Abstract
Dry farming and irrigated rice cultivation are traditional agricultural systems in the Dry Zone of Burma. The authors observed a number of crops cultivated in the Dry Zone along their survey route from Prome to Shwebo, through Kyaukpadawn, Meiktila and Mandalay. In contrast to the monoculture of rice in the Delta region, many varieties of cropes are cultivated in the Dry Zone. Generally speaking, pulses and miscellaneous grain crops constitute major crops of dry farming and, of course, rice is the principal crop where there are irrigation facilities. Irrigated rice cultivation is more intensive than dry farming.
Considering the differences in the composition of major crops and in their distribution between these two systems, the authors conclude that the crops were introduced from neighboring India and China, and that the agricultural techniques which characterize the two farming systems were also introduced from those countries, from very early times. That is, dry farming is considered to have developed through successive introduction of crops and agricultural techniques from Indian agriculture, while irrigated rice cultivation has been influenced by intensive agriculture derived from southern China.
