ABSTRACT
Paddy, belonging to the genus Oryza is one of the most important food crops in the world. The origin of paddy remains a complex and puzzling issue due to the complex evolutionary dynamics of paddy cultivars and wild progenitors and particularly because of the rapid adaptive differentiation and continuous gene flow within and between cultivated and wild paddy. Northeast India presents diverse ecological settings and conditions for growing paddy in terms of altitude, agro-climatic conditions and rainfall. This entry aims at looking at the archaeological and ethno-botanical evidences from Northeast India for understanding the early domestication of paddy.
