Asia’s rise to economic power and food security has been powered not by rice but by American maize, the ultimate flex-crop
The prominence of maize among cereal grains is readily understandable, for it has numerous advantages on both the supply and demand sides. Regarding supply considerations: maize possesses great genetic variability and is readily adaptable to a variety of climatic conditions, whether temperate or tropical; it can be grown on a wide range of soil types and on soil of poor quality; its growing season, generally speaking, is fairly short; it is less labour- and water-intensive than rice; and, as a so-called C4 plant, it fixes nitrogen more efficiently than do C3 cereals such as rice and wheat. In Asia, it is often grown in hilly upland areas unsuitable for many other crops. In Southeast Asia and East Asia, 80 per cent of the maize grown is rain-fed, without the benefit of irrigation, although in some areas it is grown on irrigated paddy fields after the rice harvest.Turning to the demand side: no cereal grain is more versatile than maize, which can be employed efficiently, effectively and, more to the point, profitably in a huge variety of ways. Indeed, its multifarious uses and elusive, often cloaked identity render maize the quintessential postmodern crop. Not only does it ‘fuel’ humans and their stocks of animals, but also, when converted into the chemical compound ethanol, the vehicles they drive. When converted into either sugar and syrup (or dextrose, which is chemically indistinguishable from glucose) or corn starch (dextrin), it finds its way – often at an intermediate stage – into a vast array of processed foods and finished products encountered in daily life.
as a so-called C4 plant, it fixes nitrogen more efficiently than do C3 cereals such as rice and wheat.
It should say "fixes carbon dioxide more efficiently".
corn had me at pop
