History

In many parts of Asia wild rice is used for food by the people since high antiquity, but according to the current prevailing opinion it emerged in the valley of the Yangtze River in China. Archaeological data from the excavations in Dyaotunhuan show that in this region wild rice has been collected since at least10 millennium B.C., but around the 8 millennium B.C. has started the artificial cultivation of rice. Genetic research also shows that all modern rice varieties originate from the valley of Yangtze River.

For a long time rice cultivation of was limited to the central parts of today’s China, but around the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. it quickly spread to Southeast Asia and to the west to India. In India rice was first grown in the alluvial plains in the north, and in the southern parts of the peninsula it spread in the middle of 2 millennium B.C. In the next centuries rice cultivation continued to spread to the west towards the Middle East.

A new impetus to the spread of rice cultivation was given by the expansion of Islam after 7 century. In this period rice started to be grown in the north towards Caspian Sea and to the valley of Volga, to the west on the Iberian Peninsula and in Sicily and to the south west in North and West Africa. In the 15 century rice spread in Italy, and then in France.

In America rice cultivation was introduced shortly after the discovery of the continent, and yet in the 16 century it became an important crop in the pool of Caribbean Sea and the tropical regions of South America.

Rice cultivation in Bulgaria started in the 17th century. Its area for the period 1944-1975 increased from 60 thousand decares to 170 thousand decares, and the largest producer was Plovdiv District, followed by Pazardjik, Stara Zagora and Yambol District .