Rice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Rice (disambiguation).

Rice is two species of grass (Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima) native to tropical and subtropical southern & southeastern Asia and in Africa, which together provide more than one fifth of the calories consumed by humans in their global diets^[1]. (The term "wild rice" can refer to wild species of Oryza, but conventionally refers to species of the related genus Zizania, both wild and domesticated.) Rice is a monocarpic annual plant, growing to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and soil fetility, with long slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long. The seed is a grain (caryopsis) 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick.

Rice is a staple for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East and Southeast Asia, making it the most consumed cereal grain. Rice is the world's third largest crop, behind maize ("corn") and wheat. Rice cultivation is well suited to countries and regions with low labour costs and high rainfall, as it is very labour-intensive to cultivate and requires plenty of water for irrigation, much like the licorice crops found in Eastern Europe. However, it can be grown practically anywhere, even on steep hillsides. Although its species are native to South Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade and exportation have made it commonplace in many cultures.

Rice is often grown in paddies. The shallow puddles take advantage of the rice plant's tolerance to water: the water in the paddies prevents weeds from outgrowing the crop. Once the rice has established dominance of the field, the water can be drained in preparation for harvest. Paddies increase productivity, although rice can also be grown on dry land (including on terraced hillsides) with the help of chemical weed controls.

In some instances, a deepwater strain of rice often called floating rice is grown. This can develop elongated stems capable of coping with water depths exceeding 2 meters (6 feet).

Rice paddies are an important habitat for birds such as herons and warblers, and a wide range of amphibians and snakes. They perform a useful function in controlling insect pests by providing useful habitats for those who prey on them.

Whether it is grown in paddies or on dry land, rice requires a great amount of water compared to other food crops. Rice growing is a controversial practice in some areas, particularly in the United States and Australia, where some individuals claim it produces little GDP for the large amounts of water used to produce rice. However, in nations that have a periodical rain season and typhoons, rice paddies serve to keep the water supply steady and prevent floods from reaching a dangerous level.

Rice blast, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe grisea is the most significant disease affecting rice cultivation.

Preparation as food

The seeds of the rice plant are first milled using a rice huller to remove a chaff (the outer husks of the grain); this creates brown rice. This process may be continued, removing the germ and the rest of the husk, called bran at this point, creating white rice. The white rice may then be buffed with glucose or talc powder (often called polished rice, though the term may also refer to white rice in general), parboiled, or processed into flour. The 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.

While washing is counterproductive for the powder enriched rice, it is absolutely necessary when talc-coated rice is used, not least because of concerns about the negative health effects of talc consumption and possibility of asbestos accompanying the talc. Despite the hypothetical health risks of talc (such as stomach cancer), talc-coated rice remains the norm in some countries due to its attractive shiny appearance, but it has been banned in some or is no longer widely used in others such as the United States. Even where talc is not used, glucose, starch, or other coatings may be used to improve the appearance of the grains; for this reason, many rice lovers still recommend washing all rice in order to create a better tasting and better consistency rice, despite the recommendation of suppliers.

Rice bran, called nuka in Japan, is a valuable commodity in Asia and is used for many daily needs. It is a moist inner oily layer that is heated to produce a very healthful oil. Another use is to make a kind of pickled vegetable.

The raw rice may be ground into flour for many uses as well, including making many kinds of beverages such as amazake, horchata, rice milk, and sake. Rice flour is generally safe for people on a gluten-free diet. {{selfref|See Category:Rice dishes and Wikibooks' Rice Recipes for information on food preparation usi Latin America, simplify the process of cooking rice.

Rice may also be made into rice porridge 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 very easy to digest, so it is especially suitable for the sick.

Rice may be soaked prior to cooking. Soaked rice cooks faster. For some varieties, soaking improves the texture of the cooked rice by increasing expansion of the grains.

In some culinary traditions, especially those of Latin America and Italy, dry rice grains are fried in oil before cooking in water.

When preparing brown rice, a nutritionally superior method of preparation known as GABA Rice or GBR (Germinated Brown Rice)^[2] 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 the United Nations Year of Rice, it is possible to obtain a more complete amino acid profile, including GABA.

