Asia | Rice

Know you that your bowl of rice each grain from hardship comes?Chinese saying

Rice is the grain with the second highest worldwide production after corn/maize, and probably the most important cereal for human nutrition and caloric intake. It provides more than one fifth of the calories that human beings consume worldwide.

Rice cultivation is very labor-intensive and is well suited to regions with high rainfall, as it requires plenty of water. The traditional method of cultivation is flooding during or after setting the young seedlings.

Mature rice seeds are milled to remove the chaff and the resulting brown rice can be processed further to eliminate the remaining husk and germ, thereby creating white rice. Raw rice can be ground into flour; processed rice seeds must be boiled or steamed before eating. Cooked rice may be further fried in oil or butter.

Rice cultivation is said to date as far back as 10,000 years, when growing techniques spread throughout south and southeast Asia. Today, more than 1 billion men and women spend most of their lives doing little more than growing enough rice to keep alive.

That history has nurtured a special consciousness about rice in many Asian societies. In some parts of the continent, the word for rice is the same as that for food, agriculture or even life itself.

Asia | Rice

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