Podded vegetables

Rice

History of domestication & cultivation

Asia

Rice has been cultivated in Asia likely over 10,000 years.

Africa

African rice has been cultivated for 3500 years. Between 1500 and 800 BC, O. glaberrima propagated from its original centre, the Niger River delta, and extended to Senegal. However, it never developed far from its original region. Its cultivation even declined in favour of the Asian species, possibly brought to the African continent by Arabs coming from the east coast between the 7th and 11th centuries CE.

In parts of Africa under Islam, rice was chiefly grown in southern Morocco. During the tenth century rice was also brought to east Africa by Muslim traders. Although, the diffusion of rice in much sub-Saharan Africa remains uncertain, Muslims brought it to the region stretching from Lake Chad to the White Nile.¹⁵

The actual and hypothesized cultivation of rice (areas shown in green) in the Old World (both Muslim and non-Muslim regions) during Islamic times (700-1500). Cultivation of rice during pre-Islamic times have been shown in orange.¹⁵

Middle East

According to Zohary and Hopf (2000, p. 91), O. sativa was introduced to the Middle East in Hellenistic times, and was familiar to both Greek and Roman writers. They report that a large sample of rice grains was recovered from a grave at Susa in Iran (dated to the first century AD) at one end of the ancient world, while at the same time rice was grown in the Po valley in Italy. However, Pliny the Elder writes that rice (oryza) is grown only in “Egypt, Syria, Cilicia, Asia Minor and Greece” (N.H. 18.19).[citation needed]

After the rise of Islam, rice was grown anywhere there was enough water to irrigate it. Thus, desert oases, river valleys, and swamp lands were all important sources of rice during the Muslim Agricultural Revolution.¹⁵

In Iraq rice was grown in some areas of southern Iraq. With the rise of Islam it moved north to Nisibin, the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and then beyond the Muslim world into the valley of Volga. In Palestine, rice came to be grown in the Jordan valley. Rice is also grown in Yemen.¹⁵

Europe

The Muslims (later known as Moors) brought Asiatic rice to the Iberian Peninsula in the tenth century. Records indicate it was grown in Valencia and Majorca. In Majorca, rice cultivation seems to have stopped after the Christian conquest, although historians are not certain.¹⁵

Muslims also brought rice to Sicily, where it was an important crop.¹⁵

After the middle of the 15th century, rice spread throughout Italy and then France, later propagating to all the continents during the age of European exploration.

Caribbean and Latin America

Rice is not native to the Americas but was introduced to the Caribbean and South America by European colonizers at an early date with Spanish colonizers introducing Asian rice to Mexico in the 1520s at Veracruz and the Portuguese and their African slaves introducing it at about the same time to Colonial Brazil.¹⁶ Recent scholarship suggests that African slaves 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.¹⁷ In either case, varieties of rice and bean dishes were a staple dish along the peoples of West Africa and they remained a staple among their descendants subjected to slavery in the Spanish New World colonies and elsewhere in the Americas.¹⁸

United States

In 1694, rice arrived in South Carolina, probably originating from Madagascar.¹⁹

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, in recognition of their prior knowledge of rice culture, which was put to use on the many rice plantations around Georgetown, Charleston, and Savannah. From the slaves, plantation owners learned how to dyke the marshes and periodically flood the fields. At first the rice was milled by hand with wooden paddles, then winnowed in sweetgrass baskets (the making of which was another skill brought by the slaves). The invention of the rice mill increased profitability of the crop, and the addition of water power 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-1800s at the historic Mansfield Plantation in Georgetown, SC. 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.²⁰

American long-grain rice plants

In the southern United States, rice has been grown in southern Arkansas, Louisiana, and east Texas since the mid 1800s. Many Cajun farmers grew rice in wet marshes and low lying prairies where they could also farm crayfish when the fields were flooded²¹. In recent years rice production has risen in North America, especially in the Mississippi River Delta areas in the states of Arkansas and Mississippi.

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.²² By 2006, California produced the second largest rice crop in the United States,²³ after Arkansas, with production concentrated in six counties north of Sacramento.²⁴ Unlike the 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 eighty five percent of the state’s crop.²⁵

More than 100 varieties of rice are commercially produced primarily in six states (Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and California) in the U.S.²⁶ 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.²⁶ The majority of domestic utilization of U.S. rice is direct food use (58%), while 16 percent is used in processed foods and beer respectively. The remaining 10 percent is found in pet food.²⁶

Australia

Although attempts to grow rice in the well-watered north of Australia have been made for many years, they have consistently failed because of inherent iron and manganese toxicities in the soils and destruction by pests.

