Main crop
Gange Kaveri
Most of the field at Balekoppa is Gange Kaveri. It is the rice of the house.
Balekoppa · Kuntagalale · Soraba taluk
Our rice, grown by the rain.
Varshaa's paddy in the Malnad. Mostly Gange Kaveri, with sample plots of Rajamudi and Burma Black, worked with a mini tiller and a mini tractor, and watched over by a German Shepherd called Ruby.
Tap Ruby on the front bund, the tiller, or the sky.
IDay 0 to 25
Nursery and puddling
Seed is soaked, sprouted and sown thick in a nursery bed. The main field is flooded, and the mini tiller churns it into soft mud.
IIDay 25 to 30
Transplanting
Seedlings are lifted from the nursery and planted by hand into the flooded field, a few to a hill. The egrets follow the work.
IIIDay 30 to 60
Tillering
Each hill sends up new shoots. Standing water keeps the weeds down, and the field closes over into one deep green.
IVDay 85 to 100
Flowering
Panicles push out of the leaf and open for an hour or two each morning. The bees come for the wildflowers on the bunds.
VDay 100 to 125
Ripening
The grain fills and hardens, and the heads bow under the weight. The water is let out so the field dries before harvest.
VIDay 120 to 150
Harvest
The crop is cut and bundled into sheaves, and the mini tractor hauls it home. Then the sheep come in to graze the stubble.
Our rice
Three rices, one field
Gange Kaveri is the main crop. Rajamudi and Burma Black grow on small sample plots.
Sample plot · red rice
Rajamudi
An old Karnataka red rice, once grown for the royal kitchens of Mysuru. Nutty, and it holds its shape.
Sample plot · black rice
Burma Black
A small trial of black rice, to see how it takes to Soraba's soil and rain.
Next season
The tiller goes back in.
After the harvest the field is flooded again and the mini tiller churns it back to mud.
Ruby is asleep on the front bund. Tap her.
Life on the field
Everyone who works the paddy
- Mini tiller
- Ploughs and puddles the flooded field before planting, with someone walking behind it in the mud.
- Mini tractor
- Runs along the far bund with its trailer: seedlings out at planting, sheaves home at harvest.
- Sheep
- Graze the bunds and, after the harvest, the stubble.
- Peacocks
- Walk the bunds most mornings. Touch one and it may open its tail.
- Egrets
- Follow the tiller for the insects it turns up.
Ruby
German Shepherd · in charge
Ruby sleeps on the front bund until she decides the sheep need moving. Then everyone on the field moves.
Where the field is
Balekoppa, KuntagalaleSoraba taluk, Shivamogga district, Karnataka
- Taluk
- Soraba
- District
- Shivamogga
- Region
- Malnad
Monsoon country at the edge of the Malnad, with green hills, tanks, areca gardens and paddy. The rain decides most things here.