Pests & Predators | Paddy Fieldnotes Dec 2022

Early sown varieties, Co43 and Bhavani (seasonality test) are past flowering and currently are in the ripening stage. As explained in Principles and Practices of Rice Production by S K De Datta,“At the time of anthesis (blooming or flowering), the panicle is erect in shape. The panicles flower begins at the top, middle and lower thirds, occurring on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd day after stage – heading. Rice is highly self-pollinated. The florets open from 0900 to 1500 depending on variety and weather. They open early on bright days and late on humid and cloudy days. The stamens elongate and anthers move out of the flowering glumes as pollen is shed. The pollen grains fall on the pistil, a feathery structure, through which the pollen tube of the germinating grains will extend into the ovary. The lemma and palea then close.”Further, the panicle takes 25 to 35 days to fully ripen. Grain development is a continuous process in the sequence of flowering and the grain undergoes distinct changes before it matures fully in 3 stages – The milky stage, Dough stage, and Yellowing & ripening stage. The milk stage is observed when a milky white substance begins to accumulate, usually seven to 10 days after heading. The dough stage occurs about a week later as the milky substance begins to change and become the texture of bread dough. When rice grains first become firm, they are at the physiological maturity stage. At this stage, we have the next round of pests circling the paddy fields – small birds – Finches and peacocks (Leaf rollers and stem borers are the first ones). At Annapurna, we host a large number of migratory paddy birds at the beginning of the paddy season who eat insects through the puddled fields where at the times young paddy seedlings become collateral damage. The paddy landscape includes tall, medium-sized trees scattered lightly throughout to host the diversity of birds to perch and nest on; which also keeps a fair check on the paddy insects-pest population. We also have a large number of peacocks on the farm who similarly serve Predatory skills as well as beauty.With the paddy ripening, we now observe small birds flocking around the ripened panicles to pick grains. In the past season we observed peacocks keenly visit fields once the crop is fully ripened and lodged (on the ground), but this season we find them frequently visiting our semi-short variety – CO43 fields pecking on drooping panicles. We manage to keep deer and wild boars away from the paddy with the electric fence which is also one of the elements that add to paddy economics. But the peacocks and birds may need a different solution, we will be busy quantifying the damage and exploring ways to manage such pests in the coming weeks.

Paddy and Other Fields Notes | December 22

While we are still busy with the second round of the weeding through direct sown paddy fields, we have early sown paddy coming into the flowering stage. But paddy is not the only one coming into flowering but also Rosella and Corn. Rosella is being harvested for the processing jams and syrups while corn will be harvested in January to further trial corn flour. View from the 3rd Banana plantation and papayasAt the end of July 2022, we extended the existing 1.5 acres of banana plantation by 0.5 acres. This plot is planted with “karpurvalli” banana suckers selected from the older plantation.We did away with the variety of Poovan, as it was found to not suit our soil conditions. We are also testing and observing four different varieties一 Red, Robusta Dwarf, Yelakki, and Rastali一 to explore greater taste and diversity within the plantation.

Casuarina Harvest

In September we harvested around 3 acres of casuarina trees. The 3 plantations were 8-10 years old. These were rainfed crops and the trees had become nice and tall.In the last years, wood prices have been very low and there was no incentive to harvest the trees. But then recently the price shot up and we were happy to have them cut and earn some cash for improving the farm’s machine park.We agreed on a weight base price and the contractor Mr. Parsuraman did all the work. We had to keep track of the weight of the wood that was transported out. The income of the harvest bought us a few machines which the farm badly needed. Our tractor-operated rotavator which was almost 30 years old and worn out, needed to be replaced. We bought a machine which is a size wider because our current tractor can power a slightly bigger machine which will save time and fuel.Then we bought one more brush cutter to be able to keep the electric fences weed-free and clear the bunds of the paddy fields in the season. By now we have many km of electric fences to maintain, and we needed more equipment to keep up with the work.This week we received a mulcher. This machine is tractor-mounted and will cut vegetation like green manure crops, grass and weeds, crop residues, shrubs, etc. We hope we can make a step in reducing soil tilling and increase/improve mulching techniques.While increasing production we try not to increase labor but make people more effective through mechanization. Labor is becoming too costly and is more difficult to get nowadays. We train people in the use of these tools through which they become more effective, and we can reward them better, which in turn motivates and attracts people to the work on the farm.

