A History of Agriculture in India v1.c23.s8: Rice—Origin and Cultivation
A History of Agriculture in India v1.c23.s8
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Rice—Origin and Cultivation
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The genus *Oryza*, to which rice belongs, has 28 species and subspecies, of which 26 are wild and two, *O. sativa* and *O. glaberrima*, are cultivated. All the rice varieties of Asia, Europe, and America belong to *O. sativa*, and of West Africa to *O. glaberrima*. India has five wild species, of which *O. sativa* var. *fatua* is a common weed in many states. *O. perennis*, found wild in Orissa, has a short rhizome, a branched floating stem and perennial habit. In wild rices, grains shatter easily and are difficult to harvest.
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Among the wild species, there has been a regular trend of evolution from perennial to annual habit, from cross-pollination to self-pollination and from lesser to greater fecundity.
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Looking back in history and considering the evolution of cultivated rices it must be supposed that man took annual wild types (*nivara*, *breviligulata*), subjected them to the selection pressure of cultivation, harvesting and sowing and thereby gave rise to the *sativa* cultivars in Asia. The west African rice, *O. glaberrima*, represents the cultivated member of a series parallel to that occurring in Asia. There is no evidence of exchange between Asia and west Africa in prehistoric times to account for the existence of *O. glaberrima* and it must be accepted as a separate domestication.
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Fig. 143. Centres of diversity and origin of cultivated plants (general assignment after Vavilov, 1935, and Darlington and Janaki Ammal, 1945)
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It is considered that *O. sativa* evolved from the wild rices by mutation and selection. It is thought that rice cultivation originated in India, Burma or Indochina. India has more than 4,000 varieties of rice.
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Malayan migrants introduced rice cultivation in Indonesia in protohistoric times. Rice was introduced into the Philippines by immigrants from South China in the first millennium B.C. It is they who developed the vast terrace system in the mountains of the Philippines. On account of its heavy yields, rice could support a far denser population than any other cereal, and consequently population in rice lands increased at an explosive rate.
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According to Shastry and Sharma¹⁰, the genus *Oryza* started initially as a small plant growing in well-drained soils in the humid atmosphere of forests. The hydrophytic habitat with preference for open sunshine and a larger size of plant (e.g. *O. officinalis*) were later phylogenetic developments. The tuberculations on the surface of the fertile lemma and palea and the development of awns are also advanced characters in *Oryza*, though in the most advanced, cultivated species, *O. sativa* and *O. glaberrima*, the awns are often suppressed. Lastly, it follows that South-East Asia is the probable centre of origin of the genus, and its spread to the African and American continents was a later development.
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¹⁰Shastry, S.V.S. and Sharma, S.D. *Rice* in *Evolutionary Studies in World Crops* (Ed, Sir Joseph Hutchinson), pp. 56 to 58
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Most species of *Oryza* are diploid, with 2n=24 chromosomes. The diploids are distributed in the tropics of Asia and Africa, whereas the tetraploids are to be found in the tropics of America as well as of the Old World.
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The basic type is a wild perennial grassy species which grows in ponds, ditches and canals, and which sometimes occurs as a weed in rice cultivations. It has panicles which shatter on ripening and seeds with hard seed-coat and considerable dormancy. It is found throughout the Old World tropics from south China and the Philippines to west Africa and it has been recorded from Cuba and from South America.
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Numerous specific names have been given to the forms of this wild perennial from different geographical areas. In Asia, the names *O. perennis*, *O. balunga*, and *O. rufipogon* have been used, and in Africa *O. longistaminata* and *O. barthii*. The New World form is usually described as *O. cubensis*.
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The cultivated rices fall into two species, namely *O. sativa* in Asia and *O. glaberrima* in west Africa. The Asian species falls into two genetically and geographically distinct races, the *indica* race of the Indian subcontinent and the *japonica* race of Japan and north China.
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**Archaeobotanical Record of Rice.** The earliest archaeobotanical record of rice in India is from Lothal (2300 B.C.) and Rangpur (2000 to 1800 B.C.) in Gujarat. This is in the form of impressions of spikelets on potsherds. Gujarat, which is largely a dry area, is hardly the habitat for rice. It is what is known as an accident of archaeology and no attempt should be made to read too much in it. In due course, older sites may be discovered in eastern India, which is the true home of rice. It is the find of *Oryza sativa* from Neolithic Chirand in Bihar (2000 to 1300 B.C.) which is much more significant. *Oryza sativa* was also found from Pandu Rajar Dhibi (second millennium B.C.) from West Bengal. It is also recorded from Navdatoli (1550-1400 B.C.), Hastinapur (1100-800 B.C.) and Atranjikhera (1200-600 B.C.) in Uttar Pradesh. The location of these sites is shown in Fig. 144. Spikelets, husks and grains of rice found in an excavation at Hastinapur are shown in Fig. 147.
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The earliest record of rice in the world, however, comes from Non Nok Tha in Thailand, where it dates to 3500 B.C. Here, impressions of rice grains have been found on potsherds. It was also found in late Neolithic of China which dates to 1650 B.C.
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**Diffuse Origin of Rice.** Rice has had a diffuse origin (cf. Harlan, 1965) both in space and time. Several centres of origin have been proposed for Asian rice : southern India (Watt, 1892; Ramiah and Ghose, 1951; Nair *et al.*, 1964), Jeypore tract in Orissa, in south-eastern India (a secondary centre, Ramiah and Ghose, 1951), the Philippines (Ramiah and Ghose, 1951), China (de Candolle, 1886; Roschevicz, 1931; Ting, 1949), Indochina (Hamada, 1949) and the western Indo-Pacific area (Barrau, 1966). All [Figure: INDIA RICE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF RECORDS TOGETHER WITH DATES IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT]
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Fig. 144. Geographical distribution of records of rice, together with dates in the Indian subcontinent these areas show today considerable varietal diversity. In addition, the north-western and north-eastern foothills of the Himalayas (Ramiah and Ghose, 1951) and the Guyanas (Porteres, 1949) are known to show much variation. The difficulties resulting from considering the centres of diversity as centres of origin are well known by now (cf. Zohary, 1970). With the ancestral species present in its original habitat in all these regions of variability and with the knowledge that this species is found good enough even today for harvesting, the changeover from rice-gathering to rice-culture could have been attempted in each of these regions and at various times. This can be witnessed even today in some areas such as the Jeypore tract in Orissa in eastern India. Further, the transition from the wild to the cultivated form in rice is of a much lower magnitude than that involved in at least the principal cereals. And this ennoblement could have been effected by the people inhabiting these regions.¹¹
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¹¹ Nayar, N.M. Origin and Cytogenetics of Rice, in *Advances in Genetics*, Vol. 17, 1973, pp. 177-78
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Nayar seems to be correct when he says that rice had a diffuse origin both in space and time. Among centres of origin proposed in India are the Malabar Coast in Kerala, the Jeypore tract in Orissa, and the north-eastern foothills of the Himalayas. In these areas are several wild taxa, including both annual and perennial *rufipogon*, and high varietal diversity.
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When one examines rice cultivation in India at present, one finds that its largest concentration is in eastern India, viz. West Bengal, northern Bihar and Orissa (Fig. 144). This fact also lends support to the theory that this area is the main centre of the origin of rice in India.