Introduction to Major Field Crops

Classification

Rice belongs to family Graminae (Poaceae). There are about 24 species of genus Oryza but only two species are under cultivation viz., Oryza sativa and Oryzaglaberrima. O. sativa is most popular and grown in the most of the rice growing areas of the world, whereas O. glaberrima is mainly grown in South Africa.

O. sativais further grouped into three types i.e., indica, japonica andjavanica.

Characteristics	indica	japonica	javanica
Area of cultivation	India	Japan	Indonesia
Plant height	Tall	Dwarf	Tall
Leaves	Broad, light green and slightly pubescent	Narrow and dark green	Broad, hard and light green
Tillering	Very high	Medium	Low
Grain	Thin, flattened and elongated	Small and rounded	Broad and thick
Shattering	High	Low	Low