From Field to Plate: Journey of My Yummy Rice

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1 From Field to Plate: Journey of My Yummy Rice Author: Ali Abbas, Volunteer Coordinator, Greenpeace India. Rice is a staple food for most Indians. In fact, India is one of the largest producers of rice in the world. My family eat rice twice a day. I am fond of dishes prepared with rice as the main ingredient, be it the famous Biryani (mutton or chicken mixed in spices and rice) or simple Dal Chawal (pulses and plain boiled rice). I always have been curious to know how rice is produced. It was during my visit to the village of Kedia in July, August and December 2016, when I learned about the process and the various stages and econo- mics of rice production. This learning experience is the result of my direct contact with Kedia's farmers. Kedia is a small village comprised of 98 families in Jamui District of Bihar, an eastern state of India, about 190 km by road from Patna, the state s capital. Greenpeace India is working as a facilitator in the village to develop an ecological farming model. In less than 3 years farmers of Kedia shifted away from conventional farming that depends on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides to ecological and organic agricultural practices (for more about Greenpeace India s work in Kedia see box below). Ever since India's Green Revolution, most farmers practice conventional farming. Over the years, excessive use of chemicals has adversely impacted soil, underground water and farmers' health. An ecological movement is underway in Kedia; with passing years it will spread to other villages in Bihar and eventually to others states in the country. Most farmers in Kedia are either small landholders or marginalised, and mostly rely on traditional ways of agriculture which use draught animals (bullocks) and manual farm labour. (Photo credits: Andrew Benjamin. M / Greenpeace India)

2 Paddy crop, as rice in Asia is known in its plant and unprocessed form, or Dhaan (in Hindi) is cultivated once a year in this region, usually taking 6 to 7 months from planting in fields to the final (milling) stage of processing, or polishing. Ploughing takes place in June and July. Farmers in Kedia treat bullocks, cows and buffalos as their family members and take immense care of them. (Photo credits: Andrew Benjamin. M / Greenpeace India) By the end of July farmers sow the seeds, known in the local language as Bichhda. It takes about days for the paddy crop to grow inches tall, after which the seedlings are taken out of the nursery and ready for transplanting, or Ropai or Ropni. (Photo credits: Andrew Benjamin. M / Greenpeace India) Seedlings are then planted closely spaced in prepared fields. It takes about days for a paddy field to reach full growth before Katai or harvesting is done in November and December.

3 (Photo credits: Andrew Benjamin. M / Greenpeace India ) Freshly harvested paddy is tied in bundles known as Anthi and kept for drying. Later, grains are separated from the dried paddy plant, known as Jharni, by threshing or Damaahi. In my third visit during December, dried paddy huts were warm places of rest for me. (Photo credit: Ali Abbas / Greenpeace India) The grains are then soaked in water for 24 hours, after which they are boiled or parboiled for 20 to 30 minutes and set out to dry. At this stage grains, whose indigestible outer husks or hulls have burst and shed, are called Usna Chawal. They are then processed by a Spiller or huller to separate the grains from the husks.

4 (Photo credits: Ali Abbas / Greenpeace India) What comes out of the Spiller is brown rice. People in Kedia eat brown rice. Many say that it is more nutritious than white rice. (Photo credits: Ali Abbas / Greenpeace India) The last stage of processing rice is polishing, where the outer bran layers of the brown grains are removed to produce white rice. In the span of 7 months, I have witnessed the transformation of the village from brown to lush beautiful green landscapes with background mountain scenery. Even after much hard work, time and investment, fate depends on rains. Less rain can affect the output of the rice. Now, how much does a farmer earn from paddy cultivation? To find out we calculated average earnings minus input costs based on average crop yields of both conventional farms in the region and ecological (organic- based) farms in Kedia per one Katha or a 2000 square- foot area of land. While farming remained largely the same, the conventional farmer invested about 1,016 Rupees and

5 the organic farmer invested about Rupees per Katha. The difference in cost is because organic farmers do not use chemical fertilizers like DAP, urea and potassium in the fields. Instead of sythetic pesticides Kedia farmers save by using organic sources of pest management like neem tree leaves, cow dung and urine, which are locally available. One Katha of land yielded an average of 65 kg of rice, which sold for 20 Rupees per kilo or 1300 Rupees in total. After deducting investments, however, the conventional farmer earned only 284 Rupees compared to the organic farmer's earnings of 435 Rupees. (see box: Calculation details ). In the absence of sufficient bio mass, supporting infrastructure and knowledge of alternative farming methods farmers have had to rely on chemical farming. My respect for farmers has doubled since witnessing how their immensely hard work fills our bellies. Calculation details for conventional farmer Seeds: 60 rupees DAP: 2kg: 60 rupees Urea: 2kg, 16 rupees Potassium: 5 rupees Ploughing: 100 rupees Irrigation: 100 rupees Ropai: 100 rupees Nikoni, Weeding: 50 rupees Pesticide: 25 rupees Katai/harvesting: 100 rupees Thrashing: 100 rupees Making bunches or Aunthi 200 rupees Making it into rice: 100 rupees Total = 1,016 rupees Ecological farmers do not use, Urea, Pesticide, DAP and Potassium and cost of irrigation is less compared to conventional farming, however chemical farming is still widely practiced because it is less labour intensive, and state government polices support conventional farming by not improving infrastructure and knowledge. Article about Greenpeace in Kedia (published in Times of India, Aug 14, 2016 (see here) Anyone who would be celebrating the Independence Day on Monday would have one or other emotional lift on his or her mind, but farmers of Kedia village in Barhat block of Jamui district in Bihar would celebrate the day as 'victory from pesticides', as they have finally come to say big 'no' to chemical pesticides and fertilizers! "Kedia is a unique example where farmers have said no to chemical pesticides," said Madhulika Verma, communi- cation specialist of Greenpeace India. This civil society organization has worked over the last three years to bring the farmers of Kedia to this position of strength, when the common temptation of farmers in Bihar or elsewhere in the country is to go for large- scale use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to increase their crop yield. "They are on their way to phasing out toxic fertilizers by adopting ecological agriculture techniques," Verma added. ( ) "Greenpeace initiated the project in Kedia in 2013 to build an ecological model to showcase the viability of ecological farming to pave the way for eventual replication and scale up of the model by various state governments, starting up with Bihar," Verma said. Today, for the sake or statistical record, 96 farmer families have been championing the cause of eco agriculture and 282 vermicompost units have also been installed. There has been 42.6% reduction in chemical fertilizers usage. Further, 95.2% of the farmers have been saving on the input cost, and 100% have switched over to ecological pest management. Besides, to avoid wastage of farm products due to lack of storage, Greenpeace established 'Ecofrost or solar powered cold storage' for the farmers to "ensure better shelf- life to the end products" and financial security to farmers. What, however, is fascinating is that courtesy Greenpeace, the "shift in Kedia from chemical to ecological farming" is underlined by "knowledge co- creation". Verma said, "A unique aspect of the model has been the funding, which has been covered either by the villagers, or through the existing progressive government schemes." It implies that both the aspects of funding, coupled with eagerness of farmers, "combined to have the potential to create the ecosystem for the shift." And, as she added, "The concept of collective labour or 'shramdaan,' too, played a key role in the shift of the village from the old model based on chemical fertilizers and pesticides to ecological farming." Indeed, from all accounts, Kedia has carved out a niche on the agriculture map of the state that probably could be replicated in other states.