Oryza Glaberrima
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''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated
rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
species. It was first domesticated and grown in
West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
around 3,000 years ago. In agriculture, it has largely been replaced by higher-yielding
Asian rice ''Oryza sativa'', commonly known as Asian rice or indica rice, is the plant species most commonly referred to in English as ''rice''. It is the type of farmed rice whose cultivars are most common globally, and was first domesticated in the Yan ...
, and the number of varieties grown is declining. It still persists, making up an estimated 20% of rice grown in West Africa. It is now rarely sold in West African markets, having been replaced by Asian strains. In comparison to Asian rice, African rice is hardy, pest-resistant, low-labour, and suited to a larger variety of African conditions. It is described as filling, with a distinct nutty flavour. It is also grown for cultural reasons; for instance, it is sacred to followers of Awasena (a
traditional African religion The traditional beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions.Encyclopedia of African Religion (Sage, 2009) Molefi Kete Asante Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural ...
) among the Jola people, and is a heritage variety in the United States. Crossbreeding between African and Asian rice is difficult, but there exist some crosses.


History

It is highly likely that humans have independently domesticated two different rice species. African rice is very genetically similar to wild African rice, ''
Oryza barthii ''Oryza barthii'', also called Barth's rice, wild rice, or African wild rice, is a grass in the rice genus ''Oryza''. It is an annual, erect to semierect grass. It has leaves with a short ligule (<), and panicles that are compact to open, rarely ...
'', and Asian rice (''
Oryza sativa ''Oryza sativa'', commonly known as Asian rice or indica rice, is the plant species most commonly referred to in English as ''rice''. It is the type of farmed rice whose cultivars are most common globally, and was first domesticated in the Yan ...
'') to wild Asian rice ''
Oryza rufipogon ''Oryza rufipogon'', known as brownbeard rice, wild rice, and red rice, is a member of the genus ''Oryza''. It is native to East, Southeast and South Asia. It has a close evolutionary relation to ''Oryza sativa'', the plant grown as a major rice ...
'', and these two divisions have wide genetic differences between them. ''Oryza barthii'' still grows wild in Africa, in a wide variety of open habitats. The Sahara was formerly wetter, with massive
paleolake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
s in what is now the Western Sahara. As the climate dried, the wild rice retreated and probably became increasingly domesticated as it relied on humans for irrigation. Rice growing in deeper, more permanent water became floating rice. It was domesticated about 3000 years ago in the
inland delta A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more ...
of the Upper
Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...
, in what is now
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
. It then spread through West Africa. It has also been recorded off the ''east'' coast of Africa, in the
Zanzibar Archipelago The Zanzibar Archipelago ( ar, أرخبيل زنجبار, sw, Funguvisiwa la Zanzibar) consists of several islands lying off the coast of East Africa south of the Somali sea. The archipelago is also known as the Spice Islands. There are four ...
. ''O. barthii'' seedheads shatter, while ''O. glaberrima'' does not shatter as much. In the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Portuguese sailed to the Southern Rivers area in
West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
and wrote that the land was rich in rice. "hey said they found the country covered by vast crops, with many cotton trees and large fields planted in rice ... the country looked to them as having the aspect of a pond (i.e., a marais)". The Portuguese accounts speak of the Falupo Jola, Landuma,
Biafada Biafada (''ga-njoola''Wilson, William André Auquier. 2007. ''Guinea Languages of the Atlantic group: description and internal classification''. (Schriften zur Afrikanistik, 12.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.) is a Senegambian language of Guinea ...
, and Bainik growing rice.
André Álvares de Almada André Álvares de Almada ( fl. 16th and 17th centuries) was a Cape Verdean writer, trader and explorer of mestiço (mixed) descent. He was one of the first recorded Cape Verdean writers in Cape Verdean history, in 1598, he was knighted as a Knigh ...
wrote about the
dike Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes ...
systems used for rice cultivation, from which modern West African rice dike systems are descended. African rice was brought to the Americas with the
transatlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
, arriving in Brazil probably by the 1550s and in the U.S. in 1784. The seed was carried as provisions on slave ships, and the technology and skills needed to grow it were brought by enslaved rice farmers. Newly imported African slaves were marketed for their rice-growing skills, as the high price of rice made it a major cash crop. Not all Africans came to the Americas with knowledge in rice growing, due to the vast variabilities in cultures and ethnicities, but the practice of cultivation was shared throughout the Carolina plantations, which allowed the enslaved people to develop a new sense of culture and made African rice the primary source of nutrition. The tolerance of African rice for brackish water meant it could be grown on coastal deltas, as it was in West Africa. There are numerous stories about how the rice came to North America, including a slave smuggling grains in her hair and a ship driven in to trade by a storm. African rice is a rare crop in Brazil, Guyana, El Salvador and Panama, but it is still occasionally grown there. There are also native South American rices, which makes it hard to recognize the arrival of African rice in histories. Asian rice came to West Africa in the late 1800s, and by the late twentieth century had substantially supplanted native African rice. However, African rice was still used in specific, often marginal habitats, and preferred for its taste. Farmers may grow African rice to eat and Asian rice to sell, as African rice is not exported. The 2007 food price shocks drove efforts to raise rice production. Rice-growing regions of Africa are generally net rice importers (partly due to a lack of good local rice-processing capacity) so price increases hurt. Among the efforts to increase yield was the adoption of nerica cultivars, crossbred to specifications from local farmers using African rice varieties provided by local farmers. These were bred during the 1990s and released in the early 21st century. Results so far have been mixed; the nerica varieties are less hardy and more labour-intensive, and effects on real-world yields vary. Subsidies of nerica seeds have also been criticized for encouraging the loss of native varieties and reducing the independence of farmers.


