Doesn’t rice need a paddy? You have a rice paddy?
I have a spot that’s always wet unless it’s June/July/Aug and hasn’t rained in a few weeks. Inch of standing water often. Doesn’t it take a lot to process it?
Regarding the regional thing. I’m going by what I’ve seen as reasoning for saving your own seeds, that after several generations, the plant will morph slightly into something perfect for your location/soil and be very resilient.
Nope.
SOME rice varieties (lowland) do better in a paddy system.
I grow mine on flat ground (no hills/furrows) using a technique called SRI.
I mulch extensively and use soaker hoses to keep it damp.
I also plant it in the boggiest part of my yard to help with that.
Look up rice hulling equipment.
One of the things we DID get, prepperwise, was a grain mill and rice huller. FRmail me for a link to that company. Not cheap but I did a test growout of rice and got nearly 75lbs of paddy (unhulled rice) from 300sqft. Fast enough that I could have planted something after (like string beans or really short season limas or sweet corn) and it would have time to make as well.