Rice is classified in the grass family Gramineae. Its genus is Oryza and species O. sativa. It is commonly cultivated for food in Asia. Some varieties of rice include red rice, glutinous rice, and wild rice. (Jodon, 303) The kernel within the grain contains most of the vitamins and minerals (298). The kernel contains thiamine, niacin, and riboflavin (299).

Rice has many enemies that destroy a majority of the rice crops. The larvae of moth, stem borers, live in the stems of the rice plants. Some insects suck the plant juices or chew the leaves. Birds, such as bobolink, Java sparrow, or paddybird, would eat the seeds or grains. Disease causing factors such as fungi, roundworms, viruses, and bacteria also destroy the ri

The Cornell group created a genetic map which showed the location of hundreds of markers on the twelve rice chromosomes. Ronald and her colleagues used this genetic map to locate gene Xa21 by examining over one thousand rice plants to "see how often known DNA markers showed up in conjunction with resistance to blight". They used chromosomal swapping and rearranging that goes on during sexual reproduction. The more often they saw resistance in the next generation of rice plants, the closer they were to locating the gene. (102)

The purpose of the "Super Rice challenge" is to create rice plants that are disease resistant, insect resistant, and produces twenty-five percent more food per acre. The International Rice Research Institute has been working on this challenge. It is competing with many various factors that are pushing the International Rice Research Institute to try and complete the challenge as soon as possible. Factors such as growing population, limited areas for growing rice, and the common farmer's philosophy of "get anything to grow" are pushing researchers to complete the project as soon as possible. Also, the new varieties of rice has raised a question of the farmer's health because of the uses and effects of agricultural chemicals. Since normal rice grown in paddies produces high amounts of methane, the International Rice Research Institute must also find a way to create rice plants with a low methane production. Gurdev Khush believes that the "super rice" will be ready for farmers to plant them around the end of the century. (Bioscience, 239)

Rice was thought to have originated in southeast Asia when Alexander the Great invaded India in 326 B. C(Jodon, 303). Further research revealed that rice was cultivated around or at the Yangtze River in China, around 4000 to 11,500 years ago. One archaeologist, Toyama, surveyed data on 125 samples of rice grains, plant remains, husks, and other factors from numerous sites along the length of the Yangtze River. "He reported that the oldest samples. . . are clustered along the middle Yangtze in Hubei and Hunan provinces. Samples from the upper and lower portions of the Yangtze River were found to be younger, around 4,000 to 10,000 years old. "This pattern. . .suggests that rice cultivation originated in the middle Yangtze and spread from there". Archaeologists see more than a decade of excavation of the Yangtze River and nearby sites to confirm that the Yangtze River is where rice was first cultivated. (Normille, 309)

1976, Chicago. Field Enterprises Educational Corporation. v. 16. pp. 298-303

Normille, Dennis. "Rice Genome Races Ahead." "Science."

Besides steaming the rice for consumption, it is also used for other products. Enriched rice is regular kernels and vitamin and mineral coated kernels mixed together. The Japanese use the fermented rice kernels to make sake, rice wine. Ric

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