Can I grow my own rice since there is a shortage?

Question

I know there is a shortage of rice in the world. How much grow room is needed to feed one person?

Answer 1

You can grow pretty much anything if you have the right conditions. And its not really that the amount of rice has dropped to cause a shortage. Riceproduction is steadily going up. It is the price that has increased and it has for several reasons. The price of oil has risen so much that producing anything has become more expensive. At the same time the value of the dollar has dropped alot which has further reduced the value of currencies, like the Thai baath, that are very closely tied to the dollar. The money just isn´t worth as much. And greater demand for meat in countries like India and China has caused the price for soy and grain for animal feed to explode further increasing the pressure on other foods like rice.

If you have perfect conditions, say in a lab where you can recreate any condition on earth in a controlled way, you would need about 50 square meters of land (538 sq ft) to grow food for plain survival (and if you grow other veggies like beans you would get all the proteins and vitamins you need). You would need to be a vegeterian and you would have to give up stuff like chocolate and beer but you would survive.

REPLY TO MICHAEL

Rice is not used in the production of biofuels. And consider the amount of alkohol that is drunk by other slobs. 1 liter of vodka contains enough ethanol to drive a SAAB biopower 7 km (or 4.3 miles) yet I don´t hear anyone beating down on alkohol drinkers. Had a beer lately? Then YOU are part of the problem. And the remains of biofuel production IS used for food production as cattlefeed.

-edit-

2 kg of rice per week?!! There are 60 grams to a portion! 120 grams if you´re really really hungry (or if you eat it for lunch and dinner)! If I ate  a double portion of rice every single day (I don´t. More like once a week) I´d be eating 44 kg of rice in a year. And using an artificial environment with constant perfect weather, water and nutrient supplies I could get three harvest in a year (with a total production of 15 tonnes per ha). I would thus need only 29 squaremeters to produce all the rice I could eat in a year.

And 80 kg/acre? That´s not even 200 kg/ha. The world average production of rice is 3.8 tonnes per ha... What are you doing in Pakistan?

Answer 2

Quite a bit.  I believe the cost of raising and harvesting your own would be higher than the cost of buying a bag.

Answer 3

It's a lot of work. I think I'd just switch to pasta!

Answer 4

If you use 2 Kg rice weekly then you require almost 96 kg in a year. one "*acre" land or room (43520 sq.ft) give the production of 50 to 80 kg depending upon the method of cultivaion. so you need almost 1.5 acres of land.

* 272 sq.ft = 01 Merla

20 Merla = 01 Kanal

08 Kanal = 01 acre

25 acres = 01 Muraba

(our local measuring units)

Answer 5

What is the world coming to? Shortage of rice WOW,I'm afraid for my life........

Answer 6

Its all that stupid freerice.com website fault!! They are giving all of OUR rice to africa! I demand that we take them down

Answer 7

If you want to 'think green' then don't bother doing it yourself. Bulk farming is far more efficient and cost effective than growing a tiny amount of rice at home. Also the product that you receive will be inferior to a store bought one. Store bought rice is enriched with vitamins, home grown is not. A commerical 1 acre field produces 8,000 pounds of rice and uses water far more effectively than tiny home operations.

Answer 8

Yes, you can but, it is a little more work than most would think. I've heard conflicting reports that you can start with brown rice but, most literature points to needing rice with the husk on it which is seed rice.

Frank

This site gives pictures and advise for home rice growing:

http://www.amberwaves.org/mediaPages/gro...

Kids project to grow rice at home with links on getting seed rice:

http://www.kidsregen.org/howTo.php?secti...

Here is a site that shows how rural families grow rice:

http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/collectio...

Answer 9

Are you being serious...is that the truth? I eat rice like 5 times a week, my cooker is always on. Are you in the Philippines or Austria, not the US? Um....I'll send you some

Answer 10

You can, but you would need to create a artificial environment like what they have in rice fields

REPLY TO OTHER ANSWERS

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There is a shortage due to the recent invention of Biofuels.

rice can be up to $1000 to the ton.

Silly really that people are starving just because some posh snob wants to be "emission free".