The story of Rice part (2)

The myths of these rich cultures tell us a great deal about the history of rice,and highlight its central role in people's lives.How and when it was first grown is more difficult to discover.What is certain is that it is native to south-east Asia and has been cultivated there for perhaps 8000 years.Evidence from a cave in northern Thailand proves that rice was being cultivated from around 6000 BC.Rice ,which is a member of the grass family,grew extensively in Thailand .It is likely that early man first grew wild rice,and only later began cultivating local species.Some scholars believe that this first rice would have been dry and that wet rice was a later development.Others say that people grew whatever rice was best suited to their particular environment.Certainly rice is adaptable,and will accommodate itself to the habital;some varieties tolerate floods and cold nights,while others survive hot temperatures and relatively little water.Gradually,people realised the value of this sustaining crop,and rice began to travel.From north-east India and Thailand,rice spread first through south -east Asia,and then further afield.Rice cultivation is believed to have begun in China in the Yangtze River delta around 4000 BC,although the rice may at first have been considered nothing more than a weed as taro root was cultivated in parts of this region around this time.Rice isn't thought to have become an important part of the Chinese diet until around 800 BC.By the 9th century AD,rice was widely eaten in southern China,but in the north,where it could not be grown ,it was food only for the wealthy Remarkably,rice was not cultivated in Japan until the second century BC and even then ,millet remained the principal cereal for most japanese.Twelve hundred years later,in spite of famine, rice was still mainly a food for the rich and was not to be consumed in any large quantity for another 800 years.