Introduction

Rice, Oryzae Sativa, also called paddy rice is intimately involved in the culture as well as the food ways and economy of many societies. Tradition holds that precious things are not pearls and jade but “five grains” of which paddy rice is the first. Among the major cereals, paddy rice is the primary staple food for more than two million people in Asia and hundreds of millions of people in Africa and in Latin America.

Paddy Rice- Origin and History

From our ancient scripts it is learnt that Indians knew paddy rice before the present era. According to some earlier workers like Decandolle (1886) and Watt (1862) the rice cultivation was originated in the South India. Vavillov suggested that India and Burma are centers of origin of cultivated rice.

The origins of paddy rice have been debated for sometime, but the plant is of such antiquity that the precise time and place of its first development will perhaps never be known.

Paddy Varieties in India