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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #341016
Research Project: New Sustainable Processing Technologies to Produce Healthy, Value-Added Foods from Specialty Crops

Location: Healthy Processed Foods Research

Title: Rice overview: Production, processing, and sustainable innovations

Author
item HAMED, EL-MASHAD - University Of California
item Pan, Zhongli

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2018
Publication Date: 6/20/2018
Citation: El-Mashad, H.M., Pan, Z. 2017. Rice overview: production, rice industry, and sustainable innovations. In: The Science and Engineering of Rice. Pan, Z., Khir, R., editors. Lancaster, PA: DEStech Publications, Inc. p. 1-30.

Interpretive Summary: This is a book chapter overviewing rice production, processing and related new technologies. Rice is an important food providing approximately 20% of the world’s dietary energy demand. It is a good source of vitamin B, niacin and amino acids. However, it is not a complete diet for human. The annual global supply of rice was relatively constant in the period 2014-2016 at about 712 million metric tons. China was the lead producer in 2014 followed by India. Rice cultivation consumes huge amounts of water, fertilizers, and energy. Suitable and controlled application methods should be applied to minimize the pollution effects of these chemicals on soil, water and air. Rice production is an important source of GHG emissions in many countries. The emissions from rice fields represents > 80% of the total emissions from rice production chain. To achieve sustainable rice production, several measures should be realized including: minimizing the postharvest losses, chemical inputs, energy consumption, GHG emissions from fields, but increasing the efficiency of rice processing and producing bioenergy and value-added products from rice by-products.

Technical Abstract: Rice is an important food in many parts of the world, particularly, in low-income countries. It is the highest water consuming crop with high inputs of fertilizer and energy. It also needs pesticides and herbicides to reduce yield losses. Rice cultivation is a source of air pollutants in the form of greenhouse gas emission, and chemicals pollution of soil and water. Rice production and processing result in a few byproducts that could be used to produce bioenergy and other value-added products. This chapter presents the world production and consumption of rice. The nutritional value of rice, cultivation inputs and crop management are presented. The factors affecting postharvest losses and the applied technologies and measures for reducing the losses are reviewed. The characteristics of rice byproducts and their applications are imparted. The environmental impact and sustainability of rice production are discussed. The innovations in sustainability of rice production and processing are introduced.