Rice Farming | Cultivation and Interesting facts |

Muhammed Alhassan

Rice farming is one of the most lucrative types of farming in Nigeria, although rice is classified as a cash crop for farmers, it is one of the most consumed staple foods and important cereal in Nigeria.

 

Rice
Rice Grain
Source: www.indiamart.com

 Rice(Oryza sativa) has been cultivated in China since ancient times and was introduced to India before the time of the Greeks. Chinese records of rice cultivation go back 4,000 years[1]. It is of two types Oryza sativa (Asian rice), Oryza glaberrima (African rice). It’s usually an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial and can produce a ratoon crop for up to 30 years[2]. Rice cultivation has been carried into all regions having the necessary warmth and abundant moisture favorable to its growth, mainly subtropical rather than hot or cold. The crop was common in West Africa by the end of the 17th century.

Importance

Staple food: Rice is used as a staple food by more than 60 percent of the world population. The cooking of rice is the most popular way of eating.

Rice starch: Rice starch is used in making ice cream, custard powder, puddings, gel, the distillation of potable alcohol, etc.

Rice bran: It is used in confectionery products like bread, snacks, cookies, and biscuits. The defatted bran is also used as cattle feed, organic fertilizer (compost), and medicinal purpose and in the making of wax.

Rice bran oil: Rice bran oil is used as edible oil, in soap and fatty acids manufacturing. It is also used in cosmetics, synthetic fibers, detergents, and emulsifiers. It is nutritionally superior and provides better protection to the heart.

Rice husk: It is used as a fuel, inboard and paper manufacturing, packing and building materials and as an insulator. It is also used for compost making and chemical derivatives.

Broken Rice: It is used for making food items like breakfast cereals, baby foods, rice flour, noodles, rice cakes, etc. and also used as poultry feed.

Rice straw: it is used as animal feed, fuel, for mulching in horticultural crops, and in preparation of paper and compost.[3]                                            

Rice provides 21% of global human per capita energy and 15% of per capita protein. Although rice protein ranks high in nutritional quality among cereals, its protein content is still modest. Rice also provides minerals, vitamins, and fiber, although all constituents except carbohydrates are reduced by milling.[4]

Cultivation

Methods of growing differ greatly in different localities, but in most developing countries like Nigeria, the traditional hand methods of cultivating and harvesting rice are still practiced. The fields are prepared by plowing, fertilizing, and smoothing (by dragging a log over them). The seedlings are started in seedling beds and, after 30 to 50 days, are transplanted by hand to the fields, which have been flooded by rain or river water. During the growing season, irrigation is maintained by dike-controlled canals or by hand watering. The fields are allowed to drain before cutting.

To read more on different types of rice seeds and their classifications click here

 

Common Pest and Diseases

The world rice crop is attacked by more than 100 species of insects; 20 of them can cause economic damage. Insect pests that can cause significant yield losses are stem borers; leafhoppers and planthoppers (which cause direct damage by feeding as well as by transmitting viruses); gall midges, a group of defoliating species (mainly lepidopterans); and a grain-sucking bug complex that feeds on developing grains. Others include weeds, pathogens, nematode, rodents, leafroller, rice weevils, panicle rice mite, and birds.

Image by: Syngenta India

Contact plant health experts to identify pests and diseases and appropriate control measures. Some of the major pest and diseases of rice are as follows:

Viruses

  • Tungro (rice tungro bacilliform virus (RTBV) and spherical virus (RTSV))
  • Grassy stunt (rice grassy stunt virus) (RGSV)
  • Ragged stunt (rice ragged stunt virus) (RRSV)
  • Rice streak virus (RSV)

Fungi

  • Rice blast, Pyricularia grisea (Cooke) Sacc.
  • Sheath blight, Rhizoctonia solani (Kuhn)
  • Brown spot, Bipolaris oryzae (Breda de Haan) Shoemaker
  • Bakanae disease, Gibberella fugikuroi
  • Seedborne: Stackburn disease, Alternaria padwickii; Curvularia spp.

