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Rice Production in China

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Abstract

Rice is one of the prominent cereal crops in China, and about 65 % of Chinese people rely on rice. Nearly 95 % of the rice grown in China is produced under traditional puddled transplanted conditions in China with prolonged periods of flooding. However, several factors have threatened the sustainability and productivity of traditional puddled transplanted rice production system, such as climate change, decline in rice planting area, scarcity of labor availability, narrow genetic background of rice varieties, overuse of fertilizers and chemicals, poor extension system, and oversimplified crop management. Chinese government and rice scientists put sincere efforts to cope with these constraints. New breeding techniques such as marker-assisted selection, transformation, and genetic engineering were adopted to increase yield potential. Synergy among fertilizer, water, and pest and weed management should be considered to maximize overall efficiency of the rice production system. Nowadays, labor shortage in rural areas is the major constraint to the flood-transplanted rice production in China, and the mechanization for rice production is the key to solve this problem. Direct seeding rice is a promising planting technique in face of water and labor shortages in rice cultivation with advantages of less input requirement, more economic returns, and less methane and CO2 emissions.

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Nie, L., Peng, S. (2017). Rice Production in China. In: Chauhan, B., Jabran, K., Mahajan, G. (eds) Rice Production Worldwide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47516-5_2

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