This is another presentation from my company Traditional Technology Solutions, India (www.tts.org.in). Here we discuss about our successful natural way of cultivating of a popular traditional rice called Arcot kichali.

1. sankrish@tts.org.in
www.tts.org.in
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This is rainy season in our place which is more favorable for cultivating rice .
We got exotic rice seeds named “Arcot kichali” from the following private charity
trust.
In this documentation we shall have description of one rice crop( Arcot kichali) in
detail and other in the upcoming documentation.
We got less than three kilograms of rice seeds. we did seed processing and got
around 1.5 kg of good quality seed.
We germinated the seeds and still we found some other rice types mixed. We
considered the other rice seeds as a boon to have new traditional rice variety.
We faced problems due to pests, birds we shall discuss about controlling them
without using chemicals.

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We got rice seeds of “Arcot kichali” from
CIKS(Center for Indian Knowledge Systems)
Features of “Arcot kichali” Rice:
This rice is renowned for its fineness and its incredible taste.
 It is most suitable for South-Indian meals.
Its crop duration is 140 days.
The grains are thin, medium long and golden yellow colour.
These plants grow to a height of three feet and the rice
panicle has more branches in a shape of flower bouquet.
It helps to improve the quantity of breast milk. and also
gives good physical strength.

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We selected a new barren land and grew green manure crops twice and mulched it.
Before mulching the second time we allocated a small area for growing rice saplings.

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Green manure plants got mulched and left for composting for ten days

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Saplings of Arcot kichali rice got transplanted as per SRI plantation method

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We added 50 kg of Neem oil cake powder per acre of land to improve crop immunity

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We also mixed pseudomonas to Neem oil cake powder to increase its efficiency

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The mixture got dispersed manually

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The crop got infested by pests and we controlled it by spraying herbal insect repellant
(Acorus calamus)

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Crops grown to a height of one and half feet after thirty days

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Crops had grown to a height of two feet by forty days

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We prepared azolla seeds in a plastic sheet tank. Later it was spread in the paddy fields

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Azolla got multiplied and coved the land as a thick blanket

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Tank used previously for compost tea preparation
was cleaned and kept ready for new compost tea preparation

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VAM and Rhizobium were added to tank

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Phosphobacteria and azosphirillum were added to tank

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EM (Effective microbes) Liquid , trichoderma viride & pseudomonas fluorescens were added
to the tank

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Pictures of tank after addition of bacterial agents

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Coconut oil cake was added to aid fermentation and Azolla was added to cover the liquid
surface after filling the tank with water

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Pictures of tank after filling water and adding azolla

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After fifteen days of fermentation the liquids were filtered, transferred in containers
and mixed with irrigation water.

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Properties of microbes added:
1) VAM (vesicular arbuscular mycorhizae) :
VAM is a fungus which binds to plant roots and help them to absorb nutrition from soil easily.
2) Phospobacteria :
Phospobacteria increases the phosphorus intake of plant by converting phosphorous to
absorbable form .
3) Azosphirium :
Azosphirium absorbs nitrogen from atmosphere and fix them in soil.
4) Rhizobium:
Rhizobium is a soil bacteria that fix nitrogen. The bacteria colonize plant cells within root
nodules; here the bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia and then provide organic
nitrogenous compounds such as glutamine or ureides to the plant.

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5) Effective microbes(EM) :
An effective microorganism refers to any of the predominantly anaerobic
organisms blended in commercial agricultural amendments, medicines and
nutritional supplements based on the trademarked product originally marketed
as EM-1 Microbial Inoculants, These blends include:
1. Lactic acid bacteria: Lactobacillus casei
2. Photosynthetic bacteria: Rhodopseudomonas palustris
3. Yeast: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
4. Others: Beneficial microorganisms that exist naturally in the environment
may thrive in the mixture.
EM Technology is purported to support sustainable practices in farming, improve
and support human health and hygiene, compost and waste management, and
disaster clean up.

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6) Trichoderma viride:
Trichoderma viride is a fungus and a biofungicide. It is used for seed and soil
treatment for suppression of various diseases caused by fungal pathogens.
7) Pseudomonas fluorescens :
Pseudomonas fluorescens are microbes which help plants to attain key nutrients,
degrading pollutants, and suppressing pathogens via antibiotic productions. These
microbes produce secondary metabolites that suppress plant disease.

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Rice panicles started to appear after seventy days

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Another traditional variety rice named Otadai was also presented as weed crop

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Grains started to bunch out after eighty days

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Single plantation produced more than twenty tillers and each tillers
produced around fifteen panicles

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Each plant produced more than three hundred grains

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Around five packs of sparrows each pack containing about fifty to sixty in numbers
ate rice for two weeks before harvest.

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Picture of one sparrow pack

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Picture of plants destroyed by sparrows

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Harvesting area is less than fifty cents, hence we did manual harvesting

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Seeds for making rice was separated by running tractor over it.
For seed production the seeds were separated by beating with sticks.
We got 680 kg of rice of Arcot kichali and 40 kg of other rice crop seeds.

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We produced 4 bags(25 kg) boiled rice from 3bags(80 kg) of un-milled rice after milling

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We got 5 bags (25 kg) of raw (un-boiled) rice from 5 bags (80 kg) of un-milled rice
and one bag (25 kg) of broken milled rice

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Part:2 discussion :
 We got more than 50% increase in yield than before in spite of damage due
to sparrow.
 The harvesting took place during rainy season. Hence we took much risk to
prevent matured grains getting wet. We thank God for His mercy.
 We didn’t have chance to dry the rice and keep it for aging hence we
transported them immediately to milling.
 A small amount of rice was hand threshed and kept spread on a plastic sheet
inside our house for seed preparation .we dried them after two weeks in sun
light.
 We also produced seeds of another traditional rice crop named Otadai
which was inadvertently mixed .

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Future programs and expectations:
 We got increase in quantity of rice in this harvest as we expected before.
 We now have required quantity of seeds of three rice varieties.
 These rice will be used as seed for next plantation in bigger area.
 We faced unexpected problems like un-time rain, sparrows, lack of sunshine during
post-harvest.
 We shall find better solutions to overcome these problems for the next season.
 We also learnt many new techniques to improve the rice production than before.
 We shall discuss about other new rice varieties, diseases, pest control methods, multi-
cropping and post harvest process in the next subsequent presentations.
kindly wait for our next presentation upcoming soon.

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