For millennia, Asians from Japan southward have shared the common inheritance of rice, a staple that is central to the survival of groups large and small. People eat it every day and rely on it for a hundred other uses.

Versatile rice straw, for example, supplies material for thatch, basketry, floor mats, sandals, brooms, bedding, rough cloaks, and hats. It also serves as feed for animals.

People in all of Asia's rice-growing countries honor this grain through seasonal festivities and ceremonies. For them, rice has a sacred, even divine significance, so offerings of cooked and uncooked rice, rice cakes, rice stalks, and rice wine serve to ensure good harvests and to rejuvenate the vital forces of the Earth itself.

Rice cultivation demands many hands and a spirit of cooperation to prepare fields, sow seeds, transplant shoots, maintain irrigation systems, and harvest, husk, and polish the grains that will be cooked and eaten. (Almost all Asians prefer polished, white rice rather than brown rice.)

Accompanied by pickles or chilies, or served with other dishes, a bowl of rice represents the hard work of Asia's billions. To grow this grain in submerged fields, farmers have reshaped entire landscapes with hand-built terraces, dikes, water channels, and carefully constructed beds stretching to the horizon.

Terraced rice farming, still widely practiced from eastern India through southern China, Japan, Korea, Indochina, and Indonesia, has been used for thousands of years. Terraced, or stair-stepped, rice paddies are carved into hillsides, creating more land for fields. Farming in this manner requires intense labor and intricate irrigation systems, but it produces high yields—enough to feed nearly two billion people worldwide.