting and drying, letting the water sink below the surface before reflooding, saves water, while upland rice in hilly regions relies on rain alone.
Texture depends on two starches, amylose and amylopectin. Long-grain Indica types cook dry and separate; short-grain Japonica sticks together, which is why it suits sushi. Black rice, coloured by anthocyanins, is also called forbidden rice because in ancient China it was reserved for royalty. Golden rice was engineered to contain vitamin A.
Growing it has costs. Rice production accounted for over 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, and forecasts of how warming will affect yields differ from place to place. Pests, weeds and diseases such as rice blast take their toll, and traditional practices like raising ducks in the paddies are one way farmers keep damage down.
Source: Rice
