Question

Identify the farming techniques used to grow rice in China and South Korea. What technique did Koreans once use to preserve their food?

Answer 1


Rice plantsChina is the world's top producer and consumer of rice. It produces and consumes a third of the world's rice, about 200 million tons a year. In 2004, China was forced to import rice when it produced 124 million tons but consumed 150 million tons. In 1989 the output was 179 million metric tons.

Rice yields in China increased dramatically with the introduction of high-yield dwarf rices. These scientifically-bred strains---crosses between Mexican- and Philippine-bred wheat and cold weather rice from China---have been so successful that farmers have been able to raise more rice on less land. The surplus land has been used to raise more profitable crops like cotton, fruit and vegetables. Some land has been used to raise fodder for cattle and cows to meet the new demand for dairy products and meat.

Rice blast is harmful disease that affects China's rice crop. Interspersing two varieties of rice have doubled yields in Yunnan and occurrence of rice blast decreased by 93 percent.

 Rice fields have shrunk by 19 million hectares in the past decade as farmers have switched to other crops and abandoned marginal land.