‘Rice cultivation started 4,000 yrs ago’

Vadodara: Proper cultivation of paddy as a crop began in India around 4,000 years back, said professor Dorian Fullar at the 2-day Rice Workshop 2019. The archaeologist said that the Harappan culture had more diversity of crops and fully domesticated rice in the Indian context came about quite late – around 2,000 BC – or the late Harappan period. “Within the Indus Valley, the dominant crops appear to be wheat and barley. In Saurashtra during the Harappan period, there is heavy emphasis on different kinds of millets including the brown tall millet and other small millets,” he said, adding that in the eastern parts of the Harappan civilisation – the present day Haryana and upper Yamuna, some millets and rice were found though evidence of rice is very less.
Organized by the UCL Institute of Archaeology, London, UK and the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History of M S University, the two day conference funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, UK will see experts delving on evolution and impact of rice cultivation systems in South Asia and issues relating to sustainability and long-term food security.

According to the scholar, productive rice hybridzation with Chinese rice began in the late Harappan period. “My hypothesis is that rice was introduced to India by trade via central Asia, in the pre-silk route era. That is the same period when Chinese get their first wheat. In the earlier stage, people were cultivating or managing what were still essentially wild forms of rice which were not very productive, not easy to harvest and they also required wetter environments,” he said.

“Once rice got fully domesticated in around 1,900 BC, there was an increase in cultivation of rice throughout the northern parts of India and the Ganges plains. After a few centuries, urbanization took place in UP and the Ganges plains where people were heavily dependent on rice,” he said.