Full illustration organic paddy cultivation methods TTS presentation 3

Presents

Organic Farming Methods (part 3)Presented by,

N. S. Santhana Krishnan

Traditional Technology Solutions

E-mail: sankrish@tts.org.in

Website: www.tts.org.in

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 1

Traditional Technology Solutions

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 2

In this documentation we are sharing our experience in cultivation of a traditional rice variety named “ Kala-Namak”.

We got half kilogram of seeds from Sri Sarada Peetam, Ulunthurpet and we planted it in a area of two cents.

This time we did random transplantation of each plant approximately at a distance of one feet.

We didn’t use straight line plantation using rope in order to understand its effect and difference in yield.

The seeds took four nights of soaking and five days of draining under shade to germinate completely.

Part: 3

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 3

Kalanamak rice:

Deriving its name from the black husk (kala) and

a mild salty (namak) taste,

This rice is Known for its aroma and distinct taste,

it surpasses Basmati rice - the variety with

the highest trade volume in the international market

in every aspect except grain length

It is soft, easily digestible and has a long shelf life.

It also has greater head rice recovery after polishing

and better after cooking.

This rice is believed to be the Buddha ‘s favorite rice.

This rice crop has good tolerance to salinity.

Kalanamak has different mineral content as high as 40

types in it.

It is believed to restore the proper function of various

organs in body like heart, liver etc.

The crop duration is around 140 days.

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 4

Crops after ten days of transplantation

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 5

Twenty days after transplantation

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 6

Thirty days after transplantation

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 7

Forty days after transplantation

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 8

Fifty days after transplantation the crops attained a height of three feet

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 9

At seventy days rice panicles started to come

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 10

At eighty five days the number of panicles increased

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 11

Each crop had around eighty grains

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 12

At ninety days the grains started to mature

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 13

After hundred days the grains gained weight

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 14

The panicles started to bend due to weight at hundred and ten days

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 15

We noticed pest attack in the crop

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 16

The grain formation was stopped because worms infested trough the stems bottom and consumed the nutrients

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 17

We started to prepare insect repellant by pounding and adding neem leaves, green chilies and ginger

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 18

We also pounded half kilogram of red chilies

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 19

We prepared a strong insect repellant by boiling the above said natural

ingredients together.

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 20

We prepared another repellent by boiling neem soap in water which will act as a binder and a mild repellant

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 21

We mixed two repellants and sprayed to field and it stopped the pests attack

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 22

To our sudden surprise we noticed the matured grains were missing from the panicle

within a span of two days.

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 23

We came to know that the greater part of yield was consumed by birds which eat

rice during night time.

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 24

We placed sticks with plastic cover tied to repel the birds in the grains leftover portion of the paddy

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 25

Paddy got manually harvested

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 26

We separated the grains manually at the place of harvest

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 27

Conclusion:

What we got:

We got around five kg of “Kala Namak seeds” from a half kilogram of rice seeds.

What we learnt:

“ protection is more important than production”

How we are going to protect:

In this season we learnt about the pest and birds attacking the crop, also we

overcame the pests by spraying the natural repellants.

Hence in future cultivation we will keep the pest repellants and bird repellants

ready before sowing and apply them with there early signs.

© www.tts.org.in Organic farming 28