Maclean et al. - 2002 - Rice almanac source book for the most important e

Table 3. World rice area, yield, and production, various years.
Arable land +
Rough rice
Year permanent Area Yield Production
crops a (000 ha) (000 ha) (t/ha) (000 t)
1948 1,232,000 86,700 1.68 145,400
1953 1,332,000 109,025 1.82 197,906
1958 1,390,000 117,017 1.92 224,093
1963 1,355,864 120,277 2.05 247,139
1968 1,377,311 129,449 2.23 288,714
1973 1,397,696 136,824 2.45 334,988
1978 1,423,870 143,638 2.68 385,106
1983 1,454,147 143,074 3.14 449,048
1988 1,497,719 146,252 3.34 488,292
1993 1,504,732 145,811 3.63 529,803
1998 1,380,239 152,002 3.81 578,786
1999 1,511,766 156,462 3.88 607,780
2000 1,511,766 153,766 3.89 598,852
a
This column reports land in both temporary and permanent crops. Source of basic data: FAO production
yearbook, 1952; FAOSTAT database.
diminishing returns and have been increasingly
difficult to achieve.
Rice as human food
Rice, wheat, and maize are the three leading food
crops in the world; together they directly supply
more than 50% of all calories consumed by the
entire human population. Wheat is the leader in
area harvested each year with 214 million ha,
followed by rice with 154 million ha and maize
with 140 million ha (Table 4). Human consumption
accounts for 85% of total production for
rice, compared with 72% for wheat and 19% for
maize.
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, protein content is modest.
Unmilled (brown) rice of 17,587 cultivars in the
IRRI germplasm collection averages 9.5%
protein content, ranging from 4.3% to 18.2%.
Environmental factors (soil fertility, wet or
dry season, solar radiation, and temperature during
grain development) and crop management
(added N fertilizer, plant spacing) affect rice protein
content. Breeding efforts to increase protein
have been largely unsuccessful because of the
considerable effects of environment and because
of complex inheritance properties in the triploid
endosperm tissue.
Rice also provides minerals, vitamins, and
fiber, although all constituents except carbohydrates
are reduced by milling. Milling removes
roughly 80% of the thiamine from brown rice. A
precook rinse or a boiling of milled rice results
in additional loss of vitamins, especially B 1
.
Average calorie intake per person in some
developing countries—Cambodia and
Madagascar—is as low as 2,000/day, while in
some developed countries such as the U.S., it
reaches almost twice that amount. The proportion
that calories from rice make of the total
calorie intake also varies greatly, from threequarters
in developing countries such as
Bangladesh and Cambodia to only 2% in Turkey,
Mexico, and the former USSR countries. The
world average total calorie intake in 1999 was
2,808/person/day, of which rice made up 21%.
The world average consumption of rice in 1999
was 58 kg, with the highest intake in some Asian
countries; Myanmar has the highest annual
consumption at 211 kg/person (Table 5).
Rice eaters and growers constitute the bulk
of the world’s poor: according to the UNDP
Human Development Report for 1997,
approximately 70% of the world’s 1.3 billion
poor people live in Asia, where rice is the staple
food. To some extent, this reflects Asia’s large
population, but even in relative terms
malnutrition appears to affect a substantially
larger share of the population in South Asia than
in Africa. For these people, rice is the most
important commodity in their daily lives. In
countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, and
Myanmar, the average citizen consumes 150–200
kg annually, which accounts for two-thirds or
more of caloric intake and approximately 60% of
6 Rice almanac