Rice is concentrated in the northern Nile Delta above the 30th parallel. It is in AEZ 9, characterized as subtropical arid with winter rains, which in reality in Egypt is no rain certainly none during the rice-growing season. Short-grained japonica varieties make up most of the rice crop. Rice was introduced in the latter part of the 19th century as a reclamation crop on saline soils in the northern Nile Delta after the construction of the Delta Barrage allowed the introduction of perennial irrigation.
Rice is a staple crop only in the areas in which it is grown.
Most of the exports are to other Arabic countries with a sizable expatriate Egyptian community that prefers the short-grained varieties. There is also some potential for exporting long-grained varieties to the European Community countries. In the areas it is grown, rice is the farmers' preferred summer crop and usually occupies over half the cultivated area. For that reason the area has been expanding with the liberalization of acreage and price controls. Rice environment Rice in Egypt represents the fully irrigated ecosystem or the nontropical subdivision of this ecosystem.