Vergara - 1976 - Physiological and morphological adaptability of ri

34 CLIIvLATE AND RICE
regions. It was actually forbidden in many areas on the outskirts of major tOWFlS.
Such measures were a significant barrier to the diffusion of rice in Europe.
Rice cultivation was introduced to the New World by early European settlers.
The Portuguese carried it to Brazil and the Spanish introduced its cultivation to
several locations in Central and South America. The first record for the United
States is from I685 when the crop was produced on the coastal lowlands and
islands of South Carolina. Early in the 18th century it spread to Louisiana, but
not until the 20th century was it produced in California's Sacramento Valley.
The introduction to the latter area corresponded almost exactly with the timing
of the first successful crop in Australia's New South Wales.
ECONONHC CONSIDERATIONS
In 1974 rice is produced in a wide spectrum of locations and under a variety of
climatic conditions which range from the wettest areas in the world to the driest
deserts. At some sites the crop dates from the earliest history of man. while at
others it is a very" recent interloper. In vast portions of the rice world the crop is
one produced on miniscule plots using vast inputs of human toil and making
little or no use of modern technology. At other locations the crop is raised on
huge holdings with a maximum of technology and huge expenditures of energy
from fossil fuels. In such areas rice is literally “untouched by human hands“
during the entire production cy-"cle. The contrasts from place to place are truly
remarkable in both the geographical problems and the climate of the rice.
The topic “Geography and Climate of Rice“ must be divided equally’ between
analysis of the human patterns existing in rice-producing areas and consideration
of the climatic pattems in those same areas. As the first paper in an intemational
conference of rice specialists, perhaps the objective should be to focus attention
on some of the pattems which characterize the production of rice and on several
of those problem areas which promise to be of greatest concern for the decade
ahead.
First I would like to direct attention to the questions. “What role docs rice
play in the world today. and how important is rice as a food crop?”
Rice, wheat, and corn are the three leading food crops in the ‘world, and together
they supply directly about 50 percent of all calories consumed by the
entire human population. In terms of area harvested each year, wheat is the
leader. with 215 million hectares. followed by paddy rice with roughly 13S
million hectares and by maize with 110 million hectares. Total yields for each
of the three grains are in the order of 300 million tons.
Most rice and wheat are used directly for human consumption. while a major
portion of the corn is used as feed for livestock. The 200 million tons of milled
rice produced each year provides the major source of calories in the diets of
almost 1.5 billion persons. 40 percent of the world population.
The significance of rice as a human food is even greater than might be indicated
by the above data for at least two reasons. First, rice is the leading food in