RICEANDCIVILIZATIONINVIETNAM.docVIP

RICE AND CIVILIZATION IN VIET NAM Tran Van Dat, Ph. D. Former Executive Secretary International Rice Commission FAO, Rome, Italy Abstract Rice is life and is deeply rooted in the cultural heritage of Vietnam. Rice enters people’s lives in several forms and pathways: as a daily food, in festivals, in wedding parties, in songs, in paintings, in poems, and the process of rice cultivation itself brings communities together. Presently-cultivated rice varieties have evolved from long and continued evolution of the rice plant under natual and human intervention over many millenia. Primitive agriculture first appeared in the Hoa Binh culture, which was predominantly a hunter and gatherer society. The Hoa Binh began to experience in primitive cultivation methods for tuber crops (Taro) and food grain legumes in order to secure additional daily food. Eventually, rice tribes formed throughout the country and definitively changed human life; humans migrated less often and could therefore develop more stable societies. The appearance of bronze, brass, iron and metallurgy strongly improved agricultural productivity and production, thereby accelerating the evolution process of the rice plant and humankind. These changes led to the evolution of a new Vietnamese nation during the Hung period. The Lac Viet slowly migrated down from the hill and mountain regions to the deltas of the Red River, Ma River and Ca River. Accordingly, wetland rice rapidly expanded while upland cultivation was gradually less important to the rapidly growing population; and Dong Son culture enriched the Viet people’s life and society for nearly one thousand years. The productivity of wetland rice crops enabled population growth and led to development of society and civilization. From Northern ocupation to present, national rice development has consistently focused on (i) southward land reclamation and development of naturally-established soils along the coastline; (ii) restoring the agricultural potential o