Rice is a widely cultivated aquatic crop in Asia. Its grain (fruit) can be processed into various staple foods such as white rice, rice noodles, and hor fun (wide rice noodles), as well as traditional foods like cheung fun (rice noodle rolls), puffed rice, and rice crackers.

Apart from its importance as a major economic crop, rice also has significant ecological value: seed-eating birds such as munias and Yellow-breasted Buntings come to feed when the grains become mature, while the leaves are food for the larvae of various skipper butterflies under the genera Parnara and Pelopidas.