Some five years ago, 40 households of Rinchhengang Toed and Maed under Thedtsho Gewog in Wangdue Phodrang revived the practice of cultivating paddy twice a year. This meant an increased grain in their store. However, of late, they have been battling birds feeding on their summer paddy, especially the wild sparrows.
Spring paddy in the valleys of Rinchengang is ripening by the day. And this is also putting the farmers into tiring days. Barefoot, 84-year-old Bakhum, who would otherwise stay home chanting prayers, is always mobile in her fields, chasing away the wild sparrows. Carrying an empty plastic bottle, she beats it with a stick to scare off the birds. This has been her routine for the last month.
“Most of the time, birds appear in large groups. Once in the fields, they are scattered everywhere. I have been guarding my paddy against the birds from 5 in the morning every day. This is going to continue till we harvest the paddy,” Bakhum said.
Without enough manpower at home, she said running around the field the whole day is a difficult task, especially for elderly like her.
The story is no different from her neighbours. According to farmers, the birds appear in a large group from the thick bushes in the nearby forest and destroy their paddy within no time.
One of the farmers, Dema, said that even if they reach the fields as early as 5:00 in the morning, the birds would have already invaded the crops.
“They come in groups and eat a huge amount of paddy at once. Since we have to remain in the field for the entire day, we cannot do other works. We began guarding our crop a month back, but I think the birds were feeding on the grains even before that,” Dema added.
According to farmers, chasing birds requires at least two people. And while doing so, they can’t carry out other works such as readying for the next paddy transplantation at this time.
Although spring paddy cultivation is beneficial to them, they said it is a difficult task.
“Normal paddy cultivation work is far easier than the spring cultivation works. We don’t have to suffer like today. The spring paddy cultivation is helpful, but it is extremely difficult, especially for those who do not have enough manpower,” said Chencho Wangmo, one of the farmers.
Besides Rinchhengang, farmers of Lawa-Lamga chiwog in Athang Gewog, Darkar and Gase Tshowogm Gewogs also practice double-paddy cultivation. However, going by the officials with the Dzongkhag Agriculture Sector, they haven’t received any report of such crop infestation from the farmers so far.
Although the farmers faced a similar problem in the past, the magnitude of the infestation was not as big as today.
In 2019, the government tried covering a terrace with nets on a pilot basis but it did not succeed.
However, the National Plant Protection Centre at Simtokha in Thimphu is studying the feasibility to explore some alternatives to protect crops against birds in the future.
Farmers of Rinchhengang cultivate spring paddy by early April and harvest by mid-July. Likewise, they begin with the summer paddy cultivation right after the harvest.
Changa Dorji, Wangdue Phodrang
Edited by Chakyu
