The Rice Economies

Bray, Francesca

doi:10.1525/9780520914933

Cited by 305 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…district).-The area in Central Java from which we took samples is representative of the older and more traditional rice-production areas of Indonesia. These areas have long histories of cultivation and small-scale, socially complex systems for water control at the village level (Bray 1986). Water from aquifers, rivers, and dams is available almost yearround, and the between-hamparan and even withinhamparan fields are often distinctly non-synchronously planted.…”

Section: Observational Studies: Differences Among Habitat Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Tropical Rice Pests Through Conservation of Generalist Natural Enemies and Alternative Prey

Settle¹,

Ariawan²,

Astuti³

et al. 1996

Ecology

750

447

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The cultivation of tropical Asian rice, which may have originated 9000 yr ago, represents an agricultural ecosystem of unrivaled ecological complexity. We undertook a study of the community ecology of irrigated tropical rice fields on Java, Indonesia, as a supporting study for the Indonesian National Integrated Pest Management Programme, whose purpose is to train farmers to be better agronomists and to employ the principles of integrated pest management (IPM). Two of our study objectives, reported on here, were (1) to explore whether there exist general and consistent patterns of arthropod community dynamics related to natural or intrinsic levels of biological control, and (2) to understand how the existing levels of biological control are affected by insecticide use, as well as by large—scale habitat factors relating to differing patterns for vegetational landscapes, planting times, and the length of dry fallow periods. We performed a series of observational studies and two experimental studies. Abundant and well—distributed populations of generalist predators can be found in most early—season tropical rice fields. We took samples from plants and water surface using a vacuum—suction device, and from the subsurface using a dip net. Our results show that high populations of generalist predators are likely to be supported, in the early season, by feeding on abundant populations of detritus—feeding and plankton—feeding insects, whose populations consistently peak and decline in the first third of the season. We hypothesize that since this abundance of alternative prey gives the predator populations a "head start" on later—developing pest populations, this process should strongly suppress pest populations and generally lend stability to rice ecosystems by decoupling predator populations from a strict dependence on herbivore populations. We experimentally tested our hypothesis of trophic linkages among organic matter, detritivores and plankton feeders, and generalist predators and showed that by increasing organic matter in test plots we could boost populations of detritivores and plankton—feeders, and in turn significantly boost the abundance of generalist predators. These results hold for populations found on the plant, on the water surface, and below the water surface. We also demonstrated the link between early—season natural enemy populations and later—season pest populations by experimentally reducing early—season predator populations with insecticide applications, causing pest populations to resurge later in the season. Overall, these results demonstrate the existence of a mechanism in tropical irrigated rice systems that supports high levels of natural biological control. This mechanism depends on season—long successional processes and interactions among a wide array of species, many of which have hitherto been ignored as important elements in a rice ecosystem. Our results support a management strategy that promotes the conservation of existing natural biological control through a major reduction in insecticide...

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Section: Observational Studies: Differences Among Habitat Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Tropical Rice Pests Through Conservation of Generalist Natural Enemies and Alternative Prey

Settle¹,

Ariawan²,

Astuti³

et al. 1996

Ecology

750

447

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“…70 This is a relatively selfsustaining and stable agricultural pattern, especially for the wet-rice fields and their soil, which can be 'maintained almost indefinitely'. 71 The depopulation of Sichuan led to the collapse and gradual siltation of irrigation channels as well as the desolation of farmlands. The sequences and the causality may be more complex than we thought: the collapse of local irrigation facilities brought the further deterioration of agriculture for the survivors who did not or could not abandon their homeland during the war and aftermath.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Retreat of the Human: Processes of Rewilding after Warfare in Sichuan, China

Schmitt¹,

Shang²

2023

Environment and History

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Decades of violent upheaval during the Late Ming and Early Qing in Sichuan caused the human population to decrease dramatically. Subsequent processes of rewilding reveal the tight connection between humans and their environment as well as the human interpretation of such dramatic changes. First, the irrigation facilities and former agricultural landscape of Sichuan deteriorated along with the decline of the human population. Due to lack of labour, the neglect and ultimate collapse of the Dujiangyan irrigation system in western Sichuan province resulted in rice-paddy agriculture becoming untenable. This led to the farmlands going through a process of rewilding. Then, when tigers proliferated and tiger-attacks became a common occurrence in Sichuan, the status of predator/prey and the activity spaces between humans and tigers were reversed. The tiger attacks were terrifying and interpreted as an example of social failure, representing the tension between human and environment that contributed to the temporary retreat of the human from the Sichuan Basin.

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“…The species probably evolved independently, albeit concurrently, in multiple sites over a broad belt that extended from the Gangetic plain below the foothills of the Himalayas near Assam, across upper Burma, northern Thailand, North Vietnam and into southwest China near Yunnan. 24 Asian rice was probably first domesticated on floodplains as a shallow or deep-water crop, with cultivation later extended to the rain-fed uplands. By the second to third century BCE large-scale, centrally managed irrigation systems were in place, and the practices of ploughing with water buffalo, manuring and transplanting were already established in the early Christian era.…”

Section: The Origins Of Rice Cultivation In West Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

The African origins of Carolina rice culture

Carney

2000

Ecumene

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This paper examines the cultural origins of rice cultivation in the United States, arguing that its appearance in South Carolina with settlement of the colony from 1670 is an African knowledge system that transferred across the Middle Passage of slavery. The origins of this wetland farming system are explored in relationship to other ethnic groups found in the colony at the time, the English, French Huguenots and native Americans. Also discussed is the development of scholarship on rice origins in West Africa and why scientific knowledge of this issue remained unexplored until this century. The final section addresses the significance of gendered practices in African rice cultivation and processing, and the role of female knowledge systems in the crop’s diffusion across the Atlantic basin to South Carolina.

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The Rice Economies

Cited by 305 publications

References 0 publications

Managing Tropical Rice Pests Through Conservation of Generalist Natural Enemies and Alternative Prey

Managing Tropical Rice Pests Through Conservation of Generalist Natural Enemies and Alternative Prey

The Retreat of the Human: Processes of Rewilding after Warfare in Sichuan, China

The African origins of Carolina rice culture

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