What began as a romantic gesture for his wife has become, Joseph Hartley admits, a "bloody obsession" — a rice crop in, of all places, the cool climate of southern Tasmania.

Key points: A farmer and agricultural scientist is experimenting with growing rice in Tasmania

A farmer and agricultural scientist is experimenting with growing rice in Tasmania It started as a romantic gesture for his wife, but Joseph Hartley said rice production could become big in the state

It started as a romantic gesture for his wife, but Joseph Hartley said rice production could become big in the state A changing climate could provide more opportunities for the state to grow the world's number-one food staple

Now, the farmer and agricultural scientist is of the belief the soil and climate in the southernmost state have the potential to help meet the increasing demand for the world's number-one food staple.

"When you look at the size of the rice industry in New South Wales and how much rice is demanded on the world market at quite good prices … rice could be a really good thing for Tasmania," he said.

Mr Hartley began his quest to grow rice for his wife Hawa Hartley three years ago.

"She's from Borneo and it's real kampung thing [village tradition] to grow your own hill rice there," he said.

"I thought she'll really like that if we can do that on our own farm, which is ironic, because I think she sometimes hates the rice now because it's become such a bloody obsession."

But Ms Hartley said she appreciated her husband's efforts.

"He likes to please me … he's tailor-made for me, so I'm a very lucky girl," she said.

Joseph Hartley's rice crop is coming along nicely. ( ABC News: Fiona Blackwood )

Ms Hartley is also an agricultural scientist and can see a future for rice farming in Tasmania.

"It'll be really good to see what it actually looks like when it's put into a bigger scale, and it will be nice to have a paddy field in your backyard or front yard," she said.

Mr Hartley's experiment is at his property on the Tasman Peninsula, near Port Arthur, and involves the growth of about 60 different varieties of rice.

Most of the rice plots are irrigated, but Mr Hartley says he is also conducting some trials using only rainfall in what is "a fairly dry spot".

"These are fairly tough hill rices that are adapted to growing on natural rainfall," he said.

He said on a larger scale, rice would grow well as a rotational crop.

"Rice is a very good way to use irrigation water," he said.

"We can do it under centre-pivot sprinklers, so that farmers can just slot it in with other rotations of fat lambs or poppies."

More food needed to feed growing population

Sergey Shabala, a professor of plant physiology at the University of Tasmania, said the island state would increasingly become more suitable for rice growing.

Sergey Shabala said there would need to be around 40 per cent more food production to feed the world's population by 2050. ( ABC News: Loretta Lohberger )

"With the global warming coming up and temperatures increasing, there is a good chance that it can be grown," he said.

Professor Shabala said Tasmania benefitted from not having a problem with soil quality.

"All the wheat belt on the mainland is affected by salinity and rice is the most sensitive to salt," he said.

And he said regular droughts were increasingly affecting rice farming on mainland Australia.

"In 2018, we got about 600,000 tonnes of rice produced on the mainland," he said.

"This year it dropped to 54,000 [tonnes] … so it's roughly 12 times less. And in 2008, with the millennium drought, we [had] no production."

Professor Shabala said rice was the number-one staple food for people globally, accounting for about 21 per cent of all calories humans consumed.

He said with the world's population expected to increase by 2 billion by 2050, there would need to be about 40 per cent more food production and "20 per cent of that should be rice".

Despite being in a "fairly dry spot", Joseph Hartley is getting rice to grow on the Tasman Peninsula. ( ABC News: Fiona Blackwood )

Rice's success in Tasmania will depend on Mr Hartley being able to identify the varieties best suited to Tasmanian conditions.

"Most rice is sensitive to day length and it's triggered to head by short days … there's only a small percentage of varieties that will head here in Tasmania," he said.

If he can do that, and the unique conditions of Tasmania play their part, he could be on to a winner.

But, for now, Mr Hartley plan is to collect enough seed to plant a paddock of rice — for his lucky Hawa.