Rice

Background

As a main source of nourishment for over half the world's population, rice is by far one of the most important commercial food crops. Its annual yield worldwide is approximately 535 million tons. Fifty countries produce rice, with China and India supporting 50% of total production. Southeast Asian countries separately support an annual production rate of 9-23 million metric tons of which they export very little. Collectively, they are termed the Rice Bowl. Over 300 million acres of Asian land is used for growing rice. Rice production is so important to Asian cultures that oftentimes the word for rice in a particular Asian language also means food itself.

Rice is a member of the grass family (Gramineae). There are more that 10,000 species of grasses distributed among 600 genera. Grasses occur worldwide in a variety of habitats. They are dominant species in such ecosystems as prairies and steppes, and they are an important source of forage for herbivorous animals. Many grass species are also primary agricultural crops for humans. As well as rice, they include maize, wheat, sorghum, barley, oats, and sugar cane.

Typically, grass species are annual plants or are herbaceous perennials that die back to the ground at the end of the growing season and then regenerate the next season by shoots developing from underground root systems. Shoots generally are characterized by swollen nodes or bases. Leaves are long and narrow, varying in width from 0.28-0.79 in (7-20 mm). Flowers are small and are called florets. Grasses pollinate by using the wind to widely and opportunistically disperse grass pollen. The fruits are known as a caryopsis or grain, are one-seeded, and can contain a large concentration of starch.

Classified in the genus Oryza, there are two species of domesticated rice—O. sativa and 0. glaberrima. 0. sativa is the most common and often cultivated plant, occurring in Africa, America, Australia, China, New Guinea, and South Asia. The natural habitat of rice is tropical marshes, but it is now cultivated in a wide range of subtropical and tropical habitats. Unlike other agricultural crop grasses, rice plants thrive under extremely moist conditions and moderate temperatures. The ideal climate is roughly 75° F (24° C). Average plant height varies between 1.3-16.4 ft (0.4-5 m). Its growth cycle is between three to six months (agriculturally, this is broken down into three phases lasting approximately 120 days). Rice plants produce a variety of short- to long-grain rices, as well as aromatic grains.

There are three different types of rice: japonica, javanica, and indica. Japonica rice varieties are high yielding and tend to be resistant to disease. Javanica types of rice fall between japonica and indica varieties in terms of yield, use, and hardiness. Although quite hardy, indica yield less than japonica types and are most often grown in the tropics.

Because cultivation is so widespread, development of four distinct types of ecosystems has occurred. They are commonly referred to as irrigated, rainfed lowland, upland, and flood-prone agroecological zones. Irrigated ecosystems are the primary type found in East Asia. Irrigated ecosystems provide 75% of global rice production. Irrigated rice is grown in bunded (embanked), paddy fields. Rainfed lowland ecosystems only sustain one crop per growing season and fields are flooded as much as 19.7 in (50 cm) during part of the season. Rainfed low-land rice is grown in such areas as East India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand, and is 25% of total rice area used worldwide. Production is variable because of the lack of technology used in rice production. Rainfed lowland farmers are typically challenged by poor soil quality, drought/flood conditions, and erratic yields. Upland zones are found in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is the primary type of rice ecosystem in Latin America and West Africa. Upland rice fields are generally dry, unbunded, and directly seeded. Land utilized in upland rice production runs the gamut of descriptions. It can be low lying, drought-prone, rolling, or steep sloping. Usually, crops are either sown interspersed with another crop, intermittently with another crop, or the crop is shifted every few years to a new location. Lastly, flood-prone ecosystems are prevalent in South and Southeast Asia, and are characterized by periods of extreme flooding and drought. Yields are low and variable. Flooding occurs during the wet season from June to November, and rice varieties are chosen for their level of tolerance to submersion.

Rice is mostly eaten steamed or boiled, but it can also be dried and ground into a flour. Like most grains, rice can be used to make beer and liquors. Rice straw is used to make paper and can also be woven into mats, hats, and other products.

History

Since it has been such an important grain worldwide, the domestication and cultivation of rice is one of the most important events in history that has had the greatest impact on the most people. When and where the domestication of rice took place is not specifically known, but new archaeological evidence points to an area along the Yangtze River in central China and dates back as far as 11,000 years. Researched by a team of Japanese and Chinese archaeologists and presented at the 1996 International Symposium on Agriculture and Civilizations in Nara, Japan, radiocarbon testing of 125 samples of rice grains and husks, as well as of rice impressions in pottery, from sites located along a specific portion of the Yangtze unanimously indicate a median age of over 11,000 years. Another discovery of possibly the oldest settlement found in China, which is located closely upstream from the other sites, gives credence to the new findings.

