The Paddy Journey- from Seed to Straw !

One of the rituals that I have followed since I came to Kerala is an evening walk with my mother. She is well past fifty and the walk is very important for her health and well being. I would take a break from work and after having the customary evening tea, we would head out for a stroll, often on the lookout for new unexplored roads. Often, the roads would lead to a dead end, but on other lucky occasions, we would reach a pond, a temple or even a playground, where we would sit and satisfy my desire to watch kids play football. I had even managed to play a couple of times, mostly on weekends.

On one such occasion, in the month of October, when we were walking down a narrow path surrounded by large pine trees waving with the wind, it led us to a huge rice field. I stood still, at the end of the road, gazing towards the horizon and all I could see were the beautiful crops swaying as the cool breeze cajoled the whole field. The field was divided into compartments, making room for water flow and the compartments were separated by creating bunds. The bunds were also used as walkways.

Since it was early October, the sowing season was just over and the crops had started to grow. The huge brown field looked covered in a dark green blanket of paddy crops. The field was filled with water, from the incessant rains over the week. Rice or paddy seedlings are generally first grown in small nurseries before being transferred to the large wet field. In some cases, a direct seeding method is used, wherein the dry or pre-germinated seeds are directly planted into the dry field, before the rainfall. The seeds or seedlings are placed in the tills or deep holes created during the land preparation phase. With sufficient water and proper nutrient management, the crop can be harvested in 4-5 months.

With the crop harvest timeline in mind, we decided that we would visit the field often to observe the crop growth. Over the next four months, we paid several visits to the field, and were amazed by the changing shades of green that the field would turn into. From the barren brown land, to the dark green early weeks, golden green once the crop starts maturing and yielding rice grains, to complete golden towards the end. All the while, the egrets gave us fine company. Finally after a wait of more than 4 months, the crop was ready to be harvested.

We were lucky to witness the harvest as it happened on a Sunday. The workers used a combination of reapers to cut the crop and the crops were then cleaned, hauled, threshed and stacked for transport. The rice straw obtained after threshing were rolled into bundles to be sold later as animal fodder.

Rice straw is the first by-product from the rice production process. It is separated from the main crop by a process called threshing. It is a lignocellulosic biomass, containing cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The straw is processed and converted into powder form, which can then be used as an animal fodder, although its animal digestibility is less than 50%. To improve the digestibility, researchers have developed a number of techniques over the years, which include the use of high temperature soaking, pressure steaming and alkali treatment using sodium hydroxide, ammonia or urea.

In some areas, especially in the northern states of India, rice straw is burnt as the farmers look for crop rotation immediately after harvest. Utilization of the straw as animal feed is lower in these areas. The burning of straw has created high levels of air pollution in the adjoining cities. In order to counter this, a few companies have developed a process to convert the straw into pulp and further into useful products such as tableware. These products are biodegradable and are a viable alternative to the use of plastic products.

Having seen and understood the final harvest as well as the potential uses of rice straw, we walked back home with a bundle of the straw and bought a pack of biodegradable plates for our dinner for the night!