The map above depicts countries proportionate to how much rice they produce.
Noticeably, Asia dominates the top rice-producing countries in the world, and therefore appears broad and wide on the map.
The country that produces the most rice is mainland China, as they made over 148 million metric tons (m.t.) of milled rice during the 2019 crop year, according to Statista, who publicly released this information in February 2020.
India is second in the list, manufacturing milled rice that is worth 116 million m.t.
The Statista data shows that the rest of the top ten milled rice producers are predominantly Asian (except for Brazil, which is located in South America):
- Indonesia: 36.7 million m.t.
- Bangladesh: 34.91 million m.t.
- Vietnam: 27.77 million m.t.
- Thailand: 20.34 million m.t.
- Burma: 13.2 million m.t.
- Philippines: 11.73 million m.t.
- Japan: 7.66 million m.t.
- Brazil: 7.14 million m.t.
The African island country of Madagascar appears remarkably on the map, seemingly in proportion with Asian nations, which means there could be significant rice cultivation there. Apparently, the Malagasy (i.e. people of Madagascar) are influenced by Austronesian culture as they “descended from Indonesian sailors”, says Reddit user u/visope, so the country does make a substantial amount of rice, too.
Discover a little bit of rice and food history by checking out these amazing reads:
- Rice Production Worldwide
- Climate Change and Future Rice Production in India
- Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan’s Food Culture
- Fruit from the Sands: The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat
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