Paddy & composting

[Guest guest]

>Everything depends on yield and how much you eat.

 

It's great to hear you are producing organic rice. We have been able to buy

it here in London for the same price as chemically grown rice for quite some

time. But the temples do not buy it.

 

You have found a good variety, but what worries me is the potential for

running out of input in the fertilisation department.

 

It is a particular phenonemon that rice however has been growing for

thousands of years without any input!! all beit prior to the introduction of

chemicals.

 

This is due for one thing the green growth of algae on the soil surface

which is then turned into fertiliser, akin to green manuring in the west.

 

"One source of readily decomposable organic matter, which is available in

India just at the moment when the cold weather crops needs it, is to be

found in the shape of a thick algal film on the surface of cultivated soils

during the second half of the rains." This film has also been found to

develop in other countries and is probably universal in all parts of the

tropics (and somewhat to a much lesser extent in temperate climates)

 

"As is well known there are two periods in India when the crop is in the

greatest need of combined nitrogen:

1. At the break of the monsoon in June and July and

2. When the cold season crops are grown in October after the rains.

These latter are planted at a time when when available nitrogen in the

surface soil is likely to be in great defect. The land has been exposed to

heavy rain for long periods; the surface of the soil is often waterlogged.

Nitrates under such conditions are easily lost by leaching and by

de-nitrification (into the air). Therefore the conditions are altogether

unfavourable for any approach towards an ample supply of nitrate when sowing

time comes round in early October."......(Lost Science of Organic

Cultivation, Howard. p 31 Soil Algae)

 

He goes on tho say that "this deficiency is made up for, in part at least,

by the rapid decay of the algal film..."

"On monsoon fallow land it will probably be found to be best to suspend

surface cultivation during the second half of the rains when the film is

most active..." and weeds may be active. It is also "

beneficial to grow a green manure crop like sann hemp for composting, during

the early rains."

 

I have always wondered why the farmers in Mayapur plough the fields so

extensively when they are so wet. I would prefer to let the weeds grow and

then flood at the right time before planting and then decrease water usage

to let the soil get to the air from where atmospheric nitrogen is obtained.

 

The use of compost, even in small applications, will be extremely useful as

the effects of this material, if made properly has a major effect of the

soil structure and microbial state for the digestion of organic matter -

algal film, weeds etc.

 

We found in Mayapur that larger greener paddy was growing at the edge of

some fields where hyacinth had been pulled out and there the water was below

the soil level!!!

 

This is towards "Dry Rice" cultivation.

 

Green manuring is however, as a general method of soil improvement, "hardly

worth the candle" as rainfall is so uncertain....and the soil may contain a

mass of undigested material, and will be poor in available nitrogen, and

perhaps low in moisture as well. SEEDS SOWN IN SUCH A SOIL CAN ONLY RESULT

IN A POOR CROP." He here goes on to discuss the many experiments into

green manuring in India...

 

"Lohnis showed that in any green manuring experiments with leguminous crops,

that the same results were obtained when the crop was removed as when it was

ploughed in. It follows from this that the double advantage of a green

manure crop can only be acheived PROVIDED FULL USE OF THE CROP ITSELF CAN BE

FOUND OUTSIDE THE FIELD, EITHER AS FODDER FOR ANIMALS, FOR MAKING SILAGE OR

AS A MATERIAL FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF COMPOST." (p.35) He then goes on to

explain to benefits and advantages of making compost from all manner of

waste materials. In the compost factory at Mayapur we were disposing of all

waste paper, food remnants and leaf plates well as all road and house

sweepings etc. It is simply a matter of organisation and training of staff

for these materials to be channeled into compost heaps.

 

If you can get cow dung! You will make much, much better compost. You only

need a little as there are billions of microbes available in a thin slurry.

And alternate your materials in the building, not too much of any one thing.

I think you have access to this book.

This book seems to give all the information on building compost!

materials to use etc. even turning stool back into earth and

making super fertiliser in 90 days.

 

Leter Howard describes how he increased yields 100 percent in many cases.

He doubled the quantity and size of bananas in each bunch. He grew peaches

to the tune of 3,500 peaches from 3-5 year old peach trees and bigger than

he had ever seen before. He doubled the quantity of grain on each ear of

wheat... He went on to grow 10,000,000 acres of wheat in India that he had

bred through his organic techniques. These were sent all over the world as

seed stock and competition winners.

 

He was recycling the household wastes (including stool) of 65,000 people

across India and Africa by composting and was replenishing the land

organically. He was thus reducing disease and water contamination.

 

He was knighted for his service to humanity.