Pavese Rice

Pavia, with its 85,000 hectares of rice fields and a total production of 4 million and 865 thousand quintals, is the province with the highest percentage of rice cultivation in Italy and the leading producer at both the national and European levels.

The plains that include the Lomellina and the Bassa Pavese (or simply Pavese) – in the northern part of the province, divided by the Ticino river and both bordered to the south by the Po – is a charming and fascinating region, dotted with beautiful towns rich in history and traditions, and is effectively the "land of rice."

The tranquil landscape and the large bodies of water that characterize it when the rice fields are flooded are not “natural”: everything has been built, transformed, and organized by humans with infinite patience. By nature, this land, rich in watercourses and springs, was partly marshy and partly dry due to numerous wind-driven sandy ridges, but the communities of monks in the Middle Ages, feudal colonization, and the major agricultural reforms introduced by the Sforza family, who experimented with rice cultivation, transformed the area into a mosaic of fertile fields.

To service this vast area of cultivation, a complex system of irrigation canals and channels was established, and farmhouses emerged, first fortified with castles for their defense, then with closed courtyards, typical settlements in the industrialized agriculture of the Po Valley. Rice was introduced to Italy by the Arabs, who brought it to Sicily in the 8th century, from where it reached Lombardy in the 15th century, thanks to Galeazzo Maria Sforza.

There are records documenting a gift, in 1475, of six sacks of rice from the Sforzas to the Este Dukes to encourage the cultivation of rice in the Po delta.

The cultivation process occurs in four stages:

The first, in spring, involves soil preparation with plowing, leveling, and fertilizing; the second is flooding the fields using a complex system of canals, then, in the third stage, broadcasting the seeds.

In recent years, the dry sowing technique has also gained popularity, with rows of seeds buried using precision machines, typically requiring 200-250 kg of seed per hectare.

By early June, the operation to remove weeds begins using herbicides that are increasingly respectful of the environment and food safety.

The final phase, between September and October, is the rice harvest with combine harvesters that separate the grains from the straw. The harvested product is dried for preservation and later processed. Rice processing first involves cleaning the grains of rough rice (caryopses) to remove dust, soil, metal fragments, etc.

Then comes the milling, which removes the husk to obtain whole grain or semi-processed rice. Next is the whitening process, which eliminates the germ and the various layers surrounding the whole rice. In Italy, the most widespread varieties are divided into four different commercial categories – round, fine, semi-fine, and superfine – based on some characteristics of the grains (length, width, thickness, shape, weight, etc.). Round rice has small, round grains.

Fine rice has elongated, long grains. Semi-fine rice has round, semi-elongated grains of medium size. Finally, superfine rice has large, very long grains. There are about 1,700 rice farms in the Province of Pavia, and the main varieties of rice cultivated are Carnaroli, Vialone Nano, Arborio, Baldo, Balilla, Gladio, Loto, Roma, Sant’Andrea, and Selenio.

In recent years, there has been a progressive shift from traditional varieties to those characterized by higher quality levels.