The food and life of Asia
At least 114 countries grow rice and more than 50 have an annual production of 100,000 tonnes or more. Asian farmers produce about 90% of the global total, with two countries, China and India, growing more than half. Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam come next, accounting for 8.4%, 6.9% and 5.4%, respectively. Today, there are about 645 million tonnes of paddy produced annually over roughly 1.5 million sq km. Ninety per cent of it is grown in Asia over about 1.3 million sq km. The top exporters of rice are Thailand, Vietnam, India, the USA, and Pakistan in order of volume.