516 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



ceased entirely as the result of political upheavals, to begin again in 

 1954. In 1957, 296,000 tons were exported, and Egypt thereby earned 

 some much needed foreign exchange. But it is counter productive, 

 to say the least, to export one grain food crop — rice, and import 

 another — wheat. 



FRENCH ISLE DE LA CAMARCUE — A DETAILED CASE HISTORY* 



In France rice fields were reported in the vicinity of Perpignan at 

 the end of the 13th century, and small plantings were reported in 

 Provence from the 14th to the 16th centuries.^ The small amount of 

 rice produced was probably used entirely or in large part as animal 

 feed. At the beginning of the 20th century there were 800 hectares of 

 rice in the Camargue. Fields to be used later for other crops were 

 first planted in rice. The large quantity of fresh water used in irri- 

 gating this crop reduced the salinity of the soil to the point where it 

 could be planted in other crops, particularly in alfalfa, wheat, or 

 vmeyards. However, yields were low, the grain produced was of 

 poor quality, and milling was expensive in view of the competition 

 of cheap rice imported from the Far East. By the end of World 

 War I the growing of rice in the Camargue had been practically 

 discontinued. 



Up to World War II France had imported some 650,000 tons of rice 

 a year from the Far East, 85 percent of which, cracked grains, were 

 separated out in the process of milling and sold as animal feed. The 

 rest, some 100,000 tons, was sold as rice for human consmnption. In 

 1940 France was cut off from her traditional suppliers of rice, Indo- 

 china and Madagascar, and rice was rationed. Furthermore, in the 

 postwar years the recently introduced hybrids of American maize 

 produced such high yields at so low a cost that stock feeders turned 

 to this new supply of feed, and the market for cracked rice disap- 

 peared. At the same time the consumption of rice in much of Asia 

 increased rapidly. Under the lash of necessity, during the German 

 occupation, some farmers in the vicinity of Aries began to think of 

 again producing rice domestically, and in 1942, 250 hectares were 

 planted in that crop which yielded 10 hundredweight to the hectare. 

 They were at the northern apex of the Isle de la Camargue, the delta 

 of the Rhone, in a sector seemingly made to order for pioneering in 

 both crops and techniques. 



The Isle de la Camargue, lying between the two principal mouths 

 and distributaries of the Rhone, consists in part of semiarid grazing 

 lands with their tough, halophytic vegetation, and in part of sectors 

 covered with ponds and swamps and lagoons of fresh, brackish, or salt 



" Field Investigations In the Isle de la Camargue were conducted while the author was 

 Visiting Research Professor at the University of Toulouse, under a Fulbrlght Award. 

 'Le Rlz, Centre National d'lnformatlon du Rlz, p. 1, Paris, 1959. 



