2004
marks the
International Year
of Rice
Almost 3 billion people share the culture, traditions, and untapped potential of rice. In remote villages of southeast Asia, farmers still compare a grain of rice to a “grain of gold”. In modern Japan, people see rice as the very heart of their culture. Along the Senegal River in West Africa, villagers greet guests with specially prepared rice dishes.
Wherever rice is grown—in the deltas and valleys of Asia’s major rivers, on the slopes of the Himalayas, in Africa’s tropical rainforests or on dry lands in the Middle East—rice enters people’s lives as a daily food, at religious festivals and wedding parties, in paintings and in songs.
In short, rice is life. It feeds more than half the world’s population while providing income for millions of rice producers, processors and traders.
For these and many other reasons, the UN General Assembly, agreeing with the request of 44 countries, declared 2004 the International Year of Rice (IYR). Devoting a year to a commodity is an unprecedented step in United Nations history. Compelling factors lie under this decision: the spectre of increased hunger, malnutrition, poverty and conflict in the coming decades.
Under the slogan “Rice is Life” the FAO is in charge of guiding the initiatives to celebrate the IYR around the world.
The fundamental objective of the IYR is to “promote and provide guidance for an efficient and sustainable increase in rice-based production.”
The
Life of Bangladesh
Rice is the very life of Bangladesh. It is eaten at every meal, whether it is by the humblest rickshaw puller to stave off hunger or by the richest landowner celebrating the wedding of a favourite daughter.
Bangladesh’s vast green rice fields stretch out for as far as the eye can see. It is the main crop in a country where 80 percent of the people depend on agriculture for a living. It is an integral part of culture and daily life that is governed by the cycle of the rice crop.
Rice is usually boiled and eaten with curry. It has other uses too. It is made into flour as the ingredient for rice cakes. Rice is mixed with milk and sugar for pudding. Milk and rice is the last item of a meal, eaten with seasonal fruit. It is served to a guest any time of the day or night. It also accompanies a messenger carrying good news to a relative or a man of importance.
This extract, taken from “Postcards from Bangladesh” by Sudeep Sen, Tanvir and Kelley Lynch, shows how the rice crop rules a young Bangladeshi girl’s life. “Dust and husk drop from the kula. Sifting time by the hour, she thinks of this afternoon, when her brother will come to take her back to her parent’s home. The naior – home visit – has tugged at her thoughts this time more than usual. With this year’s big Aman harvest, Nobanno – the harvest festival – will be like those of her childhood.
Memories and grains clatter at her feet - the delicious freedom of home, the carefree camaraderie of cousins, and a house full of relatives. Memories filter through the fine sieve of her mind leaving one enduring cluster-the perennial sight of her grandmother sitting on her jal choiki—small net-top wooden stool—in the courtyard bent over her work, and the fine paste of rice flour that encrusts her wrinkled fingers…
Her grandmother calls to her as she runs
through the courtyard, stretches out a hand and pulls her down to squat
beside her. She bids her help make the pitha and instructs her to make the
cakes properly - so that one day she will be a disappointment to her
in-laws.
She is startled back to the present by the force of her mother-in-law’s
hand on her shoulder and her words - ‘Pay attention to what you’re doing,
you’re dropping the grain.’ With a nod of her head, she scoops up another
kula full of rice and begins to sift again, this time giving it more
attention.”
For more information see www.ricecrc.org and www.rice2004.org