Rice Paddy

A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. Rice can also be grown in dry-fields, but from the twentieth century paddy field agriculture became the dominant form of growing rice. The fertile volcanic soil of much of the Indonesian archipelago—and particularly the islands of Java and Bali-- has made rice a central dietary staple. Steep terrain on Bali resulted in intricate cooperation systems, locally called subak, to manage water storage and drainage for rice terraces.