This is a series of posts about rice sowing using the traditional methods from Kerala in India. The land is in Wayanad district which still have some of its paddy fields not encroached by concrete forests.
Day one is here : https://hive.blog/photography/@bobinson/rice-sowing-preperation-day1
day two is here : https://hive.blog/photography/@bobinson/rice-sowing-preparation-day-2
And day three is documented below.
The day three is going at a very fast pace. We have 9 people working plus my family members and few others making an army of 12 - 15 people today. I have only vague memory of these many people working on a give day.
The rice that hidden away for germination is getting ready. So right now we are preparing the land. One set of people are preparing the land for sowing the rice. The second set is preparing the land for final cultivation.
(This is the land for sowing the rice in the first pace. The equipment is called "njavari" in Malayalam and leveller in English)
(Earlier in the day - the backdrop has CO3 grass for the cows, Tapioca, Harvested Banana and Areca nut trees)
There is more activity at the other patch of land. This needs to prepared before the tractor can come. Previously, ie years ago it had ginger and banana making the land quite useless. Luckily now there are government schemes promoting rice cultivation.
Breakfast time!
The land for sowing the germinated rice is ready now. We will sow the rice tomorrow.
A brief history of the leveller
(screen shot of : http://www.fao.org/3/x5672e/x5672e0a.htm )
I didn't even knew the Malayalam name for leveller. A friend helped me to the find the English name. The one picture is made of specific types of wood.
The bottom wood : "venga" tree is wood is used as its highly elastic.
Arched handle : made of a rose wood tree's root.
This is made by the tribal family nearby and not made by a carpenter. I have now requested the elderly member to build a smaller replica.
Wow it's soo good to see what you guys are doing . It's the peak season to grow rice. We have rice field of about 2 bigha. It's not that big but big enough to satisfy hunger of 3.
But unfortunately the floods cause all our crops to damage and we had to start from ploughing from the skretch. And it's the main problem of Assam.
Hope you get a lot of rice as a result
Thanks :-)
Flood and heavy rains are a concern in Kerala and Assam alike and around the same time. I was seeing the news both last years and this time. Hope all is well.
Yeah it's normal now. But I've got news that Itangar(capital of arunachal Pradesh) have drowned in water because of releasing excess water from dam. And if its not stopped , waters can reach anytime here too. Let's both of us hope for the best
so farmer is not getting help from animals to labeling the field?
animals are not used these days - its mechanised. This was just a small paddy to sow the germinated seed so he decided to take out the leveller and use it. Plus this leveller is not used for some 20 years so he just wanted to use it. Lets this was for documentation + nostalgia purposes.
yes i know. I belong from farmer family. Everything i know about paddy farming. I know now there are various types of machine available to do all the things.
In Kerala agriculture next to non-existent now ... Rice cultivation is out sourced to other states !
I can understand.