History of rice cultivation is food for thought
A boy is attracted by the model of a modern farm.
Rice seedlings.
An exhibition on the history and latest technologies of rice breeding opened on Saturday at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.
"The Great Rice," which will run to March 2, 2022, is the first agricultural science exhibition held at the museum.
After tens of thousands of years of evolution and human domestication, today, there are an estimated more than 140,000 varieties of rice worldwide.
More than 100 varieties are displayed in a wall of "seeds," including Ifugao rice from the Philippines, Fukuminori from Japan and Balilla from Madagascar, as well as different varieties from China's Yunnan, Guangxi, Jiangsu and other major rice-planting zones.
Old-time agricultural tools
Farmers' paintings
About 2,000 years ago, the symbiotic farming of rice fields emerged in China, a method to raise fish and ducks in rice fields.
It creates a self-balancing ecosystem where animals provide the natural fertilizer for rice, loosen soil and increase oxygen content in water, and at the same time the various insects attracted by rice feed animals.
Today, advanced technologies have created an intelligent farmland management system, consisting of drones, sensors and big data monitoring platform. Texts, photos and models showing today's farms are displayed.
There are also interactive games, farmers' paintings and micro-carvings on rice by sculptor Zhou Yukun.
A girl experiences an interactive game.
Micro-carvings on rice grains
