Where and when did rice originate?
A. The origins of rice have been debated for some time, but the plant is of such antiquity that the precise time and place of its first development will perhaps never be known. It is certain, however, that the domestication of rice ranks as one of the most important developments in history, for rice is the longest, continuously grown cereal crop in the world. Botanical and linguistic evidence point to the early origin of domesticated rice along a broad arc from eastern India through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, northern Vietnam, and into southern China. The earliest and most convincing evidence for domestication of rice in Southeast Asia was discovered in 1966 at Non Nok Tha in the Korat area of Thailand. These remains have been confirmed as dating from at least 4000 B.C. Q.
