Bas-relief at Karmawibhanga Museum in Central Java of 9th century Borobudur describe rice barn and rice plants being infested calories in 100g cooked risotto rice mouse pestilence. Rice farming has a long history in Indonesia.

The history of rice cultivation is an interdisciplinary subject that studies archaeological and documentary evidence to explain how rice was first domesticated and cultivated by humans, the spread of cultivation to different regions of the planet, and the technological changes that have impacted cultivation over time. The current scientific consensus, based on archaeological and linguistic evidence, is that Oryza sativa rice was first domesticated in the Yangtze River basin in China 13,500 to 8,200 years ago. Since its spread, rice has become a global staple crop important to food security and food cultures around the world. Local varieties of Oryza sativa have resulted in over 40,000 cultivars of various types.

The current scientific consensus, based on archaeological and linguistic evidence, is that rice was first domesticated in the Yangtze River basin in China. There are two most likely centers of domestication for rice as well as the development of the wetland agriculture technology. Rice was gradually introduced north into early Sino-Tibetan Yangshao and Dawenkou culture millet farmers, either via contact with the Daxi culture or the Majiabang-Hemudu culture. Qujialing-Shijiahe culture and the Liangzhu culture. With Shijiahe shrinking in size, and Liangzhu disappearing altogether. This is largely believed to be the result of the southward expansion of the early Sino-Tibetan Longshan culture. Genomic studies suggests that indica rice arrives in China from India between 2,000 and 1,400 years ago.

The approximate coastlines during the early Holocene are shown in lighter blue. From about 2000 to 1500 BC, the Austronesian expansion began, with settlers from Taiwan moving south to colonize Luzon in the Philippines, bringing rice cultivation technologies with them. It has been speculated the rice did not survive the Austronesian voyages into Micronesia due to the sheer distance of ocean they were crossing and the lack of abundant rain. These voyagers became the ancestors of the Lapita culture. Rice, along with other Southeast Asian food plants, were also later introduced to Madagascar, the Comoros, and the coast of East Africa by around the 1st millennium AD by Austronesian settlers from the Greater Sunda Islands.