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Almost 3,000 million people share the culture, traditions, and untapped potentials 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 it is grown - in the deltas and valleys of Asias major rivers, on the slopes of the Himalayas, in Africas 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. Even in nations "new to rice", cultivation of the crop has changed landscapes, introduced new cuisine, and provided farmers with new sources of income.
So, rice is a food - but more than a food. It is society, culture, politics, business, the beauty of the landscape, people in their communities. In short, rice is life.
About International Rice Day
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