Between History and Legend - Ente Nazionale Risi

Between History and Legend - Ente Nazionale Risi

BETWEEN HISTORY AND LEGEND


 Eat your rice, the rest will take care of Heaven.

The proverb is Chinese. The emperor Kangh Hi understood 1600 years before Christ that to meet the nutritional needs of populous China, we wanted a variety of rice in the early maturation, farmland to the north of the Great Wall, where the continental climate of the first autumn chills comes early. He was born the variety yu-mi, Imperial rice, which became synonymous with early,is remembered in many Oriental legends.
 
Today, China produces about one billion seven hundred million tons of rice. The amount is large. However, it is one third of annual world production now tending to five billion tons.

 

The rice in the world

Worldwide, rice cultivation has expanded over the last fifteen years so evident, from 135 million hectares to about 148 million. At the same time the yields have increased by more than 44%. Also, it improved the amount of rice per hectare obtained from: 24 to 32 tons, an increase of 32%. It is estimated that today, everyone on Earth has to have 60 kilograms of rice, ie 10 kilograms more than five years ago. It is already a concrete contribution, but not sufficient, the fight against hunger with highly dramatic stage in Africa, Asia, Latin America where rice is widely cultivated, it occupies the place of bread in the West. Suffice it to say that Japan consumes 80 kilograms of rice per year and an inhabitant of the Indochinese peninsula touches the 150 kilograms, while a European rarely exceeds 5 kilograms.

 

The arrival in Italy

Over five hundred years ago, the cultivation of rice in Italy was seconded by a pressing need, after plagues, famines and wars ending with a feed back on a normal population growth. It was necessary for the purpose a cereal with high productivity, substitute barley, rye, wheat varieties now degenerated and rice proved suitable.
Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan in 1475 sent a gift to the dukes of Ferrara some rice seed, he emphasized the ability of multiplication of the cereal of eastern origin: each sack of seed is transformed into twelve sacks of rice.

Spend, however, some decades before the rice ("Renaissance crop" such as maize and potatoes, which were received in Europe following the discovery of America) is able to establish itself permanently in the Po Valley.

Only in mid-1500 will increase from 5 000 to 50 000 hectares. And only in 1690, settlers arrived from Europe will begin to grow rice in South Carolina

 

First in Europe

Our country is the largest European producer of rice. The extension of rice is about 200 000 hectares located on the orders of magnitude in the provinces of Vercelli, Pavia, Novara, Milano, Alessandria, Ferrara, Oristano, Mantova, Verona and several areas of southern and northern.

The annual production exceeds 11 million tons of paddy, accounting for 0.25 percent of world production. From each hectare are obtained on average 55-60 pounds of paddy while in the last century were hardly exceeded 24 tons.

The internal market needs 4 millions and half, the other countries of the EEC 3 million and non-EU countries, fewer than four million of quintals. Italy is very active with regard to exports, it is part of the international trade of rice, accounting for 5% of the global harvest.
 

The origins of Java

The fossil records have confirmed that Asians eat rice by seven thousand years.
The rice plants have originated in Java or Cambodia. The Egyptians didn't know nor the Bible mentions it. Instead, the Greeks and Romans knew of its existence, however, considered the cereal a spice. Pliny the Elder wrote in his "Natural History" that had fleshy leaves. Theophrastus and Strabo were more accurate.
The rice journey from East to West has mysterious sides . Perhaps Alexander the Great it became known in Greece.
It is likely that in Italy they has been introduced by Arabs. Other versions will give credit to the Venetians.
As documented in a "Book of the expenditure" of the Dukes of Savoy, the rice was already sold in Turin in 1300. During the Middle Ages was also grown in the botanical edges of monastic orders. The monks of Monte Cassino would have studied and have selected the first seed for crops, thereby initiating its success in the West as a food with extraordinary nutritional properties.

 

 

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