ABOUT US

Description
The rice grain is made up of three main layers which are the hull, the bran and germ, and the inside endosperm.

The hull
The hull or husk is the outer hard protective layer which people cannot eat. The hull is removed when it is milled through the rice mill machine.

Rice Bran
Underneath the hull or husk is the bran and germ layer. This layer gives brown rice its colour. White rice is when the bran and germ layer are removed.
The bran is the outer layer and the germ is the inside layer.

Endosperm
The Endosperm or Kernal is the inside of the rice grain.
It is hard and white and contains lots of starch.

Nutritional Value

Rice is a delicious, healthy and nutritious food for our bodies.
It is high in carbohydrates, low in fat, gluten free, salt free, sugar free and contains no additives or preservatives. Rice also contains lots of protein, vitamins and minerals.
Vitamins found in rice are B vitamins, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. Minerals are iron, phosphorus and potassium.
Rice fits into the ‘Eat most’ section of the food pyramid. There are many types of rice such as Brown rice, White rice, Long grain rice, Jasmine, Doongara, Medium grain rice, Arborio, Koshihikari and Wild rice. White rice is less nutritious than brown rice.
Many breakfast cereals are products of rice such as Rice Bubbles.

Did you know?
Australians eat about 10.7kg of rice per year.
In Australia, about 8 percent of out energy intake comes from rice.
In many Asian countries, about 29 percent of their energy comes from rice.

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Harvesting
Thailand, Vietnam, India and USA are the top 4 countries in the world that export rice.

Developing countries
Traditional simple and effective methods of harvesting are still being used in part of developing such as Thailand, India and Indonesia. This means the farmers use their hands and feet to harvest.
The process for the farmers are to cut the rice plants with sickles knives, tie them in bundles and wait for them to get dry in the fields.
Finally they are delivered to a village for the people to thresh them by hitting the plants against a slatered screen and getting the rice grains out. Another popular method is for animals to walk over them such as Water buffalos or Ox.

Industrialized countries

Industrialized countries use combine, which are machines that move through rice fields to harvest, thresh and clean the grains. Then all the grains will be dried in sheds with heated air. The machine is called the harvester.

There are two types or harvesters. The Stripper front combs the head of the rice and some of the threshing is done at the front of the machine.

The Standard front cuts the straw, takes in the straw and heads and threshes these inside the machine.
After the rice has been threshed and cut it will be stored in a bin of the harvester.

When bin is full a ferry or a chaser bin follows them and the harvester unloads the paddy. After this process the ferry or chaser bin unloads the paddy into trucks or field bins.

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Pests and Diseases
Rice can be seriously affected to a large range of pests and diseases which can destroy up to 55 percent of the world’s rice crops.

The most common diseases are caused by the fungi sheath blight and rice blast, and the stalk borer is a common insect pest.
Weeds are also a serious problem because they compete with the rice plant for nutrients and water.

Rodents and birds also feed on rice grains before they are harvested.
Lastly Disease-causing fungi and some insects also infest rice during storing and transport.

Unlike Asia, where insect pests cause serious damages to the rice growing areas, there are only a few significant pests in Australia. The most common pests of rice in Australia are bloodworms, snails, ducks, armyworms and Leafminer.

An adult Rice Weevil

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Rice Life
The rice plant is a semiaquatic annual kind of grass which produces grains for food. Rice plants are Summer crops and they like temperatures between 20 – 30 degrees Celsius. They are planted in paddy fields that are flooded with water. Some rice is grown on hillsides that are cut into terraces.
Before the rice seeds can be sown into Paddy fields, the fields must be ploughed, fertilized and smoothed.
In some Asian countries traditional hand methods of cultivation are still practiced. The seedlings are drowned in seedling beds to grow into tillering for 30 – 50 days. They are then transplanted by hand into paddy fields which are flooded with rain or water.
Whereas in Industrialized countries, farmers use modern machines for cultivating and harvesting.
Australia grows rice in Murray Valley, Victoria and Riverina in New South Wales successfully.
Rice usually grows in about 150 days. During this time the crop has two main growth phases.
The morphology of rice is divided into the vegetative phase (including germination, seedling, and tillering stages) and the reproductive phase (including panicle, initiation and heading stages).

The Adult Rice plant

Planting Rice plants into the Paddy

Rice Paddy Field