Some observations of the ongoing paddy harvest

In the past few days I have been busy harvesting my rice paddies. In one property, we used a Combine Harvester to do the work. The downside of the process is that the paddy that is bagged still has fresh cut paddy however dry it is when cutting. This means that a further period of a days drying in intense sunlight, as a minimum is required before bagging for storage.

Once cut the paddy bags are strewn along the fields by the harvester. I therefore had to take my pick up truck right into the fields to collect all the paddy bags.
Once I off loaded them in one central area, I had to request some space in a mill which I use to mill my paddy to dry on their large cement area which they too use to dry parboiled paddy. Carrying 90 bags of paddy in three trips in my pick-up hauling them and spreading them around the cement floor to dry and later scooping it back up is a tiring and time consuming job. How tiring it was the reader could only imagine. One has to constantly use one’s feet to move the drying paddy from side to side to ensure the paddy gets dry. Wet paddy can have a disastrous effect on the quality as it could actually spoil.
I spoke to farmers who do not like to use the Harvester because of this even though they may have to incur higher costs of cutting by hand and using the Tsunami threshing methods to solve their harvesting. In fact that is exactly the process I am doing in the adjoining property to Harvest because the Combine Harvester cannot work those fields as it would get stuck in the permanently waterlogged fields.


In this process of cutting by hand, once cut the sheaves have a day or two to dry out and so once the Tsunami is used to thresh, they can be bagged directly from the Tsunami and stored safely. Some also say that the harvester bags too much debris which calls for costly cleaning which is easily done by the large mills, once they get cheap paddy quoting the fact that the paddy needs drying and cleaning, which results in the low balling in price to the farmer at the farm gate. An added problem for many farmers in Polonnaruwa this season was the swarm of some insect that devastated the crop, which could not be salvaged by any type of crop spraying.



The state offers to buy paddy, but to meet the standards required, farmers have to go through hoops to get these promised amounts. The drying and cleaning are the two single biggest problems. It is important therefore that some kind of mechanized means is developed to ensure all this drying can be done cost effectively. There is no reason then to use the expensive manual labor to do this work.


The paddy bags filled after drying waiting for carrying and transport

Latest Harvest of BG 352 - Sudu Kekulu

The machine disgorging the paddy late into the night.


I used the services of a combined harvester to cut, thresh and bag my paddy on Friday. The machine worked into the night as it can perform its duties at night as it has lights. The cost to me for the 3 acres was at the rate of Rs9.000 per acre. The total harvest though not weighed, was 90 bags, which is not excellent, but satisfactory when compared to my neighbors who suffered loss due to severe disease towards the end of the cycle.



The open hands collect fallen paddy by scooping it up and then cutting it with the rollers. However there is an element of paddy that gets left behind if the fallen paddy has got soaked making it difficult for the machine to scrape the sheaves from the ground.


The combined harvester at work in a paddy field, cutting, threshing, disposing of the straw and collecting the paddy to be disgorged into sacks from time to time.

one day they will either pull a cart or end up as tasty morsels, how will you know?

The one on the left born on Dec 26th 2009 is known as Tsunami as he was born on the tsunami anniversary and the other fellow born exactly two months later and at birth was almost the current size of Tsunami was named Mahanami

recent pics from the rajarata

A tomato plant before flowering.


One of my vegetable plots with tomato in the foreground and watakolu in the background framed by the paddy fields


The photo was taken at dawn as he sun was rising from the East burning the morning dew on the rice fields. This dew also gives moisture Mornings are very cold and one has to be completely wrapped up in bed with at least a sheet. This in contrast to the unbearable heat in Colombo.

the fields two days ago, to be harvested on March 19th

New Birth

The male calf born three days ago will either end up on a table as ninety


five percent do or be of some use.

.We will try along with the other male born two months ago use them to pull a cart or to use them to plough where the tractors have failed as described in earlier blogs.

A little appreciated fact despite all the pretend talk to the contrary, is that there is no use at all for bulls. At least in India cow dung is valued and collected along the roads also and the males play there part in this.

Don't forget there is limited fodder for cattle feed so a considered plan is essential in achieving the dual goals of maximizing milk production and prohibition of cattle slaughter, if that is part of the government policy.

As usual in anything agricultural there are unelated issues that always puts a spanner in the works of achieving the productivity and potential from our land. Until these conflicting aims are resolved there is no point in making silly stetements and scoring political points to fool the public.

This is but one example of many similar issues.

milling is no easy task in choosing the shade

I spent the best part of the morning at the local paddy mill, where people go to mill their paddy be it parboiled or regular. I needed to top up my depleted supplies to my shop on the farm, so I had to take all the types I had in store this time.

My orders for red basmati has suddenly increased, as I gave demonstrations on how it was to be cooked. CIC sell it as a Golden Crop rice at Rs 170 a kg but I can assure the reader that theirs is not as fresh as mine. This rice was grown in a few fields in the adjoining property so I have a limited supply, and I regret selling the main supply as an out-grower for CIC, as it would have been better to sell it direct to my customers, as the huge loss I incurred would have at least resulted in a break even situation.

I milled it into two shades of red, and while I had less of the lighter shade, milled, I suspect the demand will be for the lighter shade though I can tell you the darker red is much tastier. This Basmati can be eaten on its own as it is really tasty, but one can only eat it in small quantities.

I also milled my red samba and red long grain both into different shades of red to suit the likes of different customers. I also milled the white Pokuru Samba that has a grain that is between normal Samba and the tiny grain of Keeri Samba.

It costs Rs 2 to mill a kg of paddy. On average 3 kgs of paddy yields 2kgs of rice. Therefore the milling cost of a kg sold is Rs3. If one puts the rice through the machine that eliminates stones, that adds a further 50 cents to the milling cost.

One has to be on site to agree on the shade to be milled as the individual customer preferences is not known to the miller, and cannot be communicated even by the provision of a sample as those in charge rarely manage to follow your orders.

I brought more than 500 kg of milled rice on this visit as suddenly the demand for my rice has increased due to the price increases elsewhere. I have not changed the price of my rice for many years, and now the external prices have exceeded mine, and therefore the customers see the worth in mine, whereas some thought it too expensive in the past. My red rices both are sold at Rs75 kg while the Basmati retails for Rs 125 and the Pokuru Samba at Rs 85.