稻田一般指一块可以积水的耕地，用来种植稻或其它半水生作物。尽管水稻可以生长在干的土地上，但20世纪以后，田地逐渐成为了种植稻米的主要场所。田地在东方种植稻米的国家很常见，例如南亚与东南亚国家，包括孟加拉国、中国、印度、印尼、日本、韩国、**、马来西亚、缅甸、尼泊尔、巴基斯坦以及菲律宾、斯里兰卡、泰国和越南。在其他的一些稻米种植区域也可以看见田地，例如皮埃蒙特（意大利）、Camargue（法国）和Artibonite Valley（海地）。

A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing semiaquatic rice. Paddy cultivation should not be confused with cultivation of deep water rice, which is grown in flooded conditions with water more than 50 cm (20 in) deep for at least a month. Genetic evidence shows that all forms of paddy rice, both indica and japonica, spring from a domestication of the wild rice Oryza rufipogon that first occurred 8,200–13,500 years ago South of the Yangtze River in present-day China. However, the domesticated indica subspecies currently appears to be a product of the introgression of favorable alleles from japonica at a later date, so that there are possibly several events of cultivation and domestication. Paddy fields are the typical feature of rice farming in east, south and southeast Asia. Fields can be built into steep hillsides as terraces and adjacent to depressed or steeply sloped features such as rivers or marshes. They can require a great deal of labor and materials to create, and need large quantities of water for irrigation. Oxen and water buffalo, adapted for life in wetlands, are important working animals used extensively in paddy field farming.