AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS

Owing to heavy rains and undulating nature of the terrace, agricultural operations in this district exhibit a marked dissimilarity with those in upghat region. In the case of paddy, cultural practices are more or less uniform while they differ in the case of nagli, kodra, pulses, etc.

Ploughing

Ploughing (ukhalani in the case of paddy) is done every year to open the soil by means of a wooden plough with the main object of puddling the land and making it ready for transplanting. Land is ploughed in the first week of June immediately after the advent of monsoon as it is not possible to plough these lands after the harvest when they set very hard on drying on account of intensive puddling done to them in the process of paddy cultivation. The soils being of light type, deep ploughing is not necessary. The plough being light in weight, opens the soil to a depth of three to six inches. An area of about one and a half acres is ploughed every day. Usually two to three ploughings are given for paddy crop. The cost of ploughing comes to Rs. 10 to Rs. 12 per acre.

Puddling.

After the first ploughing in the beginning of June when the soil is semi-dry, fields are left under standing water for about two-three weeks. (This practice facilitates raising of paddy seedlings during this period.) By end of June or beginning of July, the land is puddled by ploughing it round and round under stagnant water condition (approximately three-four times) till it reaches a particular muddy physical condition suitable for the growth of paddy. The idea underlying puddling (chikhahni) is to make the soil so sticky as to prevent percolation below the surface. Deep and carefully cultivated soils require only two ploughings while light soils having organic matter require more ploughings.

Planking.

After puddling the field for one or two days, a wooden plank (gutaphali or alwat) is dragged by bullocks over the field under standing water conditions. Since puddling leaves the field in uneven condition, the planking operation (guta phiravane) leaves the field in a more or less flat condition to facilitate transplanting of the seedlings by labourers (usually women).

Bunding.

All paddy lands are divided into small parcels (khachars) of different size with bunds on all the four sides to hold water, depending on the size of holdings and the slope of the land. If superfluous water accumulates, they are cut open on one side to drain it out.

Since success of the paddy crop depends on the careful maintenance and the up-keep of bunds of these parcels, cultivators restore the bunds in a good condition before the on-set of monsoon. They plug the crab and rat burrows, repair the breaches and the water-weirs, which are also strengthened by stone-pitching. These breaches might otherwise result in draining away of water from the parcel and might even cause drought condition. The paddy lands on hill slopes are similarly looked after. Water is let out from the paddy fields at higher level to those at lower level by means of a device called moos (just a small weir through which water passes) whose base and sides are pitched with stones to avoid washing away of the bund. In the case of salt lands, the outer bund, which protects the fields within the khar lands, is constantly watched and well looked after. For, if the tidal water once gets into the field through breaches or sluice gates, all the fields become unfit for cultivation.

Draining.

The soils of this district are well drained and as such draining in its real sense is not considered necessary. However, in low-lying soils known as mala soils, it is at times necessary to open suitable drains in order to drain away extra water coming from hills etc. Again, after the first ploughing in June, water is made to accumulate in the parcels up to a height of three and a half feet, the excess being drained out through the openings temporarily made at the convenient points in the bund.

Manuring.

Though paddy is the main crop, manuring of paddy is not usually done on a large scale. The present practice of robbing is supposed to add some manurial ingredients to the soil through ash. As it gives a better start to the seedlings, no farm yard manure is prepared. The fields do not get adequate supply of bulky or organic manure and, therefore, the texture of the soil gets hard and adversely affects the growth of crop. The cultivator, applies fertilizers (like sulphate of ammonia) only to seed beds and that too if found essential; otherwise, manurial requirements of the soil are fulfilled by robbing.

Owing to the propaganda carried on by the Department of Agriculture, many cultivators have realised the importance of scientific manuring. The Department advocates (a) preparation of compost from farm yard material which abundantly grows on bunds and other waste lands; (b) utilisation of rab material for composting and making farm yard manure and (c) green manuring from plants like shevri, sann, etc., which are suitable for this purpose. After organic manures are applied at the time of puddling, the Department also recommends the following schedule for the use of fertilizers preferably mixed with wet earth and made into small balls so that plants get their food gradually:-

In southern parts, use of fish manure for paddy and nagli at the time of transplanting is much in vogue. About six to eight maunds of fish manure are used per acre. No manuring is done to salt lands.

Sowing.

Sowing operations start from the middle of May. For most of the crops, seeds are sown for starting the crop, but in some cases where seeds cannot be produced easily, suitable parts of plants like cuttings, root, etc., are planted. In case of paddy, the seed is sown for raising seedlings or for starting the crop. Usually, the sprouted seed (rahu) is sown on varkas soils while for low-lying areas seedlings are raised for transplanting. Seeds meant for raising seedlings are either broadcast or sown in lines. The seed rate in the case of paddy varies from 16 to 20 lbs. per acre for transplanted paddy and from 60 to 80 lbs. for paddy broadcast. Some cultivators follow the practice of dry sowing (dhul-waf-pera) i.e., sowing in dry soil just before rains.

The following statement shows sowing periods of some of the important crops in the district:-

Interculturing.

Interculturing implies culturing or tilling or stirring the soil near about the plants. It is done by means of kolpi, a hand hoe with three prongs, with a view to encourage a deep root system, to aerate the soil and to mix the manures in a better way. In case of paddy as also where transplanting is done in line, two to three interculturings are usually given.

Weeding.

The weeds that are in line with the crop escape the hoe during interculturing. They are removed by hand with the help of a weeding hook (khurpi). Usually one weeding is done for paddy after transplanting. In case of broadcast fields as also where transplanting is not done in line, however, no such operation is possible.

Harvesting.

The early paddy crop gets ready for harvest by the end of Septem- ber (kapani or kadhani) whereas the mid-late and late varieties get ready by November or so. This operation is performed by means of an implement known as sickle (vila). The paddy crop is cut close to the ground and allowed to dry in the field for 2-3 days, then bundled and taken to threshing yards. In case of ragi, earheads are cut and then threshed. The following statement shows the time of harvest for some important crops:

Threshing.

Paddy crop is usually threshed by beating the bundles against some hard surface like wooden block etc. In case of nagli and pulses, threshing is done by means of trampling under bullocks' feet or by beating the material with sticks. After threshing (malani or zodni) grain is winnowed in order remove thereform pieces of leaves, stems, etc. The straw is stacked for fodder.

Storing.

After threshing, the grain is thoroughly dried in the sun and stored for consumption and for seed purposes. The farmers usually keep their own seed. However, this being a deficit district, grains are not stored on a large scale. Farmers store grain in wooden storehouses (kothars) or in bamboo baskets (kangis) whose size depends upon the quantity to be stored. Kangis are plastered on all sides by cow-dung to keep away the insects from entering inside.

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