Rice: A grain of history
Hope Diamond
Department of Biology
Southeast Missouri State University
Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63701
And the earth brought forth grass…Genesis 1 v. 12
Approximately 8000 years B.C. the first cereals became domesticated
causing then to be entirely dependent upon humans for survival. These first
domesticated plants were found contained within pottery in the Jordan Valley
near Jericho (Chapman, 1992). Approximately 4000 years after the
domestication of cereals began, the cultivation of rice occurred south of the
Yangtze River (Hanks, 1972).
Rice may not have been the first cereal domesticated by man but it is
definitely has become the most widely cultivated. Today, rice is the main staple
of food for more than two thirds of the word population and is grown in more than
100 countries on every continent of the World (except Antarctica). The
spectacular diversity exists in rice because of its long history of cultivation and
selection under diverse environments. Each environment offers different light,
moisture, temperature and soil creating mutations and variations within each field
(Hanks, 1972). Humans have managed to create through selection and
adaptation about 120,000 varieties of rice around the world. The greatest
species variations occur in Asia, Oryza sativa, and Africa, Oryza glaberrima
(Khush, 1997).
Rice Cousins
The Asian variety is a high yield and used for medicinal purposes as well
as a food sources. According to Hartwell (1967–1971), the seeds of the rice
plant are used in folk medicine for breast cancers, other tumors, warts, and
stomach indurations. The flowers are dried as cosmetic and dentifrice in China,
awns are used for jaundice in China (Duke and Ayensu, 1984). The stem is used
for bilious conditions; ash for discharges and wounds, sapraemia in Malaya;
infusion of straw for dysentery, gout, and rheumatism. The husk is used for
dysentery and considered tonic in China. In China, rice cakes are fried in camel's
fat for hemorrhoids; rice water is used for fluxes and ulcers and applied externally
for gout with pepper in Malaya. Boiled rice is used for carbuncles in Malaya and
poulticed onto purulent tumors in the East Indies. The root is considered
astringent, anhidrotic, and is decocted for anuria. Sprouts are used for poor
appetite, dyspepsia, fullness of abdomen and chest, and weak spleen and
stomach in China. The lye of charred stems (merang, Indonesia) is used as a
hair wash and used internally as an abortifacient. In the Philippine Islands, an
extract (tikitiki), rich in antineuritic B1 vitamin, made of rice polishings, is used in
treatment of infantile beriberi and for malnutrition in adults. In Java, the vitamins
are extracted and supplied as lozenges (Reed, 1976).
Not surprisingly, both of these species, O. sativa and O. glaberrima, are
thought to have evolved from the same primitive species Oryza perennis (Devos,
1997). O. perennis originated on Gondwanaland 130 million years ago, before
the land mass broke apart into our continents of today (Khush, 1997). Originally,
it was thought that O. glaberrima evolved from the O. sativa. Until the 1970’s,
Africa wasn’t given credit for creating it’s own cultivation of rice and it was widely
believed that rice and it’s cultivation were imported by European explorers to
Africa.
Between 1500 and 800 B.C., the African species (Oryza glaberrima)
propagated from its original center, the Delta of Niger River, and extended to
Senegal. Different from it’s counterpart in Asia by being much more disease and
drought resistant but not having the yield of Oryza sativa, However, it never
developed far from its original region. Its cultivation even declined in favor of the
Asian species, possibly brought to the African continent by the Arabians coming
from the East Coast from the 7th to the 11th centuries.
For 450 + years the native rice was
not cultivated and was replaced
with cultivation of the Asian species.
Europe carved Africa into colonies
and forced Africans to grow export
cash crops such as peanuts and
cotton (Figure 1). Also the Asian
variety was encouraged since the
native red rice had much lower
yields.
Figure 1. 1800 Colonization of Africa.
Slash and burn practices increased with the export crops being grown and
the native species cultivation declined. The African way of cultivation was more
ecologically friendly, they integrated cattle herding, fishing with cultivation of rice
for a drought prone region and the rice itself was more adapted to the African
climate (Becker, 1996).
