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I know Chinese harvest their rice up to three times a year. I don't see how perennial rice could compete. Harvesting normal rice is just grabbing entire plants

I know Chinese harvest their rice up to three times a year. I don't see how perennial rice could compete. Harvesting normal rice is just grabbing entire plants, as many as you can grab at a time. I may know nothing about how harvesting perennial rice is supposed to work, but I grew up as a farmer and I have imagination. You have to leave some part of the plant for it to keep growing crop which means you can't just grab it all. And I think this is a deal breaker. It just does not make sense to get even more labour intensive plant at a time where labour in all parts of the world that grow rice becomes suddenly so much more expensive. So until they figure out to build robots that can individually pick rice grains off of a tiny, fragile rice plant, I am not seeing any future for perennial rice.

eYrKEC2 4y ago
Grain combines chop the heads off the wheat plant and leave stubble. If it can survive that.
hosh 4y ago
According to this quote: > Perennial cultivars are strongly preferred by farmers; growing them saves 58.1% of labour and 49.2% of input costs in each regrowth cycle. In 2021, perennial rice was grown on 15,333 ha by 44,752 smallholder farmers in southern China. Seems like it makes sense to them. The increased labor in harvest is probably offset by the decrease in labor for planting.
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  >> In 2021, perennial rice was grown on 15,333 ha by 44,752 smallholder farmers in southern China. > Seems like it makes sense to them. ...that's not the conclusion I would have drawn. 45,000 farmers and 60 square miles are both pitifully small numbers.
  - Pigalowda 4y ago
    In 2022, the acreage of rice plantations in China amounted to around 29.45 million hectares. You are right.
  - hosh 4y ago
    They may be. But consider that this is still early days. _Where_ these land are also matter. If they are on marginal lands that are difficult to cultivate, it makes a difference there. They specifically talked about smallholders rather than commercial agriculture. Although the absolute numbers it smallholders are small, it would be interesting to see what proportion of the smallholders have adopted this. Note that, although I am commenting on the big thread started by someone claiming that it would help sequester carbon, I personally don’t consider that the main benefit.
mataug 4y ago
In many parts of the world, planting rice is as labor intensive as harvesting it. If planting rice is no longer labor intensive, wouldn't harvesting be able to attract the labor needed ?
- pseudostem 4y ago
  I have some farming experience under my belt, zero with rice. You have to look at labour as a function of season. If while planting, there are no competing jobs, but while harvesting, there are (or the other way around)... That would be your answer.
jamiek88 4y ago
Don't know about point one but for point two: They got two harvests per year with slightly increased yield per hectare per harvest. > produced grain for eight consecutive harvests over four years, averaging 6.8 Mg ha−1 harvest−1 versus the 6.7 Mg of replanted annual rice

eYrKEC2 4y ago

Grain combines chop the heads off the wheat plant and leave stubble. If it can survive that.

hosh 4y ago

According to this quote: > Perennial cultivars are strongly preferred by farmers; growing them saves 58.1% of labour and 49.2% of input costs in each regrowth cycle. In 2021, perennial rice was grown on 15,333 ha by 44,752 smallholder farmers in southern China. Seems like it makes sense to them. The increased labor in harvest is probably offset by the decrease in labor for planting.

thaumasiotes 4y ago
>> In 2021, perennial rice was grown on 15,333 ha by 44,752 smallholder farmers in southern China. > Seems like it makes sense to them. ...that's not the conclusion I would have drawn. 45,000 farmers and 60 square miles are both pitifully small numbers.
- Pigalowda 4y ago
  In 2022, the acreage of rice plantations in China amounted to around 29.45 million hectares. You are right.
- hosh 4y ago
  They may be. But consider that this is still early days. _Where_ these land are also matter. If they are on marginal lands that are difficult to cultivate, it makes a difference there. They specifically talked about smallholders rather than commercial agriculture. Although the absolute numbers it smallholders are small, it would be interesting to see what proportion of the smallholders have adopted this. Note that, although I am commenting on the big thread started by someone claiming that it would help sequester carbon, I personally don’t consider that the main benefit.

mataug 4y ago

In many parts of the world, planting rice is as labor intensive as harvesting it. If planting rice is no longer labor intensive, wouldn't harvesting be able to attract the labor needed ?

pseudostem 4y ago
I have some farming experience under my belt, zero with rice. You have to look at labour as a function of season. If while planting, there are no competing jobs, but while harvesting, there are (or the other way around)... That would be your answer.

jamiek88 4y ago

Don't know about point one but for point two: They got two harvests per year with slightly increased yield per hectare per harvest. > produced grain for eight consecutive harvests over four years, averaging 6.8 Mg ha−1 harvest−1 versus the 6.7 Mg of replanted annual rice