Rice Culture

Abstract

Rice is unique among the world's major food crops by virtue of the extent and variety of its uses and its adaptability to a broad range of climatic, edaphic, and cultural conditions. It is usually grown under shallow flood or ``wet paddy'' conditions but is also cultured where floodwaters may be several meters deep and, at the opposite extreme, as an upland cereal. Although rice appears to have a high water requirement, its requirement is actually not much different from that of other field crops. Unlike most cereal crops, however, rice benefits from standing water. It is capable of anaerobic respiration and has aerenchyma tissue in the aerial organs through which oxygen diffuses to the roots.