Asian Rice Cultivars

Timeline

1. c. -5000–-1000Middle-lower Yangtze–Pearl River basin · Yangtze River basinArchaeological evidence shows that peoples of the lower Yangtze and Pearl River basins domesticated Asian cultivated rice from wild rice, gradually forming paddy-field and upland-rice farming systems that laid the foundation for East Asian agricultural civilization.
2. c. 500–1200Jiangnan–Lingnan rice regions · JiangnanDuring the Tang and Song periods, foreign improved varieties such as Champa rice were introduced and crossbred with native japonica and indica varieties; the spread of double-cropping and terraced fields greatly increased southern grain output, with the southward shift of the economic center and rice cultivar improvement mutually reinforcing each other.
3. c. 1200–1500Coastal rice-farming belt of Southeast Asia · Southeast AsiaSong and Yuan maritime trade and immigrant reclamation promoted the spread of rice-farming techniques to Southeast Asia, with southern Chinese cultivars taking root in Champa, Siam, and elsewhere, forming an East Asian–Southeast Asian rice-farming cultural sphere.