Use

Multiple varieties of African rice are often grown so that the harvest is staggered. In this way, the harvest can be eaten fresh. Freshly harvested rice is moist, and can be puffed in fire, and eaten. Fried rice has a brownish color when fried; this is because of the husk which is green in color and turns brown when heated. African rice can be prepared in much the same way as Asian rice, but has a distinct nutty flavor, for which it is favored in West Africa. African rice grains are often reddish in colour; some varieties are strongly aromatic, other, like Carolina Gold, are not at all aromatic. African rice is also used medicinally.


Traits

Overall, ''O. glaberrima'' cultivars are considered undesirable by West African farmers and are () being replaced by ''O. sativa'' cultivars.


Appearance

African rice is a tall rice plant, usually under 120 cm but up to five meters for floating varieties, which may also branch and root from higher stem nodes. Generally, African rice has small, pear-shaped grain, reddish bran and green to black hulls, straight, simply-branched
panicles A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are o ...
, and short, rounded ligules. There are, however, exceptions, and it can be hard to distinguish from Asian rice. For complete certainty, a genetic test can be used.


Grain qualities

Grains are brittle.


Hardiness

African rice is well adapted to the African environment. It is drought- and deep-water-resistant, and tolerates fluctuations in water depth, iron toxicity, infertile soils, severe climatic conditions, and human neglect better than Asian rice. Some varieties also mature more quickly, and may be sown directly on higher ground, eliminating the need to transplant seedlings. Most is rain-watered, and the soil is often not cultivated. African rice has profuse vegetative growth, which smothers weeds. It exhibits better resistance to various rice pests and diseases, such as
blast disease ''Magnaporthe grisea'', also known as rice blast fungus, rice rotten neck, rice seedling blight, blast of rice, oval leaf spot of graminea, pitting disease, ryegrass blast, Johnson spot, neck blast, wheat blast, and Imochi (Japanese:稲熱) is a ...
, African rice gall midge (''
Orseolia oryzivora ''Orseolia oryzivora'', also called the African rice gall midge, is a species of small fly in the family Cecidomyiidae. It is a major insect pest of rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonl ...
''), parasitic
nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...
s ('' Heterodera sacchari'' and ''
Meloidogyne Root-knot nematodes are plant-parasitic nematodes from the genus ''Meloidogyne''. They exist in soil in areas with hot climates or short winters. About 2000 plants worldwide are susceptible to infection by root-knot nematodes and they cause appr ...
'' spp.), rice stripe necrosis virus,
rice yellow mottle virus Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) is a plant pathogenic virus, belonging to the genus Sobemovirus. The genome is a positive-sense single strand RNA of 4450 nucleotides in length and is not polyadenylated. It was first reported in Kenya in 1966 i ...
, and the parasitic plant ''
Striga ''Striga'', commonly known as witchweed, is a genus of parasitic plants that occur naturally in parts of Africa, Asia, and Australia. It is currently classified in the family Orobanchaceae, although older classifications place it in the Scrophul ...
''.


