DisplayTitle

Demand for rice labeled as sustainably or organically produced is growing globally. Consumers state that such rice is nutritionally superior to its conventionally produced equivalent, as well as being better for the environment. Organic rice farmers in the US report that the major challenges involved with increasing yields are weed control, nitrogen supply and stand establishment. There is no documented agreement on the influence of sustainable production practices on rice quality and nutrient content. A systematic review of research related to this gap in the literature was performed using the following search strategy. Scholarly articles published in the last 25 years were identified by searching five databases that house different journals, using the following terms: rice, organic, sustainable, nutrition, quality and various synonyms. After examining the titles and abstracts of the 12,757 articles first identified as being potentially relevant, 40 were selected for further evaluation. Four additional articles were added to this group by reviewing the reference lists of those 40 articles. For various reasons, 27 of the 44 articles were deleted. The nutritional characteristics studied were minerals, vitamins, and several phytochemical fractions such as gamma-oryzanol, tocols and phenolics. Amylose content, gelatinization temperature, kernel elongation and cooking loss were the traditional quality parameters evaluated. The impact of sustainable production practices on these traits will be discussed.The research materials and methods used in these studies included substantial variation in the cultivars studied, amendments added and analytical procedures used. Consequently, identifying conclusions across the studies was difficult. Recommendations for future work  that will result in generalizable conclusions will be addressed.