The Council of Agriculture's History of Taiwan Rice explains that in the early days Taiwan's paddy fields were planted with varieties of long grain (indica) rice (known locally as "zai lai" rice), most of which had crossed the Taiwan Strait with the Han Chinese settlers from mainland China.
農委會出版的《台灣稻作發展史》中記載，台灣早年稻作品種屬於秈型稻，也就是俗稱的在來米，大部分原種來自中國大陸。