Do you grow padi?
For many people their garden is also the main source of rice, their staple food. During the monsoon season (October to March) the garden’s productivity is at its highest, with some (like the one below) yielding over a metric tonne of rice per year in a good harvest, enough for an extended family of 20-30 for the following year. There are two main types of garden – swamp padi, and hill padi.
This is my brother-in-law Joseph’s swamp padi field. It is kept free of weeds during the monsoon season by flood-water channeled into the field from the nearby stream. If the rains are not heavy enough, then manual weeding is “back-breaking” work. Swamp padi can be grown each year for 3-4 years before a “fallow” year is necessary
Here my Sister-in law Catherine has grown hill padi on the foothills of the mountain. Hill padi outgrows the weeds better, but still needs manual weeding. It does not like as much water as swamp padi. Two fallow years are needed in every 3 years for hill padi. It is also commonly grown with other food plants like Jerri , which is Sarawak’s “Pearl Barley”, also called Job’s Tears Coix lacryma-jobi, seen in the foreground), pepper (Piper nigra) in the middle distance, and Durian (Durio graveolens) on the well-drained mountain slopes.
What do the kampong children do when Mum & Dad are weeding padi? They run away of course – who wants to weed padi in the baking hot sun? The forest is much cooler, more mysterious and always holds out the promise of “finding something”.
What do they “find”? A swimming pool of course – what better way to spend a hot day!
Simon Longman
Angel_Ice said,
June 27, 2008 @ 2:13 pm
The place looks so interesting.. May i know where is it?
simon said,
June 30, 2008 @ 3:10 pm
Hi
It is near Kampong Siga, near Siburan, 18.5mile Jalan Kuching/Serian, First Division, Sarawak, East Malaysia (on the north-west coast of the island of Borneo).