Yield and processing

African rices shatter more than Asian rices, possibly because they have not been domesticated for as long. A few varieties of African rice are as resistant to shattering as shatter-resistant Asian varieties, but most are not; on average, about half of the grains are scattered and lost. This is why yield is lower; when the heads of African rice are bagged before they become ripe, so that the shattered grains are caught in paper bags, the yield of African rice is the same as the yield of Asian rice. Like other grains, rice may lodge, or fall over, when grain heads are full. African rice's greater height and weaker stems makes it more likely to lodge, although it also lets it survive in deep water, and makes it easier to harvest. African rice tends to elongate rapidly if completely submerged, which is not advantageous in regions prone to short floods, as it weakens the plant. The grains of African rice are more brittle than those of Asian rice. The grains are more likely to break during industrial polishing.
Broken rice Broken rice is fragments of rice grains, broken in the field, during drying, during transport, or during milling. Mechanical separators are used to separate the broken grains from the whole grains and sort them by size. Broken rice is fragmented, ...
is widely used in West Africa, and some cookbooks from the region will suggest manually breaking the grains for certain recipes, but most broken rice eaten is from Asian rice, about 16% of which is broken in processing. The genome of ''O. glaberrima'' has been sequenced, and was published in 2014. This allowed genomic as well as physiological comparison with related species, and identified some effects of some genes.


Breeding

African and Asian rice do not readily interpollinate, even under controlled conditions, and when they do, the offspring are very rarely fertile. Even the fertile crossbred offspring have low fertility. Crossbreeding seems to have succeeded in at least one area of Maritime Guinea, as some varieties there show crossbred genes. More recently, the nerica cultivars (new rice for Africa) have been developed using
green revolution The Green Revolution, also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period of technology transfer initiatives that saw greatly increased crop yields and agricultural production. These changes in agriculture began in developed countrie ...
techniques like
embryo rescue Embryo rescue is one of the earliest and successful forms of in-vitro culture techniques that is used to assist in the development of plant embryos that might not survive to become viable plants. Embryo rescue plays an important role in modern plan ...
. Over 3000 crosses were made as part of the NERICA program. Breeding within the species is easier, and there are uncounted numbers of African rice varieties, although the majority may have been lost. A similar crossed variety was bred in the United States in 2011, and work is being done on crosses with Indian rice varieties.


Cultivars


African cultivars

There are a great many varieties of African rice. In the 1960s older women in Jipalom (a village in the
Ziguinchor Region Ziguinchor is a region of Senegal (regional capitals have the same name as their respective regions). The region is also referred to historically and popularly as Basse Casamance , settlement_type = Geographical region , image_skylin ...
) could unhesitatingly name more than ten varieties of African rice that were no longer planted, besides the half-dozen that were then still being planted. Each woman would plant multiple different varieties, to suite varying microhabitats and to stagger the harvest. A 2006 survey showed that a village typically cultivated 25 varieties of rice; an individual household would on average have 14 varieties and grow four per year; this, however, is down from the seven to nine varieties per woman that was average in previous decades. Women, who are traditionally responsible for the seeds, trade them often over long-distance networks. Varieties, each with subtypes, include: * ''aspera'' * ''ebenicolorata'' * ''evoluta'' * ''rigida'' * ''rustica'' The cultivars the
Africa Rice Center The Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), formerly known as the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), is a pan-African intergovernmental association and a CGIAR Research organization, currently headquartered in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Af ...
calls TOG 12303 and TOG 9300 have low shattering, and thus yields comparable with low-shattering Asian rice varieties. Scientists from the
Africa Rice Center The Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), formerly known as the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), is a pan-African intergovernmental association and a CGIAR Research organization, currently headquartered in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Af ...
managed to cross-breed African rice with Asian rice varieties to produce a
group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...
of interspecific cultivars called
New Rice for Africa New Rice for Africa ("NERICA") is a cultivar group of interspecific hybrid rice developed by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) to improve the yield of African rice cultivars. Although 240 million people in West Africa rely on rice as the prima ...
(NERICA).


American cultivars

Carolina Gold is an heirloom cultivar grown in the early United States, sometimes known as golden-seed rice for the colour of its grains. Long-grain gold-seed rice boasted grains 5/12ths of an inch long (up 11% from 3/8ths of an inch), and was brought to market by planter Joshua John Ward in the 1840s. Despite its popularity, the variety was lost in the American Civil War. Charleston Gold was released in 2011 and is a crossbreed of Carolina Gold and two ''
Oryza sativa ''Oryza sativa'', commonly known as Asian rice or indica rice, is the plant species most commonly referred to in English as ''rice''. It is the type of farmed rice whose cultivars are most common globally, and was first domesticated in the Yan ...
'' breeding lines called IR64 ( Indica) and IR65610-24-3-6-3-2-3, which raised the yield, shortened the stem, and added an aromatic quality to the rice.


References


Further reading


Slightly outdated National Geographic article on Carolina Gold
(dead link 9 September 2019) * *Fields-Black, Edda L. 2008. ''Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora''. (Blacks in the Diaspora.) Bloomington: Indiana University Press. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2670252 glaberrima Grasses of Africa Flora of West Tropical Africa Rice Tropical agriculture Plants described in 1853 Flora of Cameroon Flora of Chad Cereals