ABSTRACT
Rice is the most important staple food for more than half of the world’s population, including regionsofhighpopulationdensityandrapidgrowth(Fageriaetal.,2003).Itprovidesabout21%of thetotalcaloricintakeoftheworld’spopulation.Morethan90%ofriceisproducedandconsumed inAsia.InAsia,wheremorethan3.1billionpeoplelive,itprovidesanaverage35%ofthetotal caloriesconsumed,rangingupto80%inCambodia(IRRI,1993).Itisthemostimportanttropical cereal and, on a worldwide basis, rice production is slightly below that of corn. Rice is cultivated in111countriesonallcontinents(exceptAntarctica),atlatitudesfrom36°SinAustralia,to45°N inJapan,49°NintheCzechRepublic,andsimilarlatitudesinHungaryandintheHeilongjiang ProvinceofChina(LuandChang,1980;McDonald,1994).RiceproductionisconcentratedinAsia, wheremorethan90%oftheworld’ssupplyisproduced.ChinaandIndiaaretheleadingproducers as well as consumers of rice. Other major rice-producing countries are Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