History

Etymology

According to Microsoft Encarta Dictionary (2004) and to Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (1988), the word rice has an Indo-Iranian origin. It came to English from Greek óryza, via Latin oriza, Italian riso and finally Old French ris (the same as present day French riz).
The same Indo-Iranian origin produced the Arabic ar-ruzz, from which the Portuguese and Spanish word arroz originated. Some scholars like Edmund Leach have argued that the Tamil term for rice was derived from Sanskrit vrihi, and not vice versa.^[3]

Genetic History

Rice cultivation is considered to have begun simultaneously in many countries over 6500 years ago. Two species of rice were domesticated, Asian rice (Oryza sativa) and African rice (Oryza glaberrima).

Genetic studies suggest that common wild rice, Oryza rufipogon, was the wild ancestor of Asian rice ^[4].

According to Londo and Chiang, O. sativa appears to have originated around the foothills of the Himalayas, with O. sativa var. indica on the Indian side and O. sativa var. japonica on the Chinese and Japanese side ^[5].

East Asia

The origins of rice cultivation is the object of research of specialized branch of archaeology called palaeoethnobotany. Research in China is active, well reported, and there are a number of differing perspectives on when rice was domesticated and when domesticated rice was first cultivated. Zhao, a Chinese palaeoethnobotanist, hypothesizes that people of the Late Pleistocene began to collect wild rice. Zhao explains that the collection of wild rice from an early date eventually led to its domestication and then the exclusive use of domesticated rice strains by circa 6400 B.C. at the latest (Zhao 1998). Evidence from the Yunchanyan site (circa) in Hunan province suggests the possibility that Early Neolithic groups cultivated rice as early as circa 9000 B.C. (Crawford and Shen 1998:862). Crawford and Shen point out that calibrated radiocarbon dates show that direct evidence of the earliest cultivated rice is no older than 7000 B.C. (Crawford and Shen 1998:862). Jared Diamond, a biologist and popular science author, summarizes some of the work done by professional archaeologists mentioned above and estimates that the earliest attested domestication of rice took place in China by 7500 B.C.^[6]

Most radiocarbon evidence of the Neolithic sites in China that have confirmed finds of charred rice date to 5000 B.C. or later (Crawford and Shen 1998). This evidence leads most archaeologists to say that large-scale dry-land rice farming began between 5000 and 4500 BC in the area of Yangtze Delta (for example Hemudu culture, discovered in 1970s), and the wet-rice cultivation began at approximately 2500 BC in the same area (Liangzhu culture). It is now it is commonly thought that some areas such as plains in Shaoxing and Ningbo in Zhejiang province are the cradlelands of East Asian rice cultivation. Finally, ancient textual evidence of the cultivation of rice in China dates to 3000 years ago.

Interestingly, archaeologists have recently discovered much older burnt grains (domesticated rice) in Sorori, Korea, potentially challenging this view of Chinese origin.^[7] Unfortunately, the media reports of the Soro-ri charred grains are brief and lack sufficient detail for us to properly evaluate the true meaning of this very unusual find.

Reliable, mainstream archaeological evidence derived from palaeoethnobotanical investigations indicate that dry-land rice was introduced to Japan and Korea some time between 3500 and 1200 BC. Later wet-paddy intensive rice agriculture was introduced into Korea during the Middle Mumun pottery period (c. 850-550 BC) and reached Japan by the Yayoi circa 300 BC (Crawford and Lee 2003; Crawford and Shen 1998).

South Asia

It is generally assumed that the Rigveda does not know rice. There is however mention of ApUpa, Puro-das and Odana (rice-gruel) in the Rig Veda, terms that, at least in later texts, refer to rice dishes,^[8] The rigvedic commentator Sayana refers to "tandula" when commenting on RV 1.16.2., which usually means rice. ^[9] It was also speculated that the rigvedic term dhana (dhanaa, dhanya) could possibly refer to rice.^[10] Both Charaka and Sushruta mention rice in some detail.^[11] The Arthasastra discusses some aspects of rice cultivation.^[12] The Kashyapiyakrishisukti by Kashyapa is the most detailed ancient Sanskrit text on rice cultivation.^[13]

Africa

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

Near East and Europe

O. sativa was adapted to farming in the Middle East and Mediterranean Europe around 800 BC. The Moors brought it to the Iberian Peninsula when they conquered it in 711 AD. After the middle of the 15th century, rice spread throughout Italy and then France, later propagating to all the continents during the great age of European exploration.

