Introduction
Rice straw is produced throughout the World as a byproduct of rice cultivation. The options for the disposition of rice straw are limited by the great bulk of material, slow degradation in the field, harboring of rice diseases, and high mineral content. However, the straw must be disposed of in some manner in order to make way for the next crop. Soil incorporation and field burning have been the major practices for removing rice straw. Field burning is fast, economical and removes disease organisms, but leads to unacceptable air pollution. Incorporation is slower, more expensive and fosters rice diseases. Since neither of these traditional methods of rice straw disposal are ideal, additional alternatives have been sought and developed. One of the major alternative uses of rice straw is as a component of animal feed in regions where animal feeds are a scarce commodity. None of the other alternatives have become a major means of disposition of rice straw.
Rice straw produced in California has traditionally been burned in the field. With the growing population of the Sacramento Valley and increased awareness of air pollution, this practice is rapidly becoming unacceptable. Soil incorporation has increased as burning has decreased. The limitations of soil incorporation are now being felt, leading to greater incentives to develop alternative methods of disposal. If economically viable alternatives could be identified and developed, then these alternatives would provide the resources for the rapid and economical removal of straw from rice fields. Instead of being an unwanted and difficult to dispose of plant residue, ideally, rice straw would become a valuable commodity that would be harvested for profit. The air pollution, rice plant disease, and disposal problems would all be solved.
With these concepts in mind, a first step is the establishment of a library of articles on the utilization of rice straw. This library could then be used to identify technologies and uses that may be practical in California. This report contains citations, summaries and articles collected under contract to The California Rice Commission and represents a library on rice straw utilization.
Methods
Articles were identified from the following computerized data bases: University of California Libraries, National Agricultural Library, National Library of Medicine, Feed Resources Database, and the International Rice Research Institute Database. The University of California Libraries contain various data bases from other universities, governmental agencies, and private institutions. Articles were identified through contacts with persons working on rice straw utilization. As articles on rice straw utilization were collected, the bibliographies in these articles provided citations to additional relevant articles. In addition to articles on rice straw, articles on other cereal straws and cellulosic materials were included where it seemed that the information might be relevant to rice straw utilization.
A summary was prepared for each article. The summaries contain a complete citation, an abstract, if available, and the country, language, materials, and uses indicated in the article. If an abstract was not present in the article, a summary, conclusion, or a part of the introduction or discussion, when available, is provided to describe the nature of the article.
All of the summaries are included in the one four inch binder of the report. The summaries are organized into 13 subjects, arranged in alphabetical order. Within each subject, the summaries are arranged in chronological order. The full articles follow in the remaining three inch binders. The full articles are also arranged first by subject and then, within each subject, by chronological order. The summary page also accompanies each full article, acting as a cover page and divider for that article.
This report is close to an extensive search, and is a substantial beginning for a complete library on rice straw utilization. A small and continuous effort would be appropriate to complete and maintain this library.
To facilitate the inclusion of additional articles, neither the binders nor the pages are numbered. This way, additional articles can be incorporated in their appropriate place in the report. The absence of page numbers means that anyone removing summaries or full articles from the report should mark the position and return the summaries and articles to their appropriate places in the report.
This straw appears small and light, and most people do not know how really weighty it is. If people knew the true value of this straw, a human revolution could occur, which would become powerful enough to move the country and the world. |