The paper reviews both the palynological and palaeobotanical evidences that have been put forward to suggest early domestication of plants in the Indian sub-continent, Thailand, Taiwan and China. It appears that the distinction between cereal and non-cereal pollen grains has been based upon insufficient data, and stages of the earliest occupation phase have not been judiciously inferred from the pollen diagrams. A careful sifting of all the evidences from India suggests that the domestication

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... plants commenced around 3,000 B.C. The alleged earliest records of domestication described from the Spirit Cave in Thailand and radio-carbon dated to 11,500 B.P., on scrutiny suggest a more advanced and discriminating stage in food-gathering, rather than domestication. This paper suggests a more detailed botanical identification of the plant remains and a careful evaluation of ethnographic information towards the inference of early domestication.