Champa rice is a quick-maturing, drought resistant
rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
that can allow two
harvests of sixty days each per
growing season
A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and the amount of daylight. The growing season is that portion of the year in which local conditions (i.e. rainfall, temperature, daylight) permit normal plant growth. Whi ...
. Champa rice is from the
aus sub-population, which shares similarities with both the
japonica and the
indica rice varieties.
Likely originating from
Eastern India, Champa rice was introduced from the
Champa Kingdom into
Song China in the 11th century.
Champa rice was then sent to
Song China in the 11th century as a
tribute gift from Champa during the reign of
Emperor Zhenzong of Song (r. 997–1022).
[Lynda Noreen Shaffer, ''A Concrete Panoply of Intercultural Exchange: Asia in World History'' (1997) in ''Asia in Western and World History'', edited by Ainslie T. Embree and Carol Gluck (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe), p. 839-840.] Song dynasty officials gave the quick-growing champa rice to peasants across
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
in order to boost their crop yields, and its rapid growth time was crucial in feeding the burgeoning Chinese population of over 100 million.
Champa rice spread with the help of merchants transporting the rice throughout the silk road.
See also
*
List of rice varieties
This is a list of rice cultivars, also known as rice varieties. There are several species of grain called rice. Oryza sativa, Asian rice (''Oryza sativa)'' is most widely known and most widely grown, with two major subspecies (''indica'' and ''jap ...
*
Fast ripening rice
References
Rice varieties
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