Abstract: Based on the sowing test data by stages, the thermal indexes, such as the active accumulated temperature and minimum limit temperature in each growing period of rice were calculated for the main cultivated rice varieties in Heilongjiang Province, by using the Least Squares Method. The spatial distributions of thermal resource and the possible days of growing period were obtained by interpolated meteorological data in the 50km×50km grid, based on the daily meteorological data of 81 stations from 1981 to 2002 in Heilongjiang Province,and compared with the observed active accumulated temperature and days of growing period for the main cultivated rice varieties. With the distributed characteristic of chilling injury, the rice production zone in Heilongjiang Province was divided into five production zones, and suitable planting zones for the main cultivated rice varieties were discussed. The results can provide reference to the full use of local climate resources for guiding rice production.

Key words: Sowing by stages, Sowing by stages, Thermal index, Region division