The Americas

In 1694, rice arrived in South Carolina, probably originating from Madagascar. The Spanish brought rice to South America at the beginning of the 18th century.

In the United States, colonial South Carolina and Georgia grew and amassed great wealth from the slave labour obtained from the Senegambia area of West Africa. 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 dike 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 labour after the American Civil War, and it finally died out just after the turn of the 20th century. 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. [4]

World production and trade

World production of rice ^[14] has risen steadily from about 200 million tons of paddy rice in 1960 to 600 million tons in 2004. Milled rice is about 68% of paddy rice by weight. In the year 2004, the top three producers were China (31% of world production), India (20%), and Indonesia (9%).

World trade figures are very different, as only about 5-6% of rice produced is traded internationally. The largest three exporting countries are Thailand (26% of world exports), Vietnam (15%), and the United States (11%), while the largest three importers are Indonesia (14%), Bangladesh (4%), and Brazil (3%).

Rice is the most important crop in Asia. In Cambodia, for example, 90% of the total agriculutral area is used for rice production (see "The Burning of the Rice" by Don Puckridge for the story of rice production in Cambodia [6]).

Rice Pests

Rice pests are any organisms or microbes with the potential to reduce the yield or value of the rice crop (or of rice seeds) (Jahn et al. 2000). Rice pests include weeds, pathogens, insects, rodents, and birds. A variety of factors can contribute to pest outbreaks, including the overuse of pesticides and high rates of nitrogen fertilizer application (e.g. Jahn et al. 2005)[7]. Weather conditions also contribute to pest outbreaks. For example, rice gall midge and army worm outbreaks tend to follow high rainfall early in the wet season, while thrips outbreaks are associated with drought (Douangboupha et al. 2006).

Rice pests are managed by cultural techniques, pest-resistant rice varieties, and pesticides (which include insecticide). Increasingly, there is evidence that farmers' pesticide applications are often unnecessary (Jahn et al. 2004a) [8][9][10]. By reducing the populations of natural enemies of rice pests (Jahn 1992), misuse of insecticides can actually lead to pest outbreaks (Cohen et al. 1994). Among rice cultivars there are differences in the responses to, and recovery from, pest damage (Jahn et al. 2004b, Khiev et al. 2000). Therefore, particular cultivars are recommended for areas prone to certain pest problems. Major rice pests include the brown planthopper (Preap et al. 2006), the rice gall midge (Jahn and Khiev 2004), the rice bug (Jahn et al. 2004b), rats (Leung et al 2002), and the weed Echinochloa crus-gali (Pheng et al. 2001).

Cultivars

The largest collection of rice cultivars is at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), with over 100,000 rice accessions [11] held in the International Rice Genebank [12]. 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 Masoori. In South India 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. Rice in East India and South India, is usually prepared by boiling the rice in large pans immediately after harvesting and before removing the husk; this is referred to in English as parboiled rice. It is then dried, and the husk removed later. It often displays small red speckles, and has a smoky flavour from the fires. Usually coarser rice is used for this procedure. It helps to retain the natural vitamins and kill any fungi or other contaminants, but leads to an odour which some find peculiar. This rice is easier on the stomach to digest. In South India, it is also used to make idlis.

Aromatic rices have definite aromas and flavours; the most noted cultivars are the aforementioned basmati, Patna rice, and a hybrid cultivar from America sold under the trade name, Texmati. It is a cross between Basmati and American long-grained rice that is creating great controversy. 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.

Scientists are working on so-called golden rice which is genetically modified to produce beta carotene, the precursor to vitamin A.

Draft genomes for the two most common rice cultivars, indica and japonica, were published in April 2002. Rice was chosen as a model organism for the biology of grasses because of its relatively small genome (~430 megabase pairs). Rice was the first crop with a complete genome sequence.^[15] Basmati rice is the oldest, common progenitor for most types.

On December 16, 2002, the UN General Assembly declared the year 2004 the International Year of Rice. The declaration was sponsored by Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Ecuador, Fiji, Gabon, Grenada, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Mali, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Vietnam, and Zambia.

