There is technically not one but two cultivated rice species (at least); the asian rice, but also an african specie who came from a local wild ancestor, Oryza glaberrima; range of origin is what is now Mali it seems.
Wikipedia speak of it's ancient cultivation, 2-3,000 years old domestication perhaps, and claims it have some advantages like needing less water, a natural hardship and endurance - but also drawbacks compared to asian rice like lower yelds and fragilities to modern harvest techs (modern botanic researches work at making a stout hybrid 'rice for Africa').
And so it seems to me that someone could see it as a good crop to use in some situations, maybe spread in other parts of Africa as Madagascar perhaps (if never reached there), parts of Americas as mexican drier lands...
So, how this crop could be spread beyond it's area of origins? Would an 'arab' or muslim scholar/explorer like Ibn Batuban find about it, and get some idea in a world more muslim by example... Trades with Americas?
Wikipedia speak of it's ancient cultivation, 2-3,000 years old domestication perhaps, and claims it have some advantages like needing less water, a natural hardship and endurance - but also drawbacks compared to asian rice like lower yelds and fragilities to modern harvest techs (modern botanic researches work at making a stout hybrid 'rice for Africa').
And so it seems to me that someone could see it as a good crop to use in some situations, maybe spread in other parts of Africa as Madagascar perhaps (if never reached there), parts of Americas as mexican drier lands...
So, how this crop could be spread beyond it's area of origins? Would an 'arab' or muslim scholar/explorer like Ibn Batuban find about it, and get some idea in a world more muslim by example... Trades with Americas?