In any event, it wasn't until the development of puddling and transplanting of the rice plant that the spread of rice as an agricultural crop really began. Practiced in the wetlands of China, the concept of the rice paddy was adopted by Southeast Asia in roughly 2000 b.c. Wetland cultivation techniques migrated to Indonesia around 1500 b.c. and then to Japan by 100 b.c. To the West, rice was also an early important crop in India and Sri Lanka, dating as far back as 2500 b.c. and 1000 b.c. respectively.

The spread to Europe, Africa, and America occurred more slowly, first with the Moor's invasion of Spain in 700 a.d. and then later to the New World during the age of exploration and colonialism. Rice has been grown in the United States since the seventeenth century in such areas as the southeastern and southern states, as well as California.

Raw Materials

The only raw material needed for commercial production of rice is the rice seed or seedlings. Additional use of herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizer can increase the likelihood of a larger yield.

Design

Varieties of rice are selected and grown specifically for their end use. In the United States, long-grain rice is typically used for boiling, quick-cook products, and soup. Whereas, shorter-grain rice is used in cereal, baby food, and beer/liquors.

The Manufacturing
Process

Preparation

• 1 Prior to planting, minimal soil manipulation is needed to prepare for cultivation. If the rice will be grown on a hilly terrain, the area must be leveled into terraces. Paddies are leveled and surrounded by dikes or levees with the aide of earth-moving equipment. Then, the fields are plowed before planting. In the United States, rice is most often planted on river deltas and plowing is accomplished with a disk plow, an off-set disk plow, or a chisel. Adequate irrigation of the terrace or river delta bed is required and accomplished by leveling and by controlling water with pumps, reservoirs, ditches, and streams.

Planting

• 2 Rice seeds are soaked prior to planting.
• 3 Depending on the level of mechanization and the size of the planting, seeding occurs in three ways. In many Asian countries that haven't mechanized their farming practices, seeds are sown by hand. After 30-50 days of growth, the seedlings are transplanted in bunches from nursery beds to flooded paddies. Seeds can also be sown using a machine called a drill that places the seed in the ground. Larger enterprises often found in the United States sow rice seed by airplane. Low-flying planes distribute seed onto already flooded fields. An average distribution is 90-100 lb per acre (101-111 kg per hectare), creating roughly 15-30 seedlings per square foot.

Harvesting

• 4 Once the plants have reached full growth (approximately three months after planting) and the grains begin to ripen—the tops begin to droop and the stem yellows—the water is drained from the fields. As the fields dry, the grains ripen further and harvesting is commenced.
• 5 Depending on the size of the operation and the amount of mechanization, rice is either harvested by hand or machine. By hand, rice stalks are cut by sharp knives or sickles. This practice still occurs in many Asian countries. Rice can also be harvested by a mechanized hand harvester or by a tractor/horse-drawn machine that cuts and stacks the rice stalks. In the United States, most operations use large combines to harvest and thresh—separate the grain from the stalk—the rice stalks.
• 6 If the rice has been harvested by hand or by a semi-automated process, threshing is completed by flailing the stalks by hand or by using a mechanized thresher.

Drying

• 7 Before milling, rice grains must be dried in order to decrease the moisture content to between 18-22%. This is done with artificially heated air or, more often, with the help of naturally occurring sunshine. Rice grains are left on racks in fields to dry out naturally. Once dried, the rice grain, now called rough rice, is ready for processing.

Hulling

• 8 Hulling can be done by hand by rolling or grinding the rough rice between stones. However, more often it is processed at a mill with the help of automated processes. The rough rice is first cleaned by passing through a number of sieves that sift out the debris. Blown air removes top matter.
• 9 Once clean, the rice is hulled by a machine that mimics the action of the handheld stones. The shelling machine loosens the hulls from the rice by rolling them between two sheets of metal coated with abrasives. 80-90% of the kernel hulls are removed during this process.
• 10 From the shelling machine, the grains and hulls are conveyed to a stone reel that aspirates the waste hulls and moves the kernels to a machine that separates the hulled from the unhulled grains. By shaking the kernels, the paddy machine forces the heavier unhulled grains to one side of the machine, while the lighter weight rice falls to the other end. The unhulled grains are then siphoned to another batch of shelling machines to complete the hulling process. Hulled rice grains are known as brown rice.

