Rice

Rice (Oryza sativa; Ukrainian: ryzh or rys). Annual and perennial plants of the family Gramineae, cultivated for their starchy grain. Rice is the principal cereal crop of most of the world's population; its origins have been traced by Nikolai Vavilov to India in approx 3000 BC. Rice was introduced in Ukraine in the 1930s. A large area is now planted annually; in the 1970s, 32,000 ha were under rice cultivation in the Black Sea area and the Danube River and Boh River deltas, and an additional 140,000 ha in the Kuban region with a yield of up to 5 t of grain per ha. Varieties have been developed which grow with intermittent flooding or periodic watering rather than continuous flooding. The most common varieties in Ukraine are Dubivsky 129, Vros 5123, Uzros 2842, and Zeravshanika 427 and 2586-1.