In the 1920s it was seen as a possible irrigation crop on soils within the Murray-Darling Basin that were too heavy for the cultivation of fruit and too infertile for wheat.²⁷

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, and the first mill opened at Leeton in 1951.

Even before this Australia’s rice production greatly exceeded local needs,²⁷ and rice exports to Japan have become a major source of foreign currency. Above-average rainfall from the 1950s to the middle 1990s²⁸ 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 exceedingly efficient and 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.

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Preparation as food

The seeds of the rice plant are first milled using a rice huller to remove the chaff (the outer husks of the grain). At this point in the process, the product is called brown rice. The milling may be continued, removing the ‘bran’, i.e., the rest of the husk and the germ, thereby creating white rice. White rice, which keeps longer, lacks some important nutrients; in a limited diet which does not supplement the rice, brown rice helps to prevent the disease beriberi.

White rice may be also buffed with glucose or talc powder (often called polished rice, though this term may also refer to white rice in general), parboiled, or processed into flour. White rice may also be enriched by adding nutrients, especially those lost during the milling process. While the cheapest method of enriching involves adding a powdered blend of nutrients that will easily wash off (in the United States, rice which has been so treated requires a label warning against rinsing), more sophisticated methods apply nutrients directly to the grain, coating the grain with a water insoluble substance which is resistant to washing.

Rice bran, called nukkah in Japan, is a valuable commodity in Asia and is used for many daily needs. It is a moist, oily inner layer which is heated to produce an oil. It is also used as a pickling bed in making rice bran pickles and Takuan.

Raw rice may be ground into flour for many uses, including making many kinds of beverages such as amazake, horchata, rice milk, and sake. Rice flour does not contain gluten and is suitable for people on a gluten-free diet. Rice may also be made into various types of noodles. Raw wild or brown rice may also be consumed by raw-foodist or fruitarians if soaked and sprouted (usually 1 week to 30 days); see also Gaba rice below.

Processed rice seeds must be boiled or steamed before eating. Cooked rice may be further fried in oil or butter, or beaten in a tub to make mochi.

Rice is a good source of protein and a staple food in many parts of the world, but it is not a complete protein: it does not contain all of the essential amino acids in sufficient amounts for good health, and should be combined with other sources of protein, such as nuts, seeds, beans, fish, or meat.⁹

Rice, like other cereal grains, can be puffed (or popped). This process takes advantage of the grains’ water content and typically involves heating grains in a special chamber. Further puffing is sometimes accomplished by processing pre-puffed pellets in a low-pressure chamber. The ideal gas law means that either lowering the local pressure or raising the water temperature results in an increase in volume prior to water evaporation, resulting in a puffy texture. Bulk raw rice density is about 0.9 g/cm³. It decreases to less than one-tenth that when puffed.

p. Cooking

There are many varieties of rice; for many purposes the main distinction is between long- and medium-grain rice. The grains of long-grain rice (high amylose) tend to remain intact after cooking; medium-grain rice (high amylopectin) becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for sweet dishes, and for risotto and many Spanish dishes.

Rice is cooked by boiling or steaming, and absorbs water during cooking. It can be cooked in just as much water as it absorbs (the absorption method), or in a large quantity of water which is drained before serving (the rapid-boil method).¹⁰ Electric rice cookers, popular in Asia and Latin America, simplify the process of cooking rice. Rice is often heated in oil before boiling, or oil is added to the water; this is thought to make the cooked rice less sticky.

In Arab cuisine rice is an ingredient of many soups and dishes with fish, poultry, and other types of meat. It is also used to stuff vegetables or is wrapped in grape leaves. When combined with milk, sugar and honey, it is used to make desserts. In some regions, such as Tabaristan, bread is made using rice flour. Medieval Islamic texts spoke of medical uses for the plant.¹¹

Rice may also be made into rice porridge (also called congee or rice gruel) by adding more water than usual, so that the cooked rice is saturated with water to the point that it becomes very soft, expanded, and fluffy. Rice porridge is commonly eaten as a breakfast food, and is also a traditional food for the sick.

