 |  | Better Farming Series 20 - Upland Rice (FAO - INADES, 1977, 30 p.) | ||
 |  | Using new implements | ||
|  | (introduction...) | ||
| | Preparing the soil | ||
| | Sowing | ||
| | Cultivating | ||
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11. A plough, a harrow and a hoe drawn by animals help you work better and more quickly.
You can cultivate larger fields.
This will give you a more plentiful harvest.
Every year, you will earn a little more money. That way, you can pay for new implements and keep on making new progress.
As these implements are drawn by animals, you use the strength of the animals.
In studying animal husbandry, we have already seen how to use animals.
If you wish to use animal power, read Booklets 8, 9, 11 and 14 of this series.
Now we shall study how to plough, sow and cultivate. With good ploughing, good sowing, and several cultivations, you will get much more plentiful harvests.
12. With a plough and a harrow the soil is better prepared.
The plough loosens the soil and tills it more deeply. The roots of the rice develop better, the rice gets more nourishment.
The soil is prepared more quickly.
You will be able to sow at the right time. It is very important to sow at the right time.
You will also be able to sow larger fields.
If you sow larger fields at the right time, your rice production will be much larger.
13. A hoe helps to remove weeds more quickly.
Whenever weeds have grown, you can remove them more quickly.
Then the weeds do not take water and mineral salts out of the soil.
The rice can use all the nourishment from the soil.
But in order to cultivate with a hoe, you must sow in rows.
The use of plough and hoe greatly increases the yield.
Most often, rice is sown on a field that has already been cultivated perhaps after a crop of yams, or groundnuts, or cotton.
The work of clearing the field has already been done before growing yams, or groundnuts or cotton.
14. Tillage.
Before sowing, you must prepare the soil; that is, you must till it.
If you till 15 to 20 centimetres deep, this will stir the earth very well. Do this work with the plough or the hoe.
Tilling loosens the soil; it gets air and water well into the soil.
Tilling enables you to mix the herbage with the soil. When the herbage rots, it makes humus.
On flat land, if a soil has been well loosened by tilling, the water penetrates well and stays for a long time. Therefore, till at the beginning of the rainy season, so that the soil holds the water. This first tilling is very important; do it just as soon as you can move the soil.
Slopes should not be tilled where there is a danger of rain carrying the soil away.
Tilling, or turning the soil over, can be done with the hoe, the spade or the digging fork. But this is slow and tiring work.
Nowadays, people use a plough drawn by donkeys or oxen.
This
way the work is done better and more quickly.
15. The plough.
Most often, people use a simple plough. The plough consists of a ploughshare, a mouldboard and two handles
Handles for holding the plough
16. How to plough.
Make a first furrow with the plough across the whole length of the field.
At the end of the field, turn. Make a second furrow alongside the first.
The second strip of ploughed field joins the first.
After that, keep turning around the double strip of ploughed field.
This is called conventional ploughingthe field is divided into ploughed lance separated by a furrow.
Conventional ploughing
17. Now the field is well ploughed. But ploughing often does
not leave the soil flat. There are clods of earth
These clods of earth are broken up with a harrow. If you do not have a harrow, you can let an animal draw big branches of trees over the field. The branches crush the clods.
The branches crush the
clods
18. Choosing the seeds.
If you have already grown a rice crop, choose the best seeds from your own harvest. Remove broken rice grains, misshapen grains, and grains attacked by insects.
It is best to use selected seeds.
If you have worked hard to prepare your field very well, you will get a better harvest if your seeds are well chosen.
The extension services and research centres have selected rice varieties best suited to the climate of each region, disease- resisting varieties which provide high yields.
Once you have chosen good seeds, use the finest seeds of your own harvest for sowing in the following years.
19. Disinfecting the seeds.
The disinfectant is available from the extension services. Mix the seeds and the disinfectant very well, so that the disinfectant covers all the seeds.
For example, you might mix 200 grammes of a disinfectant such as Cérégan with 100 kilogrammes of rice seed.
20. Disinfectant is poisonous
Be very careful in using it:
- Wash your hands well after touching the disinfectant.
- Never give disinfected seeds to animals.
- Never leave the disinfectant where children can get at it.
Disinfected seeds are not eaten by insects. Disinfected seeds do not rot easily. All the seeds will grow, there will be very few plants missing.
Disinfection makes for good density, and so the yield is better.
Device for disinfecting seeds
21. Sowing in rows.
Farmers have the habit of broadcasting their seed.
If the seed is broadcast, it is very difficult later to remove the weeds.
If the seed is sown in rows, it is easier to remove weeds.
The animal that draws the hoe can walk between the rows.
On flat soil, you can trace your rows with a marker. Leave 40 centimetres between rows. The spikes of the marker make a little furrow.
In this furrow, put your rice seeds.
Leave 1 to 2 centimetres between seeds. Cover the seeds with a little earth.
You will need between 30 and 50 kilogrammes of seed for 1 hectare.
22. On net soil you can use a seed- planting machine, called a seed drill.
In several countries people are beginning to use these seed drills, which are drawn by a donkey or by oxen. The seed drill makes a furrow and places the seeds in the soil at the same distance from each other and all at the same depth.
With some seed drills the fertilizer can be applied at the same time.
Use a seed- planting machine
Seed drill
23. If the field is on a slope, make the seed rows along the contour lines and leave barrier strips between the different levels of soil.
This helps to reduce erosion.
Fast- flowing water carries away some soil.
It is dirty water mixed with soil.
When you slow up the water, the soil in the water drops to the ground.
The water becomes cleaner and the soil is not lost.
What is a contour line? Look at these two drawings.
Liass in the direction of the
slope
These lines follow the direction of the slope. Water flows very fast and carries away the soil.
Lines across the slope
These lines cut across the slope along the contour lines. Water and soil are held back.
A contour line is a line across the slope running always at the same height.
24. What is a barrier strip?
A barrier strip is an uncultivated strip of land. Grass grows on this strip and holds back the water so that the soil drops to the ground. The barrier strips must also follow the contour lines. A barrier strip should be about 2 metres wide.
To hold back the water better, you can plant tall grasses.
If the slope is very gentle, you can leave 30 to 40 metres between barrier strips.
If the slope is steeper, leave only 10 to 20 metres between barrier strips.
Do not grow rice if the slope is very steep.
Do not grow rice if the slope is
very
steep
Cultivate 15 to 20 days after sowing, and again whenever fresh weeds have grown.
Cultivating
25. Why cultivations are needed.
Cultivating means removing weeds by hoeing.
Weeds prevent the rice from growing well:
- they take water out of the soil
- they take mineral salts out of the soil.
When you cultivate well the buds at the bottom of the main stem can develop and make new stems. This is called tillering.
For every grain you sow, you will get several stems and every stem makes a head or panicle of rice.
26. How to cultivate.
You can cultivate either with a hand hoe or with an animal- drawn cultivator. With an animal- drawn cultivator, the work is done more quickly and you can cultivate more often.
Cultivator
Whenever you see that weeds have grown, you must remove them.
Pull out the weeds that have grown between the rows. If any weeds grow in the rows, pull them out by hand. Remove the side teeth of the cultivator so that you can pass with it between the rows.
Rice sown on a well- prepared field, at the right time and In rows, and protected by frequent cultivations, will give a good harvest.
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