Milling

Since it retains the outer bran layers of the rice grain, brown rice needs no other processing. However along with added vitamins and minerals, the bran layers also contain oil that makes brown rice spoil faster than milled white rice. That is one of the reasons why brown rice is milled further to create a more visually appealing white rice.

• 11 The brown rice runs through two huller machines that remove the outer bran layers from the grain. With the grains pressed against the inner wall of the huller and a spinning core, the bran layers are rubbed off. The core and inner wall move closer for the second hulling, ensuring removal of all bran layers.
• 12 The now light-colored grain is cooled and polished by a brush machine.
• 13 The smooth white rice is conveyed to a brewer's reel, where over a wire mesh screen broken kernels are sifted out. Oftentimes, the polished white rice is then coated with glucose to increase luster.

Enriching

The milling process that produces white rice also removes much of the vitamins and minerals found primarily in the outer bran layers. Further processing is often done in order to restore the nutrients to the grain. Once complete, the rice is called converted rice.

• 14 White rice is converted in one of two ways. Prior to milling, the rice is steeped under pressure in order to transfer all the vitamins and minerals from the bran layers to the kernel itself. Once done, the rice is steamed, dried, and then milled. Rice that has already been milled can be submersed in a vitamin and mineral bath that coats the grains. Once soaked, they are dried and mixed with unconverted rice.

Quality Control

Quality control practices vary with the size and location of each farm. Large commercial rice farms in the United States more often than not apply the most effective combination of herbicides, fertilization, crop rotation, and newest farming equipment to optimize their yields. Smaller, less mechanized operations are more likely to be influenced by traditional cultural methods of farming rather than high technology. Certainly, there are benefits to both approaches and a union of the two is ideal. Rotating crops during consecutive years is a traditional practice that encourages large yield as is the planting of hardier seed varieties developed with the help of modern hybridization practices.

Byproducts/Waste

Straw from the harvested rice plants is used as bedding for livestock. Oil extracted from discarded rice bran is used in livestock feed. Hulls are used to produce mulch that will eventually be used to recondition the farm soil.

The essential use of irrigation, flooding, and draining techniques in rice farming also produces runoff of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers into natural water systems. The extensive use of water in rice farming also increases its level of methane emissions. Rice farming is responsible for 14% of total global methane emissions.

The Future

With one out of every three people on earth dependent on rice as a staple food in their diet and with 80-100 million new people to be fed annually, the importance of rice production to the worldwide human population is crucial. Scientists and farmers face the daunting task of increasing yield while minimizing rice farming's negative environmental effects. Organizations such as the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the West African Rice Development Association (WARDA), and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT [International Center for Tropical Agriculture]) are conducting research that will eventually lead to more productive varieties of rice and rice hybrids, use of less water during the growing season, decrease in the use of fresh organic fertilizer that contributes to greenhouse effect, and crops more resistant to disease and pests.

Where To Learn More

Books

Huke, R.E. and E.H. Rice: Then and Now. International Rice Institute, 1990.

Johnson, Sylvia A. Rice. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Co., 1985.

Periodicals

"Limiting Rice's Role in Global Warming." Science News (July 10, 1993): 30.

Normile, Dennis. "Yangtze Seen as Earliest Rice Site." Science (January 17, 1997): 309.

Other

Riceweb. http://www.riceweb.org/ (June 29, 1999).

—JacquelineL.Longe

rice cereal grain ( Oryza sativa ) of the grass family (Graminae), probably native to the deltas of the great Asian rivers—the Ganges, the Chang (Yangtze), and the Tigris and Euphrates. The plant is an annual, from 2 to 6 ft (61-183 cm) tall, with a round, jointed stem; long, pointed leaves; and edible seeds borne in a dense head on separate stalks. Wild rice is obtained from a different grass plant.

Cultivation and Harvesting

Methods of growing differ greatly in different localities, but in most Asian countries the traditional hand methods of cultivating and harvesting rice are still practiced. The fields are prepared by plowing (typically with simple plows drawn by water buffalo), fertilizing (usually with dung or sewage), and smoothing (by dragging a log over them). The seedlings are started in seedling beds and, after 30 to 50 days, are transplanted by hand to the fields, which have been flooded by rain or river water. During the growing season, irrigation is maintained by dike-controlled canals or by hand watering. The fields are allowed to drain before cutting.