Paddy Field Notes | November 2022

Earlier this month we closed in transplanting paddy, a total of 20 acres with primary 3 varieties – Annapurna (farmer’s select), Poovan Samba (red) and CO43 (white; for parboiling) along with “Bhavani’ for seasonality test and a couple improved red varieties, long grain basmati for seed production. After field preparation and transplanting; weeding the paddy is an extensive task and expense. We are testing various methods to reduce the weeding efforts; starting with a direct seed drill using a paddy drum seeder (hand-operated) to give a breather from continuous transplanting to start weeding early, dryland weeding techniques (couldn’t test extensively this season) and cutting overgrown weeds (grasses) through selected growing paddy fields.In the best-case scenario, we receive a good amount of rainfall at the beginning or before the paddy season that fills 3 of our ponds enough to keep the fields wet that controls weed growth to some extent. Wet paddy fields are also easier to pull weeds out whereas dry hard fields slow down the process.In season 2022-23 we observe very light rain (SW) at the beginning of the paddy, usually NE wind turn by the end of October but not this season. As ponds were running dry, we pause and yet continue through the season to finish the transplant by pulling in borewells and diesel pumps to irrigate the crop extensively. While struggling with the weather, we observed an uncontrollable amount of weeds coming through some paddy fields (extended dry conditions). CO43, one of our early short-erect straw variety and test direct sown Annapurna was the most affected; as we deal with these early planted fields, there is the next round of weeds building up in later planted paddy. But the second week of November has brought us enough rainfall to fill one of the pond to its capacity. For now we can switch off borewells and fossil fuel for the paddy season.

The Annapurna wall – First 100 meters

As mentioned in earlier communications; Annapurna farm is invaded by wildlife like pigs, deer and peacocks and it gets more and more difficult to grow crops in the farm. As also reported in one of our communications we built a short prototype of this fence a year back to get a good idea if this design is what we need here. Since this is going to the be by far the biggest project Annapurna farm has ever embarked upon we want to make small steps to be sure what we are going in for. The farm has a periphery of 8km! So after the first mini prototype to see the idea in real, this year we embarked on step 2 to learn how this project can best be executed and what the cost will be. We secured funds through a generous donor to be able to build 100 m of the fence. Andre designed the pillars and casted them in our workshop. The pillars are the skeleton of the fence and need to be really good to be able to last for decades. We did realize that the work took a lot of the attention away from the farm, but the pillars which we created, although quite costly, were of a superior quality. Then we cleared the area to be fenced with a jcb and hired a contractor to install the fence. Here we did a lot of learning; Since the fence is heavy and quite different from what is normally done in Auroville, it took a lot of trials before the team had it right. The contractor used a lot of manual labor for lifting and installing. All this made the job go slow and became quite costly in the end. Now after all this, we feel we need a third step to be able to make a proper cost estimate. We still have some materials and funds to build another section of approximately 40 m fence. Since we now know a bit better what this fence entails, we will try to improve the pillar making efficiency and will use some lifting devices to erect the fence. In short, to use minimum labor and where possible use equipment for heavy work. This work we will do after monsoon when our main crops are harvested, and soil dries up to make it possible to work properly on the site.Once this third step is done we will get back to you with the outcomes and needs…*note that the barbed wire still needs to be strung over the wall part like in the concept-pilot.

373 Gliricidia Plantation | October 2022

In the last week of October, We finished transplanting gliricidia in the far northwest of Annapurna plot 373. This comes after good rainfall overnight that finally pushed the planting work in motion. Here are a few images from the gliricidia plantation from the previous year, a part that has been shredded down for composting.

Early Rosella 392ab Plot | Oct 2022

Rosella is grown at Annapurna as a rainfed crop from August (depending on the southwest summer monsoon) to harvest in late November. The whole fruits are plucked when they are tender, fleshy, and deep red. The calyx lobes (outer layer) are separated and used fresh to process into Jams and syrups, while seeds are collected for the next season’s plantation and also milled in with the dairy animal’s grain concentrate due to its high protein content.This year we sowed Roselle late in September (irrigated for the germination) as there was no trace of a good summer monsoon. However, we already have some early harvest coming in from last year’s (August 2021) rosella plot. Later last season rosella harvest, the plot was rotated into fodder sorghum and leguminous Phaslous Tribola (pilli pisaru) for dairy under the irrigated condition where rosella germinated back from the residual seeds. while most of it was plowed in to prepare for the next crop, a few lines were maintained to harvest the fruits earlier than regular November.Currently, this early harvest is being processed into rosella jams and syrup for flavored yogurt.

Alley Cropping System | Gliricidia plot:392BB [Jun – Oct 22]

