Improved technology is needed that will help rehabilitate degraded uplands and transform them into sustainable agroecosystems. Soils cycle from flooded to non-flooded and may have severe problems of salinity and toxicity. The rice crop grows as flood water rises, with harvest after the water recedes. More than 15 million hectares in South and Southeast Asia are subject to various types of uncontrolled flooding. West Africa and Latin America also have some flood-prone riceland.
Rice is often the only crop that can be grown in the flood-prone areas.
Yields are low because of problem soils and unpredictable combinations of drought and flood, and crop failures are common. Yet these low-lying areas support more than 100 million people, most of them in poor farm families. They need sustainable production systems. BACK TO TOP Rice is transplanted or direct seeded in puddled soil on leveled, bunded fields with water control, in both dry and wet seasons in the lowlands, in the summer at higher elevations, and during the dry season in floodprone areas. The crop is heavily fertilized.