Rice when it is still covered by the brown hull is known as paddy; rice fields are also called paddy fields or rice paddies. Before marketing, the rice is threshed to loosen the hulls—mainly by flailing, treading, or working in a mortar—and winnowed free of chaff by tossing it in the air above a sheet or mat.

In the United States and in many parts of Europe, rice cultivation has undergone the same mechanization at all stages of cultivation and harvesting as have other grain crops. Rice was introduced to the American colonies in the mid-17th cent. and soon became an important crop. Although U.S. production is less than that of wheat and corn, rice is grown in excess of domestic consumption and has been exported, mainly to Europe and South America. Chief growing areas of the United States are in California, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The world's leading rice-producing countries are China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Thailand. Total annual world production is more than half a billion metric tons.

Importance of Rice as a Food

It has been estimated that half the world's population subsists wholly or partially on rice. Ninety percent of the world crop is grown and consumed in Asia. American consumption, although increasing, is still only about 25 lb (11 kg) per person annually, as compared with 200 to 400 lb (90-181 kg) per person in parts of Asia. Rice is the only major cereal crop that is primarily consumed by humans directly as harvested, and only wheat and corn are produced in comparable quantity. Plant breeders at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, attempting to keep pace with demand from a burgeoning world population, have repeatedly developed improved varieties of "miracle rice" that allow farmers to increase crop yields substantially.

Brown rice has a greater food value than white, since the outer brown coatings contain the proteins and minerals; the white endosperm is chiefly carbohydrate. As a food rice is low in fat and (compared with other cereal grains) in protein. The miracle rices have grains richer in protein than the old varieties. In the East, rice is eaten with foods and sauces made from the soybean , which supply lacking elements and prevent deficiency diseases. Elsewhere, especially in the United States, rice processing techniques have produced breakfast and snack foods for retail markets. Deficient in gluten, rice cannot be used to make bread unless its flour is mixed with flour made from other grains.

Other Uses

For feeding domestic animals, the bran, meal, and chopped straw are useful, especially when mixed with the polishings or given with skim milk. The polishings are also an important source of furfural and other chemurgic products. The straw, which is soft and fine, is plaited in East Asia for hats and shoes, and the hulls supply mattress filling and packing material. Laundry starch is manufactured from the broken grain, which is also used by distillers. A distilled liquor called arrack is sometimes prepared from a rice infusion, and in Japan the beverage sake is brewed from rice. Rice paper is made from a plant of the ginseng family.

History of Rice Cultivation

Rice has been cultivated in China since ancient times and was introduced to India before the time of the Greeks. Chinese records of rice cultivation go back 4,000 years. In classical Chinese the words for agriculture and for rice culture are synonymous, indicating that rice was already the staple crop at the time the language was taking form. In several Asian languages the words for rice and food are identical. Many ceremonies have arisen in connection with planting and harvesting rice, and the grain and the plant are traditional motifs in Oriental art. Thousands of rice strains are now known, both cultivated and escaped, and the original form is unknown.

Rice cultivation has been carried into all regions having the necessary warmth and abundant moisture favorable to its growth, mainly subtropical rather than hot or cold. The crop was common in West Africa by the end of the 17th cent. It is thought that slaves from that area who were transported to the Carolinas in the mid-18th cent. introduced the complex agricultural technology, thus playing a key part in the establishment of American rice cultivation. Their labor then insured a flourishing rice industry. Modern culture makes use of irrigation, and a few varieties of rice may be grown with only a moderate supply of water.

Classification

Rice is classified in the division Magnoliophyta , class Liliopsida, order Cyperales, family Gramineae.

Bibliography

See Food and Agricultural Organization, Rice (annual); D. H. Grist, Rice (6th ed. 1986); J. A. Carney, Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas (2001).

Rice

Rice (Oryza sativa ) is a staple food for nearly half of the world's population. Rice is a member of the grass family, which also includes wheat, corn, sorghum, barley, oats, and rye. Unlike other grains, rice is well adapted to aquatic environments. Rice originated in Southeast Asia, where archeological evidence—including carbon-dated grain imprints in pottery shards—indicates that it was under cultivation at least six thousand years ago. Cultivated rice consists of two subspecies, O. sativa subsp. indica, which is grown in the tropics and subtropics, and O. sativa subsp. japonica, which is grown in temperate regions.

