Agriculture and Environment: Commodities

Overview: Rice (Oryza sativa)

For most of the world, rice is not only the staff of life but quite literally the stuff of life as well. In many parts of Asia the word for rice literally means food.

The Chinese greet each other not by inquiring vaguely "How are you?" but by saying "Have you eaten?" It is understood that to eat is to eat rice. A person in China with job security is said to have "an iron rice bowl," while one who has been fired has had his "rice bowl broken."

Khush (2000) has noted similar indications of the importance of rice in many Asian countries. In Thai, khao means both rice and food. The Emperor in Japan is considered the living embodiment of the ripened rice plant. In Bali it is believed that the god Vishnu caused the Earth to give birth to rice, and the god Indra taught people how to grow and eat it.

In the Philippines rice is used at all important rituals. In fact, to show their mourning, relatives do not eat rice for several months after a death in the family (Khush 2000). Rice is not just food in such countries; it is culture.

Traditionally, hundreds or even thousands of rice varieties have had local cultural significance in rice-growing regions. Growing urban populations, however, have forced an increasing emphasis on producing large quantities of a few rice varieties, rather than smaller quantities of many varieties.

The result of the "green revolution," is that these new high-yield varieties make more rice available at a lower cost. They also require increased inputs, contrasting sharply with previous cultivation techniques.

It is the demand for rice as a cheap food that is winning out over traditional varieties. Globally, the population of rice consumers is increasing at the rate of 1.7% per year compared to overall population growth of 1.3% (Khush 2000). Half of the world's projected population of 8 billion in 2025 will be rice consumers.

Today, more than a billion rice consumers live in poverty. They have limited access to food and cannot afford to pay more for rice. All things being equal, to feed these people means that rice production needs to increase by 35-40% by 2025 yet maintain a stable or eve lower price (Khush 2000).