Origin of Rice

• Rice is regarded as a first cultivated crop of Asia.
• Preserved rice grains were found in China around 3000 B.C.
• Paddy grains found during excavation at Hastinapur (India) around 1000-750 B.C. considered as an oldest sample in the world.
• Southwest Himalayas has various types and varieties and indicated probable centre of origin.
• De Condolle (1886) and Watt (1862) mentioned south India is its centre of origin.
• Vavillov suggested that India and Myanmar should be regarded as the centre of origin of cultivated rice.
• According to D. Chatterjee (1948), there are altogether 23 species of genus Oryza of which 21 are wild and two viz., Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima are cultivated.
• Oryza sativa is grown in all rice growing areas, but Oryza glaberrima is confined to the West Africa only.
• Thus it indicates that there might have been two centres of origin of our cultivated rice; South-eastern Asia (India, Myanmar and Thailand) and West Africa.