The natural diet of bovines largely comprises wild grass, tree leaves and weeds. Increased domestication, however, has motivated farmers to rely on grain-based diets, as it makes it easier to maintain large herds of cattle and harvest higher yields of produce, be it meat or milk. Grains, in comparison to grass, are easy to store, to purchase in bulk, as well as to produce. Second-grade-broken grains are often easily available (read: cheaper) for dairy. Annapurna dairy currently relies on grains, i.e. millet-based concentrate as well as home-grown fodder and paddy straw. While fodder (greens) is much more nutritional and natural to cattle, the quantity needed for consumption is relatively higher. To grow such quantities, one would require advanced pastoral management (optimum grazing), water, land, as well as protection of the land from other wild vegetarians. The often asked question to us is how one farm off 135 acres, the answer is to make a system that serves the need of sustaining an organic farm. A closer look at gliricidia 323BB will help to understand this better as it aims to sustain the rotational fodder for the dairy along with irrigated food crops, such as green gram, late sesame and corn. For years, Annapurna has been cultivating the most outlying pieces (15-20 acres) of the land under dryland gliricidia plantations to produce fodder and biomass. These gliricidia were originally planted as a dryland crop to biomass for composting-mulching, and nitrogen-fixing to the soil, create organic fodder for the dairy along with far-off land protection and erosion. Food crops used to be grown between the lines of gliricidia as well. In the month of June 2022, with the help of increased rain harvesting capacity over the years, we prepared alleys (spacing) between gliricidia to cultivate fodder under irrigated conditions. This plot was prepared by shredding down gliricidia alleys to provide the biomass for the first rotation with fodder crop 一 Phaseolus Tribola and perennial fodder Sorghum. This system was visualized by Tomas years ago as a mean to reduce yearly compost input (creating biomass | organic matter). In the coming season, we intend to observe if the plot will be able to sustain itself with the biomass created from the gliricidia and legume crop rotation. This plot will further rotate into food crops and eventually into a fruit plantations; banana. The aim is to slowly move towards minimizing the reliance on millet grains to having the herd predominantly fodder (grass)-fed while extending the land under long-term cultivation. As of today we harvested about a ton of leguminous fodder – Phaseolus Tribola and test cut of the perennial fodder sorghum from 392bb. Alley Cropping System* Hedgerow intercropping, also referred to as Alley cropping system is a type of strip cropping or agroforestry practice, in which fast growing trees and shrubs are established on the arable lands and annual food or forage crops cultivated in the “alleys” between the hedgerows. The shrubs or trees are usually planted in rows of 2.0 m to 6.0 m apart, with crops cultivated between rows. The trees or shrubs managed as hedges are pruned periodically during cropping phases to prevent shading of companion crop and the pruning applied to the soil as green manure and / or mulch. This improves the organic matter status of the soil besides proving nutrients, especially nitrogen. This system also creates a more favorable microclimate for crops by shielding them from drying winds. Trees or shrubs and crops components are managed to be complimentary rather than competitive.

Paddy Field Notes | October 2022

We started the paddy season this year on 28th August sowing the first seedbed. The season began with an all-season improved variety CO43 along with Bhavani to test its early seasonality. We started the field preparation in the dry month of September where unlike the last couple of years, there was no trace of summer showers.As of today, we have finished transplanting varieties: CO43, Farmer’s select Annapurna, Test|Bhavani and Test|Uma (red) in 14.7 of 20 acres of paddy and the remaining fields are still being prepared to plant further with red rice variety – Poovan Samba. We skipped sowing Poovan Samba (red rice) as a test direct sowing system last week as 2 large ponds are reduced to the minimum and we are left with 2 bore wells, a single rain harvesting reservoir at its half capacity. Which shifts our focus now on maintaining – mainly weeding what is transplanted yet slowly moving to prepare remaining fields as we observe light monsoon (still South-west) in the air.

Salad Bar and Green Manure for the paddy season 2022-23

Irrigated salad bars/green manure are relatively easy depending on the monsoon each year. At Annapurna, we receive an ample monsoon (summer and winter) and sometimes, even a cyclone at times. As a result, rain water harvest ponds have more  capacity to sustain the rice, orchards, and fodder, because of which we sow early harvested paddy fields to raise an irrigated salad bar. Green manures such as Phaslous Tribola and Sesbania Speciosa, (dryland specials) establish robust overgrowing of the weeds under irrigated conditions.  The CO43 paddy harvested early in January and the Annapurna paddy fields stretching up to 7.7 of the total 20 acres, raised with early green manure and irrigated since the good monsoon last season, serve as a grazing ground for the dairy during the dry season. Cows spend an hour grazing in a  rice plot and get daily rotated into another field. The idea is to irrigate the fields enough to establish the crop, graze the cattle swiftly, and allow green manure to bounce back up with the irregular summer showers to plow it back in for paddy preparation. The remaining paddy fields are grown and managed as the dryland salad bar for the dairy and green manure for the paddy. Productivity of these plots varies from year to year depending very much on the summer monsoon rains. In an exact opposite scenario, we rely on the summer rain to germinate the green manure. In such instances,  we look at rain predictions and then sow the green manure. Some years it rains several centimeters high, which can replicate the same result as when we rely on the irrigated system. This year, however, the rains were short and scattered.  This brings us the first heavy flush of weeds, predominantly the Trianthema decandra L, which is locally known as spinach and is edible for cattle in regulated quantities. Under the lush short canopies of this weed, we have our green manures germinated. It remains dormant without ample sun and moisture and waits for the weeds to wither out after its 45-day life cycle. This grown sea of this dominant weed also falls prey to caterpillars (moth species unidentified) and gets eaten away making way for the sunlight to reach the ground and the dormant green manure finally synthesizes back to life.