Rice as a Global Crop

Rice is the second largest cereal crop, but unlike wheat, which is grown on large farms and harvested mechanically, it is usually grown on smaller areas and is harvested by hand. Rice is harvested mechanically in the US and other industrialized countries. The cultivated rice plant, Oryza sativa , is an annual cereal crop with long leaves bearing an inflorescence (panicle) composed of spikelets with flowers producing the seed or grain. Despite the extremely significant role that rice plays in mankind’s food supply, it has traditionally been thinly traded with a market of less than 5% of the 345 or so million tons of milled rice worldwide. During the Green Revolution, new strains of semi-dwarf and dwarf rice varieties were produced, known as miracle rice. These varieties also exhibited disease resistance and increased productivity and were resistant to lodging.