See also

• List of rice varieties
• List of rice dishes
• Basmati rice
• Black rice
• Brown rice
• Brown rice syrup
• Bhutanese red rice
• Forbidden rice
• Inari
• Indonesian rice table
• New Rice for Africa
• Patna rice
• Protein per unit area
• Rice Belt
• Rice bran oil
• Rice milk
• Riceland Foods
• Sake (Japanese rice wine)
• System of Rice Intensification
• Wild rice
• Hemudu culture

Notes

1. ^ Smith, Bruce D. The Emergence of Agriculture. Scientific American Library, A Division of HPHLP, New York, 1998.
2. ^ Shoichi Ito and Yukihiro Ishikawa Tottori University, Japan. (Marketing of Value-Added Rice Products in Japan: Germinated Grown RIce and Rice Bread.). Retrieved on February 12, 2004.
3. ^ Elst, Koenraad (1999). Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate. Aditya Prakashan. ISBN 81-86471-77-4. Section 1.6, [1]
4. ^ Status and Project of Studies on the Origin of the Chinese cultivated Rice, CHEN WENHUA (From Internet Archive). Retrieved on April 10, 2006.
5. ^ J.P. Londo, Y. Chiang et al, "Phylogeography of Asian wild rice, Oryza rufipogon, reveals multiple independent domestications of cultivated rice, Oryza sativa", PNAS 103(25):9578-83, 2006 ([2])
6. ^ Diamond, Jared (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-31755-2.
7. ^ Cf. BBC news (2003) [3]
8. ^ Cf. Talageri (2000) Talageri, Shrikant: The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis, 2000. ISBN 81-7742-010-0
9. ^ Rice Research in South Asia through Ages by Y L Nene, Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 2, 2005 (85–106). With reference to Sontakke and Kashikar, 1983
10. ^ Rice Research in South Asia through Ages by Y L Nene, Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 2, 2005 (85–106).
11. ^ Rice Research in South Asia through Ages by Y L Nene, Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 2, 2005 (85–106).
12. ^ Rice Research in South Asia through Ages by Y L Nene, Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 2, 2005 (85–106).
13. ^ Rice Research in South Asia through Ages by Y L Nene, Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 2, 2005 (85–106).
14. ^ all figures from UNCTAD 1998-2002 and the International Rice Research Institute statistics (accessed September 2005)
15. ^ Gillis, Justing. "Rice Genome Fully Mapped", washingtonpost.com, August 11, 2005.

