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Rice from India was spread south to Malaysia and taken to Indonesia in about 1500 BC. It was taken to the Philippines by immigrants from southern China in the 2nd millennium BC. Alexander the Great first brought rice to Europe after his conquest of India in 320 BC. Some time between 400 and 300 BC, rice spread westwards into Iran and was reported in Babylon and lower Syria around 285 BC, but was not cultivated there until the Arab conquests, after 632 AD. The Moors took it along the southern Mediterranean to Spain and it was first reported in northern Italy in 1475. The Malays probably took rice to Madagascar in the first millennium AD.
The Portuguese introduced rice to Brazil soon after their occupation, and the Spanish took it to Central America. It is thought that Columbus had rice on board his ships when he went to the Americas. Oryza sativa was taken to West Africa; it was first grown in the USA, along the coast of South Carolina, in 1685, although the first commercial production was not until 1912.
It is considered the best crop for cultivating in areas having low labour power and the highest quantity of rainwater as the peak rainfall is much essential for the maximum output. Although China and India are the largest producers, the biggest exporter is Thailand
Most UK long grained rice is imported from USA (followed by Italy, Spain, Surinam Guyana and Thailand)). USA? Don't they need paddy fields? It is a famous crop in Cajun country of Louisiana.
Rice traveled to USA in 1694 in a British ship bound for Madagascar, that was blown off course into Charleston. The captain gave friendly colonialists rice seed for helping them mend their ship. Some years later 'the British unfortunately blotted their copybook" when during the American Revolution they occupied Charleston and sent home the entire quantity of harvested rice, so there was no seed for the next year's crop. " The American rice industry survived this set back and cultivation continued thanks to President Thomas Jefferson who broke an Italian law (that prohibited exportation of rough rice on plain of death) by smuggling rice seed out of Italy during a diplomatic mission in 1787. The rice industry then transplanted itself from Carolina to the Southern States surrounding the Mississippi basin" (More). Mississippi rice
Is the USA going to pay royalities or make any repararations to Italy under the Plant Breeders Rights for all the rice they have grown in US since. Come to think of it..what about UK and the rest of them for all those other crops?
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