Rice Research: Open Access
Open Access

Rice is a nutritional staple food which provides instant energy as its most important component is carbohydrate. On the other hand, rice is poor in nitrogenous substances with average composition of these substances being only 8per cent and fat content or lipids only negligible, equals 1per cent and due to this reason it is considered as a complete food for eating [1 ]. Rice flour is rich in starch and is used for making various food materials. It is also used in some instances by brewers to make alcoholic malt. Likewise, rice straw mixed with other materials is used to produce porcelain, glass and pottery. Rice is also used in manufacturing of paper pulp and livestock bedding. The variability of composition and characteristics of rice is really broad and depends on variety and environmental conditions under which the crop is grown. In husked rice, protein content ranges in between 7per cent to 12per cent. The use of nitrogen fertilizers increases the percentage content of some amino acids. The comparative nutritional value of cereals shows difference in nutritional content of rice bran and raw rice [2 ]. The brown rice is rich in some vitamins, especially B1 or thiamine, B2 6 or riboflavin, niacin or nicotinic acid. In contrast, the white rice is poor in vitamins and minerals as they are found mostly in the outer layers of the grain, which are removed by polishing process, whereas parboiled rice is rich in these vitamins as a result of their particular process. Rice is grown under so diverse soil and climatic conditions that it is said that there is hardly any type of soil in which it cannot be grown including alkaline and acidic soils. Rice crop has also got wide physical adaptability [3 ]. Therefore, it is grown from below sea-level until an elevation of 2000 metres in Jammu & Kashmir, hills of Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and North Eastern Hills areas. The North-Eastern Region comprises of Assam and North eastern states. In Assam rice is grown in the Basin of Brahmaputra River. This region receives very heavy rainfall and rice is grown under rain fed condition. The Eastern comprises of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. In this region rice is grown in the basins of Ganga and Mahanadi rivers and has the highest intensity of rice cultivation in the country. This region receives heavy rainfall and rice is grown mainly under rain fed conditions. Northern comprises of Haryana, Punjab, Western Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The region experiences low winter temperature and single crop of rice from May to December. Western comprises of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Rice is largely grown under rain fed condition during June to December. Southern is of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Rice is mainly grown in deltaic tracts of Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery Rivers and the non-deltaic rain fed area of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Rice is grown under irrigated condition in deltaic tracts [4 ]. Rice is one of the most important food source of India [5 ]. Major share of rice is cultivated during Kharif season. A small share of rice is grown in summer season with assured irrigation.

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