Commemorative
E-Card # 007
International
Year of Rice
Almost 3,000
million people share the culture, traditions, and untapped
potentials of rice. In remote villages of southeast Asia, farmers
still compare a grain of rice to a "grain of gold". In
modern Japan, people see rice as the very heart of their culture.
Along the Senegal River in West Africa, villagers greet guests with
specially prepared rice dishes.
Wherever rice is
grown - in the deltas and valleys of Asia’s major rivers, on the
slopes of the Himalayas, in Africa’s tropical rainforests or on
dry lands in the Middle East - rice enters people's lives as a daily
food, at religious festivals and wedding parties, in paintings and
in songs. Even in nations "new to rice", cultivation of
the crop has changed landscapes, introduced new cuisine, and
provided farmers with new sources of income.
So, rice is a
food - but more than a food. It is society, culture, politics,
business, the beauty of the landscape, people in their communities.
In short, rice is life.
Click here
for official website.
publishing date: 15th January, 2004