Although rice is grown in 115 countries, over 90 percent of the crop is in Asia. In 1999 world rice area was 153 million hectares (Mha), and total production was 589 million metric tons (Mmt). India had the largest area, 43.0 million hectares, and China was second with 31.7 million hectares. However, yields in China averaged 6.33 metric tons per hectare (mt/ha) compared to 2.97 metric tons per hectare in India, so China had the largest total production. Other leading rice countries in 1999 were: Indonesia, 11.5 million hectares; Bangladesh, 10.5 million hectares; Thailand, 10.3 million hectares; Myanmar, 5.6 million hectares; Brazil, 3.7 million hectares; the Philippines, 3.9 million hectares; and Pakistan, 2.4 million hectares. The United States was far down the list at 1.4 million hectares, but with yields of 6.65 metric tons per hectare was well ahead of the world average yield of 3.84 metric tons per hectare.

Except for a small amount for seed, all rice is used for human consumption. Most rice is consumed in the country where it is grown, with about 5 percent going into international trade. In the late 1990s, five countries dominated export markets, in the following descending order: Thailand, Vietnam, the United States, India, and Pakistan. About 40 percent of the U.S. crop is exported, with leading destinations being Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Cultivation Techniques

Rice is grown under conditions ranging from full flood to rainfed upland conditions. Highest yields are obtained under flood, so the half of the world's rice area that is flooded produces 75 percent of the total crop. U.S. production is all flooded. Although rice is primarily a tropical or subtropical crop, it is grown from 53°N to 40°S. Interestingly, highest yields are obtained in high-latitude temperate areas such as Australia, Egypt, Korea, Italy, Spain, Uruguay, and the United States. High yields in the temperate areas occur because of longer day length, fewer storms, and relative freedom from the traditional diseases and insect pests of the tropics.

In the tropics and subtropics, rice is transplanted into flooded fields, following two or three weeks of initial growth in seedbeds. Most transplanting is by hand, but machine transplanting is becoming popular as labor costs increase. In temperate regions rice is direct seeded, either with grain drills into soil or water seeded by airplane into flooded fields. In all cultivation systems, highest yields are obtained by keeping the floodwater on for as much of the season as possible. Fertilizers are applied before and during the growing season, and weeds are controlled by handweeding and herbicides. About two or three weeks before harvest, fields are drained. In the tropics and subtropics, harvest is by hand while in temperate regions grain combines are used. All harvesting techniques involve threshing the grains from the panicles at the top of the plant. Man-hours per hectare for producing rice are as high as 300 in hand-transplanting cultivation, but are as little as 20 in mechanized cultivation in the United States. Total length of the growing season is 100 to 130 days. In the tropics two or even three rice crops may be produced per year, but in temperate areas only one crop is grown per year.

Harvest and Milling

At harvest, rice grain is called paddy or rough rice. In preparation for consumption, the hulls are removed by dehulling machines. Hulls, which are 18 percent by weight of paddy, have high silica content and are of little value except for onsite fuel or mixing into compost materials. Hull removal produces brown rice, which then is milled to remove the grain's outer layers, called bran, 10 percent by weight of paddy, and white rice, 72 percent by weight of paddy. Edible oil, about 2 percent by weight of paddy, is extracted from the bran and the remainder of the bran goes into pet food. Virtually all human consumption is as milled white rice, except for a small amount as brown rice in health food markets. In much of the world the milled rice goes into food use. In the United States, 81 percent of the domestic use of rice is for food, 15 percent for brewing, and the remaining 4 percent for seeding the next crop.

Worldwide, per-capita consumption of milled rice is 84 kilograms per year. Per-capita consumption is declining in developing nations as they become more affluent. In the United States, per-capita consumption is now 12 kilograms, which represents a doubling since the early 1980s. The increase in the United States is due to growth in ethnic groups who prefer rice, to recognition that rice is a healthful food, and to rice industry promotion efforts.

Rice and the Green Revolution

The Green Revolution began in the 1960s, when tall, lodging -susceptible rice and wheat varieties were converted to semidwarf varieties. The semidwarfs stand up better, produce more panicles per unit area, are more responsive to fertilization, and yield more. For example, in the pre-Green Revolution era of the early 1960s, world average rice yields were about 2 metric tons per hectare, compared to the 1999 average of 3.8 metric tons per hectare. The combination of high yielding semidwarfs plus more intensive cultural practices has driven the increase.

Wild Rice

In North America the term wild rice refers to an unrelated aquatic crop, Zizania palustris, which is grown in cooler areas such as Manitoba, Canada, and Minnesota. Small portions of Z. palustris grain are blended into gourmet preparations of regular rice. In Asia the term wild rice refers to the twenty related species of Oryza, which also are called weedy rice. One of these related species, Oryza glaberrima, is cultivated in Africa, but is being rapidly replaced by the higher-yielding O. sativa. The wild or weedy species of Oryza serve as sources of resistance to diseases and insects of cultivated rice.

see also Agriculture, History of; Agriculture, Modern; Borlaug, Norman; Economic Importance of Plants; Grains; Grasses; Green Revolution.

