Minimum till rice cultivation

I have kept a field which has not been ploughed for the last 5 years now. I had kept some plastic sheets on this to keep the weeds away, but it was not covering the full field and hence had to keep it moving to different areas. But it made weeds less and made the work of cleaning the grass easy. One male labor and one female labor cleaned the area which is 0.1 acre. Male person cleaned it using spade and kept the weeds at the side. Initially I thought cutting and keeping the weeds using sickle is best, but later spade showed to be a better tool.

Kayama seeds of 2Kg were put in water for 24 hours...Rain had receded, but hoping that it will rain in one or 2 days, seeds were sown. Since plastic sheet was put cleaning was easier. Using a sharp tool, lines were marked and seeds were put and cowdung slurry was poured. This makes seeds invisible to peacocks and also ants does not pick them. On a single day, complete sowing process was completed and one day clearing process was completed. 

I was happy that in 0.1 acre land, we can comfortably do all the work to sow the rice seeds in 2 days, 1 day for clearing and 1 day for sowing. Manual weed control also is possible to some extend if the seeds are sown in lines.

23-June-2026

Rain didn't come as expected, hence seeds didn't germinate well, only in a few places it came up. So waiting for rain is of no use, sowing for rice is best done when rain is established well, especially when sowing soaked seeds. If sowing directly, it has to be under soil or it should be seedball and should be done in between April mid and May 1st, so that seeds come up with first rain, in this case it should be minimum 5-6 months duration crop so that they have enough time to recover from in between dry spells. 

1-July-26

Got few good rains, hence started putting seeds again...Since grass was growing, had to cut the grass using spade and removed it. 2 women and 1 man worked. This time got some cowdung and mixed with seeds and just put one portion by portion. It was sticking to hand, hence workers added some more water. But the speed was less and also they were saying they are not getting a feel of how much to put. Ideally there should be 5-6 seeds in each portion. But the amount of seed used was more 1 kg of Chuvanna Modan seed was not suffice for the small field.

In the bigger one, Kasarkode 2kgs were used and since mixing with cowdung was taking more time, just put the seeds after making small channels with the sharp tool. Just putting the seeds they were covering it nicely. Both Kasarkode and Chuvanna Modan had been soaked in water for 24 hours and then used.

06-July-26

Chuvanna Modan didn't germinate well or some birds picked it. Actually it was not covered with soil, I thought, since it is inside cowdung, no covering is needed. But with rain cowdung easily washed away and seeds were out side. But couple of days before when I went, I could see seeds germinated in lots of places. So planning to put another seed here.

In 0.1 acre in lots of places it has germinated, but there are big gaps. Luckily balance seed was put in place together, this can be transplanted back.

Few rice varieties in grow bags

 This time I am growing few rice varieties in grow bags, just to multiply seeds and to preserve them. Each seed is kept in water for 24 hours and then sown in to grow bags. I have marked their name in the grow bag, some places it is not clear, I have also written their name in the paper and kept in each grow bag and took a photo.

Here are the varieties..All these were sown on 8th June 2026.

Happy Hill

Developed by Masanobu Fukuoka, original seed received from Japan.

Kayama

Indigenous variety, 150 days duration

Raja Kayama

Kasarkod

Erumakkari - Original

Seed received from RARS Pattambi

Erumakkari - Indira

Seed received from a farmer called Indira

Chuvanna Modan

Upland rice variety received from RARS pattambi

Stylosanthes Hamata sowing

 Stylosanthes Hamata is the new covercrop which I am trying. It is low height and grows nicely and is leguminous so should be enriching soil. I am just trying to study which is the best sowing period, if there is soil moisture it germinates well, but in high rain, I am not sure if it germinates and grows well. But it is drought tollerant, it survives summer well, it won't be seen in summer, but when it rains, it will just come back.

This year pre-monsoon rains were bad, and monsoon itself started on June 3rd early morning, till that it was sunny all the time.

With first rain, I sow some seeds, wanted to see, how they come up. But since it is rainly season, there will be frequent rains, whether they like it or not is we have to find out.

In all these places I have sown seeds, will have to find out if they come up.

Sowing seeds in Aswathy Njattuvela (Nature based agriculture calendar system)

Njattuvela is nature based agriculture calendar system used in Kerala. I think similar systems exists in other parts of India also. There are 27 such Njattuvelas,each spanning 13.5 days, in this calendar and in each what agriculture activities can be done is specified. 

There is a saying in Kerala that seeds sown in Aswathy Njattuvela which spans from April 13th to April 27th, never goes bad. So in ancient time, on Vishu festival day, which happens on April 14th or April 15th, people plough and sow rice seeds, typically of long duration crops. Normally we get some rains in this period and seeds sown germinates and grows. 

I had made seed balls of lady's finger seeds this time, and I was late to sow them, and did it in May first week. I made sure that it is scattered in places so there is good soil contact and also where there are good chances of water accumulation so seeds germinate and grow fast. I could see that some of the seeds had germinated and but later rain didn't come for 3-4 weeks and some of them just died.

At home where there was some lady's finger seeds which were lying in the ground from January onwards, had germinated and growing well. They came up at first rain and there were intermediate rains, and they grew through them. My seeds missed some of the initial rains, so could not manage.

So I think, if the seeds are put in Aswathy njattuvela, those seeds will receive first rains and then can grow well.

Planting Glyricidia and Moringa cuttings in Pre-monsoon

I have been trying to grow glyricidea since it is leguminous and provide lots of mulch. Moringa also has been in the list, since it is leguminous, provode pods,leaves and cut branches are good mulch too. When I tried this lots of them won't survive, later read from Roland Bunch's one paper that in heavy rain, these cuttings rot fast and does not take roots. Also survival rate is better with cuttings from thick branches. So this time, planting lots and lots of glyricidea and moringa cuttings.

Stylosanthes Hamata and Rice - Experiment continues

Last year in one patch I had done Stylo and after growing them for some time, sow some rice seeds and cut Stylo, and rice established reasonably nicely. Stylo didn't grow back well, so it was good for rice. Wanted to experiment the same thing, this time in the same patch. Few Stylo plants were seen after summer rain, retained them and few weeds were removed by hand. Once stylo is established, would like to sow rice in the same patch.

Stylo Santhes Hamata some features

I have been trying Stylo santhes Hamata as a covercrop, it is not yet established, but saw some interesting features so thought of recording it. 

The above two pictures are Stylo recovering from summer on receiving summer rains. In peak summer, temperature here touches 40-42 degree, and all plants are effected since I do completely rainfed farming. These plants were not visible at all, but with first rain, they just came back. So it looks like they are drought tolerant, this is too early to conclude, but still.

In this patch, I had few stylo plants and at the peak summer, I had cut them since I had to work the bunds of these small fields so that water is retained. This is for growing rice samples, just to keep their seeds. At the first rain, I could see many small seedlings coming up, first I couldn't recognize them, later understood, they were stylo plants. Even they were growing bit outside where the plants were standing, they had flowers and seeds, but didn't realize, they had this much.