History of Rice Cultivation Timeline

The spread of japonica rice cultivation to Southeast Asia started with the migrations of the Austronesian Dapenkeng culture into Taiwan between 3500 and 2000 BC (5,500 BP to 4,000 BP).

Image source: Austronesian peoples

Mainstream archaeological evidence derived from paleoethnobotanical investigations indicate dry-land rice was introduced to Korea and Japan sometime between 3500 and 1200 BC.

Image source: Japanese rice

Evidence for rice cultivation in these regions dates to slightly later than the Dapenkeng settlement of Taiwan, at around 3000 BC. Evidence of wild rice on the island of Sulawesi also dates from 3000 BC.

Image source: Dapenkeng culture

From about 2000 to 1500 BC, the Austronesian expansion began, with settlers from Taiwan moving south to colonize Luzon in the Philippines, bringing rice cultivation technologies with them. Sites such as An Sơn in southern Vietnam also date to this era.

Between 1500 and 800 BC, Oryza glaberrima propagated from its original centre, the Niger River delta, and extended to Senegal.

Image source: Oryza glaberrima

The technological, subsistence, and social impact of rice and grain cultivation is not evident in archaeological data until after 1500 BC.

Image source: History of agriculture

Historic written evidence for the earliest cultivation in Indonesia comes from eighth century stone inscriptions from the central island of Java, which show kings levied taxes in rice.

Image source: Java

Divisions of labour between men, women, and animals still in place in Indonesian rice cultivation were carved into relief friezes on the ninth century Prambanan temples in Central Java: a water buffalo attached to a plough; women planting seedlings and pounding grain; and a man carrying sheaves of rice on a shoulder pole.

Image source: Prambanan

Much later Austronesian voyages from Island Southeast Asia succeeded in bringing rice to Guam during the Latte Period (AD 900 to AD 1700).

Image source: Latte stone

There are at least two native species of rice present in the Amazon region of South America, and one or both were used by indigenous inhabitants to create a domesticated form of Oryza some 4,000 years ago. Recent research indicates this independent domestication occurred before the 14th century.

Image source: Oryza rufipogon

In 1694, rice arrived in South Carolina, probably originating from Madagascar. The invention of the rice mill increased profitability of the crop, and the addition of waterpower for the mills in 1787 by millwright Jonathan Lucas was another step forward.

Image source: History of South Carolina

Royal Governor Ambrosio O'Higgins was an early proponent of rice cultivation in Chile during his rule between 1788 and 1796. However, the first rice cultivation occurred much later, around 1920, yielding mixed results.

Image source: Ambrosio O'Higgins, 1st Marquess of Osorno

In the southern United States, rice has been grown in southern Arkansas, Louisiana, and east Texas since the mid-19th century. By 2006, California produced the second-largest rice crop in the United States, after Arkansas.

Image source: Rice production in the United States

Carolina rice became less profitable with the loss of slave labor after the American Civil War, and it finally died out just after the turn of the 20th century. Today, people can visit the only remaining rice plantation in South Carolina with its original winnowing barn and rice mill at the historic Mansfield Plantation in Georgetown.

Image source: Mansfield Plantation

Commercial rice production began in 1912 in the town of Richvale in Butte County, California. Californian varieties of rice were later found suitable for the climate in the Riverina of Australia, and the first mill opened at Leeton in 1951.

Image source: Richvale, California

In 1939 a division of the Ministry of Agriculture of Chile began to study rice cultivated in Chile. In the 1939–1940 season 13,190 hectares of rice existed in Chile, and by this time rice cultivation had become one of the most profitable agricultural businesses in the country. However, as salaries increased between 1940 and 1964 profitability decreased, though by 1964 38,000 ha were cultivated.

Image source: Agriculture in Chile

Diodorus (first century BCE) recognized rice as a significant Indian crop during the subcontinent's busy agricultural season.

Image source: Diodorus Siculus

Rice of the species Oryza sativa was recovered from a grave at Susa in Iran (dated to the first century AD), while at the same time rice was grown in the Po valley in Italy. Large deposits of rice from the first century AD have been found in Roman camps in Germany.

Image source: Rice

Galen recommended the grain as a medicament in the second century, and his disciple Oribasius followed him in recommending it in the fourth century.

Image source: Galen

The Ummayad Caliphate brought Asiatic rice to the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century where it expanded progressively from the south.

Image source: Al-Andalus

The Islamic powers may have brought rice to Sicily, with cultivation starting in the 9th century, where it was an important crop long before it was noted in the plain of Pisa (1468) or the Lombard plain (1475).

Image source: Sicily

Rice cultivation in northern Italy was noted in the plain of Pisa (1468) and in the Lombard plain (1475), where its cultivation was promoted by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and demonstrated in his model farms. After the 15th century, rice spread throughout Italy and then France, later propagating to all continents during the age of European exploration.

Image source: Ludovico Sforza

Rice is grown on 1.49 million ha in Nepal with total annual production of 5.6 million tons in 2018. Rice of different varieties are cultivated in 3.35 million hectares elsewhere with an annual production of 8.5 million metric tons as of 2021, and Pakistan is the top exporter of brown rice as of 2019.

Image source: Rice