Rice breeding - crop subsector (relating to one of the main branches of agriculture), which is engaged in the cultivation and storage of the rice crop.
Rice is one of the oldest and most productive crops in the world. Today there are many kinds of rice and methods of its cultivation.
The oldest traces of rice, dated mid-5th millennium BC. e., found in Thailand. Over the next thousand years, the cultivation of rice spread throughout Indochina, and eventually in South-East and East Asia. In the 2nd millennium BC. e. Indo-Chinese rice was imported to India, from where came to Central Asia and Europe during the campaigns of Alexander the Great.
In the 2nd millennium BC. e. in what is now China's main rice-growing area of the southern lands were in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which belonged to the proto-Vietnamese families. At the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. through contacts with the southern neighbors of the Chinese rice was in the neighboring regions of China. Perhaps there he borrowed the residents of the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago. Gradually, rice became the dominant crop in East and South-East Asia.
In Europe, since ancient times, the center of European rice for a long time was the Mediterranean. However, the rice culture occupied an insignificant place in the diet of the then European, yielding barley and wheat. Only since the 19th century started the commercial cultivation of European rice.
taking into account such factors in the main cultivation of rice, the temperature, and soil moisture. Rice is a heat-loving crops, but the high temperature leads to its excessive vegetative growth, which makes it difficult to grow sprouts. A large number of sunny days contribute to obtaining higher yields. For the cultivation of rice is best suited silty and clay soils that retain water well. However, sandy soils, despite low natural productivity, can provide the highest yields with fertilizer processing conditions.
Rice - hydrophyte optional, ie it can carry oxygen from the leaves to the roots submerged, so to combat weeds and improve crop yields, water on the heavy fields held during the growing season.
In the mountainous areas of rice grown on terraces that are created on the slopes of the mountains and fenced shafts for water retention. On the plain lands heavy rice fields generally aligned to provide uniform irrigation and good drainage, and divide them into portions of the shafts, and then pour water on the canal system.
Figure begin to grow from March to June, depending on the region. In Asian countries, rice grains germinated in beds and transplanted after 30-50 days jacks 3-4 sprout in soil heavy field, is covered by water. In the West and in Russia sow rice grains, without germination. In economically developed countries of the rice crop is mechanized, but this culture continue to sow by hand in most regions of the world.
Paddy fields usually kept flooded with water flooding periodically varying depth depending on the phase of plant growth and for combating pests and weeds. Many farms in the water add pesticides to increase yields, but the trend away from the use of chemicals exist in a number of countries. During the ripening rice fields with water is drained, dried and ground to 18-22% moisture, and only harvest.
The best method to reduce crop losses - the use of resistant varieties.