Rice may be soaked prior to cooking, which saves fuel, decreases cooking time, minimizes exposure to high temperature and thus decreases the stickiness of the rice. For some varieties, soaking improves the texture of the cooked rice by increasing expansion of the grains.

In some countries parboiled rice is popular. Parboiled rice is subjected to a steaming or parboiling process while still a brown rice. This causes nutrients from the outer husk to move into the grain itself. The parboil process causes a gelatinisation of the starch in the grains. The grains become less brittle, and the color of the milled grain changes from white to yellow. The rice is then dried, and can then be milled as usual or used as brown rice. Milled parboiled rice is nutritionally superior to standard milled rice. Parboiled rice has an additional benefit in that it does not stick to the pan during cooking, as happens when cooking regular white rice.

Minute Rice, or “easy-cook rice”, differs from parboiled rice in that it is milled, fully cooked and then dried. It does not share the nutritional benefits of parboiling.

A nutritionally superior method of preparing brown rice known as GABA Rice or GBR (Germinated Brown Rice)¹² may be used. This involves soaking washed brown rice for 20 hours in warm water (38°C or 100°F) prior to cooking it. This process stimulates germination, which activates various enzymes in the rice. By this method, a result of research carried out for the United Nations Year of Rice, it is possible to obtain a more complete amino acid profile, including GABA.

Cooked rice can contain Bacillus cereus spores, which produce an emetic toxin when left at 4°C–60°C ⁴. When storing cooked rice for use the next day, rapid cooling is advised to reduce the risk of toxin production.

Rice flour and starch often are used in batters and breadings to increase crispiness.

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Cultivation

The traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields whilst, or after, setting the young seedlings. This simple method requires sound planning and servicing of the water damming and channeling, but reduces the growth of less robust weed and pest plants that have no submerged growth state, and deters vermin. While with rice growing and cultivation the flooding is not mandatory, all other methods of irrigation require higher effort in weed and pest control during growth periods and a different approach for fertilizing the soil.

Rice growing ecology

Rice can be grown in different ecologies, depending upon water availability.¹³

Lowland, rainfed, which is drought prone, favors medium depth; waterlogged, submergence, and flood prone

Lowland, irrigated, grown in both the wet season and the dry season

Deep water or floating rice

Coastal Wetland

Upland rice, also known as ‘Ghaiya rice’, well known for its drought tolerance¹⁴

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Cultivars

While most breeding of rice is carried out for crop quality and productivity, there are varieties selected for other reasons such as texture, smell and squishiness. Cultivars exist that are adapted to deep flooding, and these are generally called ‘floating rice’ ¹³.

The largest collection of rice cultivars is at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), with over 100,000 rice accessions ¹⁴ held in the International Rice Genebank ¹⁵. Rice cultivars are often classified by their grain shapes and texture. For example, Thai Jasmine rice is long-grain and relatively less sticky, as long-grain rice contains less amylopectin than short-grain cultivars. Chinese restaurants usually serve long-grain as plain unseasoned steamed rice. Japanese mochi rice and Chinese sticky rice are short-grain. Chinese people use sticky rice which is properly known as “glutinous rice” (note: glutinous refer to the glue-like characteristic of rice; does not refer to “gluten”) to make zongzi. The Japanese table rice is a sticky, short-grain rice. Japanese sake rice is another kind as well.

Indian rice cultivars include long-grained and aromatic Basmati (grown in the North), long and medium-grained Patna rice and short-grained Sona Masoori (also spelled Sona Masuri). In the state of Tamil Nadu, the most prized cultivar is ponni which is primarily grown in the delta regions of Kaveri River. Kaveri is also referred to as ponni in the South and the name reflects the geographic region where it is grown. In the Western Indian state of Maharashtra, a short grain variety called Ambemohar is very popular. this rice has a characteristic fragrance of Mango blossom.

Aromatic rices have definite aromas and flavours; the most noted cultivars are Thai fragrant rice, Basmati, Patna rice, and a hybrid cultivar from America sold under the trade name, Texmati. Both Basmati and Texmati have a mild popcorn-like aroma and flavour. In Indonesia there are also red and black cultivars.

High-yield cultivars of rice suitable for cultivation in Africa and other dry ecosystems called the new rice for Africa (NERICA) cultivars have been developed. It is hoped that their cultivation will improve food security in West Africa.

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