J. Neil Rutger

Bibliography

Food and Agricultural Organization Statistical Databases. 1999. [Online] Available at http://apps.fao.org.

Riceweb. 1999. [Online] Available at http://www.riceweb.org.

Rutger, J. Neil, and D. Marlon Brandon. "California Rice Culture." Scientific American 244 2 (1981): 42-51.

Teubner, Christian, Eckart Witzigmann, and Tony Khoo. The Rice Bible. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1999.

rice Grain of Oryza sativa; major food in many countries. Rice when threshed is known as paddy, and is covered with a fibrous husk comprising nearly 40% of the grain. When the husk has been removed, brown rice is left. When the outer bran layers up to the endosperm and germ are removed, the ordinary white rice of commerce or polished rice is obtained (usually polished with glucose and talc).

A 200‐g portion of boiled brown rice is a good source of niacin and copper; a source of protein, vitamin B₁, and selenium; provides 1.6 g of dietary fibre; supplies 280 kcal (1180 kJ). A 200‐g portion of boiled white rice is a source of niacin and protein; supplies 280 kcal (1180  kJ).

RICE

Rice is a cereal grass grown in warm, moist climates. The native inhabitants of Southeast Asia probably began cultivating rice for food seven thousand years ago. The crop spread northward into China and Japan, and westward into India, where it was observed in about 325 b.c. by Greek soldiers under the command of Alexander the Great (356–323 b.c.). Like sugar, which was also observed in India by the Greeks about 325 b.c., rice did not reach Europe until Moors (North African Muslims) invaded the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain and Portugal) in a.d. 711. When Spaniards colonized the islands of the West Indies and lands in South America in the late 1400s and throughout the 1500s, they introduced rice in the Western Hemisphere. There rice joined sugar, indigo, and tobacco as a profitable export item for the better part of the 1600s. Rice was among the enumerated articles in the British Parliament's Second Navigation Act (1660) which prevented colonies from exporting its products to anywhere except the British Isles. In 1671 rice was introduced into the North American mainland at South Carolina. By 1685 it became a commercial crop. Cultivation and production spread to North Carolina and Georgia. Because rice is a labor-intensive crop, rice plantations required numerous slaves for production. That way, along with tobacco and indigo, rice helped define the plantation economy of the South. After the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the abolition of slavery, southern growers could no longer support the crop. Production of rice moved westward. By 1900 Louisiana was supplying 70 percent of the U.S. rice production. In the early 1900s it was also introduced as a crop into California.

See also: Agriculture, Georgia, Indigo, Navigation Acts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Slavery, Sugar, Tobacco

rice / rīs/ • n. a swamp grass that is widely cultivated as a source of food, esp. in Asia. • Oryza sativa, family Gramineae. African rice belongs to the related species O. glaberrima, whereas the so-called wild rice is not a true rice at all. ∎  the grains of this cereal used as food. • v. [tr.] force (cooked potatoes or other vegetables) through a sieve or ricer.

rice Plant native to se Asia and Indonesia, cultivated in many warm humid regions, and the main grain food for Middle and Far East countries. Rice is a staple diet for half the world's population. It is an annual grass; the seed and husk is the edible portion. It usually grows in flooded, terraced paddies with hard subsoil to prevent seepage. Species Oryza sativa.

rice XIII. ME. rys — OF. ris (mod. riz) — It. riso :- Rom. *orīzum, for L. orȳza — Gr. órūza.

RICE • abbr. rest, ice, compression, and elevation (treatment method for bruises, strains, and sprains).

RICE

This entry includes three subentries:
The Natural History of Rice
Rice as a Food
Rice as a Superfood

rice See ORYZA.

rice •advice, bice, Brice, choc ice, concise, dice, entice, gneiss, ice, imprecise, lice, mice, nice, precise, price, rice, sice, slice, speiss, spice, splice, suffice, syce, thrice, trice, twice, underprice, vice, Zeiss •merchandise • paradise • sacrifice •packice • woodlice • fieldmice •titmice • dormice • allspice •cockatrice • edelweiss

RICE (raɪs) rest, ice, compression, elevation (for treating sports injuries)