Yesterday talked to Jacob Sebastian of Kuttanad,Alappuzha,Kerala, after coming to know that he has been doing no-till rice farming. Traditionally in Kuttanad, rice field is submerged in water and they do one crop of rice in October-November time, after pumping out water. Lot of people do tilling and do normal cultivation in the land. Jacob Sebastian allows drains out water and then allow the weeds to grow, which comes out in 1 week time. Once weeds come out, he again allow standing water and all weeds are killed, by allowing water for 2-3 weeks and after that rice is sown in the field. He uses Uma and Jyothi varieties. Earlier he used chemical fertilisers and pesticides but now he uses only organic fertiliser, especially using 'Kadala pinnakku (ground nut waste after taking oil) ' mixed with compost. He knows Fukuoka's method and asked me to grow cow pea along with rice and later allow standing water to weaken cowpea.
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