References

• Cohen, J. E., K. Schoenly, K. L. Heong, H. Justo, G. Arida, A. T. Barrion, J. A. Litsinger. 1994. A Food Web Approach to Evaluating the Effect of Insecticide Spraying on Insect Pest Population Dynamics in a Philippine Irrigated Rice Ecosystem. Journal of Applied Ecology, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 747-763. doi:10.2307/2404165
• Crawford, G.W. and C. Shen. 1998. The Origins of Rice Agriculture: Recent Progress in East Asia. Antiquity 72:858-866.
• Crawford, G.W. and G.-A. Lee. 2003. Agricultural Origins in the Korean Peninsula. Antiquity 77(295):87-95.
• Douangboupha, B., K. Khamphoukeo, S. Inthavong, J. Schiller, and G. Jahn. 2006. Pests and diseases of the rice production systems of Laos. Pp. 265-281. In J.M. Schiller, M.B. Chanphengxay, B. Linquist, and S. Appa Rao, editors. Rice in Laos. Los Baños (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute. 457 p
• Heong, KL, YH Chen, DE Johnson, GC Jahn, M Hossain, RS Hamilton. 2005. Debate Over a GM Rice Trial in China. Letters. Science, Vol 310, Issue 5746, 231-233 , 14 October 2005.
• Huang, J., Ruifa Hu, Scott Rozelle, Carl Pray. 2005. Insect-Resistant GM Rice in Farmers' Fields: Assessing Productivity and Health Effects in China. Science (29 April 2005) Vol. 308. no. 5722, pp. 688 – 690. DOI: 10.1126/science.1108972
• Jahn, GC and B. Khiev. 2004. Gall midge in Cambodian lowland rice. pp. 71-76. In J. Benett, JS Bentur, IC Pasula, K. Krishnaiah, [eds]. New approaches to gall midge resistance in rice. Los Baños (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute and Indian Council of Agricultural Research. 195 p.
• Jahn, G. C. 1992. Rice pest control and effects on predators in Thailand. Insecticide & Acaricide Tests 17:252-253.
• Jahn, G. C., S. Pheng, B. Khiev and C. Pol 2000. Ecological characterization of biotic constraints to rice in Cambodia. International Rice Research Notes (IRRN) 25 (3): 23-24.
• Jahn, GC, NQ Kamal, S Rokeya, AK Azad, NI Dulu, JB Orsini, A Barrion, and L Almazan. 2004a. Completion Report on Livelihood Improvement Through Ecology (LITE), PETRRA IPM Subproject SP 27 02. Poverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA), IRRI, Dhaka. 20 pages text plus 20 pages appendices. [13]
• Jahn, GC, I. Domingo, L. P. Almazan and J. Pacia. 2004b. Effect of rice bugs (Alydidae: Leptocorisa oratorius (Fabricius)) on rice yield, grain quality, and seed viability. Journal of Economic Entomology 97(6): 1923-1927.
• Jahn, GC, LP Almazan, and J Pacia. 2005. Effect of nitrogen fertilizer on the intrinsic rate of increase of the rusty plum aphid, Hysteroneura setariae (Thomas) (Homoptera: Aphididae) on rice (Oryza sativa L.). Environmental Entomology 34 (4): 938-943.[14]
• Khiev, B., G. C. Jahn, C. Pol, and N. Chhorn 2000. Effects of simulated pest damage on rice yields. IRRN 25 (3): 27-28.
• Leung LKP, Peter G. Cox, Gary C. Jahn and Robert Nugent. 2002. Evaluating rodent management with Cambodian rice farmers. Cambodian Journal of Agriculture Vol. 5, pp. 21-26.
• Pheng, S., B. Khiev, C. Pol and G. C. Jahn 2001. Response of two rice cultivars to the competition of Echinochloa crus-gali (L.) P. Beauv. International Rice Research Institute Notes (IRRN) 26 (2): 36-37.
• Preap V., M. P. Zalucki and G. C. Jahn. 2006. Brown planthopper outbreaks and management. Cambodian Journal of Agriculture 7(1): 17-25.
• Rice Research in South Asia through Ages by Y L Nene, Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 2, 2005 (85–106) [15]
• Zhao, Z. 1998. The Middle Yangtze Region in China is the Place Where Rice was Domesticated: Phytolithic Evidence from the Diaotonghuan Cave, Northern Jiangxi. Antiquity 72:885-897.

External links

General

• The Rice Knowledge Bank http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/
• 2004: International Year of Rice
• Infocomm/UNCTAD
• International Rice Research Institute
• Rice Knowledge Bank
• Plant Cultures: botany, history and uses of rice
• A Brief History of Rice
• Rice Research in South Asia through Ages (PDF)

Rice research

• http://www.irri.org/publications/irrn/
• Stories of the impact on rice research on the lives of people living in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Fredenburg, P. and B. Hill. 2006. Sharing Rice for Peace and Prosperity in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Sid Harta Publishers, Victoria. ISBN 1-921206-08-X. pp271. http://sidharta.com/books/index.jsp?uid=190
• www.irri.org/publications/today/pdfs/4-1/12-17.pdf

Rice in agriculture

• American Phytopathological Society: Diseases of Rice (Oryza sativa)
• FAO: Animal Feed Resources Information System, Oryza sativa
• International Rice Research Institute: Common Insect Pests of Rice
• Origin of Chinese rice cultivation
• South Carolina rice planting photos from the early 1900s

Rice as food

• [* US Patent 6,676,983: Puffed food starch product

Rice economics

• UNCTAD market information

Rice and history

• The story of how rice research and policy reform saved Cambodia from famine and made it a net exporter of rice. Puckridge, D. 2004. The Burning of the Rice. Sid Harta Publishers, Victoria. ISBN 1-877059-73-0. pp326. http://sidharta.com/books/index.jsp?uid=67
• The history of rice cultivation http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0860733.html

Rice genome

• n:Chinese authorities question genetically altered rice allegation
• Oryza sativa The rice genome, a "Rosetta stone" for other cereals
• Rice Genome Research Program
• Rice Genome Approaches Completion
• The Genomes of Oryza sativa: A History of Duplications
• Biologists Trace Back Genetic Origins Of Rice Domestication
• Waterproof rice can outlast the floods - Researchers have tracked down a gene that allows the plant to survive complete submersion