Women’s Sweat
Rice is the primary source of nutrition and in Asia and Africa women are
the harvesters – hoeing, sowing, weeding and transplanting and cultivation of
rice is essential both cultures identity. In classical Chinese, the same term refers
to both "rice" and "agriculture". In many official languages and local dialectics the
verb "to eat" means "to eat rice". Indeed, the words "rice" and "food" are
sometimes one and the same in eastern semantics. Mac Posop is Thailand’s rice
mother. She gave body and soul to make mankind. She becomes pregnant
when the rice flowers bloom and her offspring (rice) has its own kwan
(soul)(Hanks, 1972).
The cultural significance of rice is
evident in ceremonies of West African
villages (Linares, 1992). Some villages
use rice to appease the spirits of the
dead by offering it to those who have
gone before. The Sere of Senegambia
symbolically place the mortar and
pestle she used to pound rice every
Figure 2. Mortar and pestle used by African
women
morning on the grave of the deseased
woman (Figure2).
The Diola of Casamance, Senegal, refer to rice cultivation as “woman’s sweat”.
Food practices are still more central in women’s beliefs than in men’s and food
was the only resource women controlled. These same women were in high
demand during the peak of the slave trade.
Black Rice
The rice plantations of Carolina and later Georgia needed the knowledge
of rice cultivation. Using cultural and language connections along with historical
logs the ancestral heritage of slaves in SC and Georgia were deciphered. Most
of the slaves of the rice plantations came from Gambia and later Senegal (Grant,
1993).
All along the Western Africa rice
region seed selection is the
responsibility of females. There is
a seed for all major problems
encountered within the
landscapes. From deep or
shallow flooding, seasonal salinity
within the marsh area, drought,
high iron, even acidity, there was
Figure 3. Shading of green shows general area of
original rice cultivation in Africa. Gambia and
Senegal are both located within the green along the
Western Coast.
a rice seed specific for the
environment.
The women of Africa were very aware of the local environments and had a
deep understanding of rice cultivations. This knowledge suggests that women
themselves were the first to domesticate the rice (Currens, 1976). When the
slave trade began the women were noted to be crucial in rice cultivation. This
notoriety did not go without notice and rice plantation owners requested slaves
from this area of Africa. The knowledge the women from Africa imparted to
plantation owners was invaluable and many a rich man (Goodfriend, 1958). The
cultivation methods and tools used in the south were the very same and those
used in West Africa. The
English-borne farmers had no
knowledge of rice cultivation but
it did not take long for the land
owners to impart that knowledge
from the slaves. By giving the
slaves a shorter work day and
allowing them time for
themselves the slave used there
knowledge to advance the
cultivation for the highest yields
Figure 4. Guinea was the primary area of export of
slaves to South Carolina and Georgia, It was also the
center of rice cultivation.
and therefore more freedom for themselves and their families. But this was not
without some cost, after the civil war and reconstruction of the south the blacks
were no better off. Generally, Europeans had little to no experience with the
climate and conditions of America. The Africans not only had experience, but
innovations needed by the colonists. The plantations could not survive without
the labor and knowledge of the blacks. Jim Crowe laws kept the southern black
in bondage without the chains and kept the plantations profitable. Within 20
years of the first plantation rice export was a high cash crop. Now the United
States is second only to China in rice export.
Rice Today
The world population is increasing at an alarming rate and concerns of
starvation on a global scale are increasing. The present annual rate of rice
production, 560 million tons, must be increased to 850 million tons by 2025 to
feed the increasing world population (Khush, 1997). More than 90% of the world
rice production is in Asia; China and India being the largest producers (Reed,
1976). Still, it is not enough and rice varieties are being designed to not only
have higher yield per acre but still stable to grow in the changing environments.
NERICA is a rice being developed for drought prone Africa. The new rice
smothers grain-robbing weeds like it's African parents, resists droughts and
pests, and is able to thrive in poor soils. The trait of higher productivity conferred
by it's Asian parents is also present, meaning that with few additional inputs the
farmers using NERICA rice can double production and raise incomes. It is
helping to meet multiple needs - food, nutrition and income - for millions of
people in the humid tropics of West Africa.
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