Bacteria

  • Bacterial leaf blight, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae (Ishiyama) Swing et al.
  • Bacterial leaf streak, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzicola (Fang et al.) Swing et al.
  • Bacterial grain rot, Pseudomonas glumae

Nematodes

  • Ufra or stem nematode, Ditylenchus angustus Butler
  • White tip, Aphelenchoides besseyi Christie
  • Root knot, Meloidogyne graminicola Golden & Birchfield
  • Rice root nematode (Hirschmanniella imauri , Hirschmanniella oryzae)

Insects

  • Green leafhopper (Nephotettix malayanus; N. virescens)
  • Planthopper: brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stal); whitebacked lanthopper, Sogatella furcifera (Horvath)
  • Rice bug, Leptocorisa oratorius (Fabricius); L. chinensis (Dallas); L. acuta (Thunberg)
  • Stem borer: yellow stem borer, Scirpophaga incertulas (Walker); white stem borer, S. innotata (Walker)
  • Rice black bug, Scotinophara coarctata (F.)
  • Golden apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata Lamarck

Pest and Disease control

Preventive

  • The cheapest and most practical way for preventing attacks of insect pests, rodents and diseases is field sanitation.
  • An active barrier system also helps prevent rodent attacks.
  • Apply preventive insecticides to assure early protection.
  • A systemic insecticide such as Carbofuran 3G can prevent early attacks from leaf cutting insects and maggots.
  • Snails are present in standing water.
  • After the final land preparation, construct small canals to facilitate drainage.
  • During the first 2 weeks of crop establishment, drain and flash-flood the field several times to flush out golden snails.

Non-preventive

  • Apply other pesticides during the vegetative stage against hoppers and borers.
  • Apply knock-down insecticide at flowering and reproductive stage against stem borer and rice bugs.
  • For fields with standing water, control golden snail by picking up snails and applying molluscicide.

Special care

  • Remove rogue plants throughout the growing period.
  • When regenerating a diverse or mixed accession, consult the seed file, original seed sample and remnant seed samples in order to avoid excessive roguing and associated genetic drift.
  • Always note when mixed samples are planted and take care not to weed out types which are contained within the accession.
  • After rounds of harvesting in a certain area, carry out flash flooding to moisten the soil for late maturing entries.
  • Put net bags over panicles of accessions that are prone to rachis shattering to catch the seeds.

Processing of Rice

Rice, when it is still covered by the brown hull, is known as paddy; rice fields are also called paddy fields or rice paddies. Before marketing, the rice is threshed to loosen the hulls (mainly by flailing, treading, or working in a mortar) and winnowed free of chaff by tossing it in the air above a sheet or mat. This local method that characterizes rice processing, leading to reduced quality causing the rapid appraisal of imported rice customer. Preferences confirmed that imported rice cleanliness is the overwhelming factor explaining the expansion of imported rice consumption in Nigeria at the cost of local rice market development.

Nigeria’s quest, to attaining self-sufficiency in rice production by 2015, can only be achieved through the transformation of rice harvesting and processing practices and using modern rice processing mills. Which are equipped with thresher to reduce the drudgery associated with manual harvesting of paddies and the winnowers to removes unwanted elements, such as stones.

INTERESTING RICE FACTS

Rice is one of the most important commodities in the world and directly feeds more people than any other crop. Because of this, it is a staple food in many countries. However, what else is there to know about this wonder crop? See for yourself with these rice facts.

  1. Rice has minerals and antioxidants that keep the skin soft and smooth.
  2. The Great Wall of China was built with rice.
  3. Wild rice is not rice at all. Wild rice is a distant relative of commercial rice.
  4. All white rice came from brown rice. It’s just that the white rice’s outer bran layer is polished to make the rice taste better.
  5. Oryza Sativa is the scientific name for Asian rice.

Rice Fact

Image by Rice Facts

 

To find out more about rice production click here
For more information contact: senceagric@senceworld.com

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References

[1]  https://www.infoplease.com/

[2] International Rice Research Institute The Rice Plant and How it Grows. knowledgebank.irri.org

[3] https://www.shilpaagro.com/

[4] https://www.knowledgebank.irri.org

[5] www.wikipedia.org

[6]Culled from: www.fao.org (Rice production in Africa: current situation and issues)

[7] https://www.nigeriamarkets.org

[8] https://niseronline.org

[9] https://www.businessdayonline.com

[10]  “World Wheat, Corn and Rice”. Oklahoma State University, FAOSTAT.

[11] https://www.africarice.org

[12] Daramola B. (2005): Government Policies and Competitiveness of Nigerian Rice Economy. A Paper presented at the `Workshop on Rice Policy & Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa’ organized by WARDA, Cotonou, Republic of Benin, November 07-09.

[13] National Rice Development Strategy (2009): Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD).

[14] https://www.syngenta.co.in/rice-crop-management

[15] https://facts.net/rice-facts/

Muhammed Alhassan