Growing rice

Always one to be on the cutting edge of fashion, I tore off a banana leaf today, and used it like an umbrella when I was unexpectedly caught in a tropical downpour.

I know what you’re thinking. It's the rainy season. I've talked about the various rainfalls that I've watched, skirted or tried to avoid. So how was I caught out in the rain? Well the clouds looked neither dark nor dense.

If it gives you any consolation, a group of women planting in a field looked up and had a hearty laugh.

Last night, I had only three students. Some others were called away to help attend a death of someone in a neighbouring village. No foul play; just a lot to do to prepare for cremation tomorrow.

I don't expect many tonight either, so I needed to prepare a lesson that would reward those who came and not hurt those who didn't. It's a perfect time to talk about rice.

I started the day on wikihow, learning about what I've seen:
Seeds are soaked in water 12 to 36 hours before being planted
rice likes clay soil, and it likes the soil to be moist.  Weeds are removed, the field is levelled and flooded. It is then ploughed. Most farmers use gas powered ploughs, but in small fields, some still use water buffalo.
Like many crops, rice germinates in a nursery setting. Generally, the seeds are sown densely.
When the seedlings are six to nine inches tall, they are transplanted about four inches apart in rows that are 12 inches apart. There is no measuring. The lines are straight and even with experience.

I have been here for prep and planting. I haven't watch the rice grow, although the fields I walked through in Sumatra were in the growing stage.

paddies are monitored and weeded as the rice grows.
After about three months, it starts to mature and change colour
The fields are drained and the stalks turn golden.
To harvest the crop, the tops of the plants are cut off and laid out to dry. The tops are like other grasses -- the seeds (grains of rice) are on a stalk
Dry grains are sifted, to separate the rice from the hulls

According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), one hectare of rice yields three tons of rice. The Jatiluwih rice terraces cover more than 600 hectares. Conservative math means the area produces more than 5,000 tons of rice each year.

Rice, like grapes, tea and chocolate, is subject to terroir. Rice grown here doesn't taste the same as it would if grown in Denpasar, near the airport, or those rice fields that I visited in Sumatra. Even so, the special crop grown locally is red rice.

I walked the fields today, like I do most every day. Most of the time, I stop at the top, in Jatiluwih, to get a strong internet connection. Today, I used that connection to learn that Balinese Hindus believe the god Vishnu first grew rice in the ground. Then Indra, the god of bad weather, taught people how to cultivate rice. That is why it is grown in waterlogged soil.

I also learned that rice prefers slightly acidic clay soil.

Rice has been feeding the world for more than 5,000 years.

Indonesia is the world’s third-largest rice producing nation, behind China and India.

When I met with the head of the NGO that I'm volunteering with, he said some farmers complain that the fields are not retaining water as well as they once did. He contended that when animals are used to plough the fields, they compact the soil more, and this helps prevent excess seepage.

Productive land here is used primarily for growing rice. Land that is too steep may have palms, bananas, papaya or forest. I've seen ferns the size of trees in some gullies.  This morning I saw an elderly woman with a sickle (large curved knife) pruning a tree on a slope so steep I was sure she'd slip away.

Every now and then, I'm completely surprised, wondering why I didn't notice something before. Two days ago, I saw a row of pineapples growing on the wall of a paddy.  Another day, I saw a rose bush. I had to go back, just to make sure I wasn't imagining things.

The majority of visitors to Jatiluwih seem to be East Europeans. Australians come second. I chatted with only a couple of Americans and met a father-daughter team from Montreal.

As I've said before, these terraces are far more impressive than the comparatively puny ones at Talalagong, yet those ones get the crowds. They are also close to Ubud, and are on the usual tourist trail. I'm happy to be away from the tourist circus. I feel bad that people don't see the splendour that I do.