CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—It had been thought that domesticated rice was introduced to India and Pakistan from China in 2000 B.C., but The Telegraph India reports that farmers in the Indus civilization cultivated rice as much as 430 years earlier. Researchers from Banaras Hindu University and the University of Cambridge have found a progressive increase in the proportion of domestic rice, and a decrease in wild rice, between 2430 and 2140 B.C. at archaeological sites in northwest India. The study also suggests that early Indus farmers grew a diverse range of crops, such as rice, millet, and beans during the summer, and wheat, barley, and pulses during the winter, in order to take advantage of summer and winter rains. “Until now, many had argued that the Indus people had not routinely cultivated rice,” said Ravindra Nath Singh of Banaras Hindu University. “Our findings suggest that rice domestication had already occurred in South Asia before the arrival of Oryza [sativa] japonica [the Chinese variety].” For more, go to “Letter from India: Living Heritage at Risk.”
