Rice in China

China is almost identical in area to the United States, a little more than three and a half million square miles. It is also roughly the same shape, so much so that if you could move one country around the globe, it would fit neatly on top of the other. It is by far the world’s largest producer and consumer of rice. Archaeologists estimate that the Chinese have cultivated the grain for well over four thousand years, maybe as long as seven thousand years. The country’s many different agricultural regions, varying enormously in terms of climate, soil conditions, and availability of water, result in a great many different varieties of rice grown and consumed. In general, wetland rices outnumber dryland rices, and nonglutinous rices outnumber glutinous rices.