Login Here
Internet Portals
| Rice farmer looking ahead |
| Written by Maureen Santana |
| Wednesday, 08 December 2010 00:00 |
|
It was good to see something new grow in your garden MATHEW URALIU
MATHEW never got any training on how to plant and manage rice but he started planting the crop just by observing other farmers in the village. His story is of a young family man who had a strong determination to learn something the hard way. Mathew Excel Uraliu hails from Bitakapuk village of the Toma-Vunadidir LLG in Gazelle District, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. However, many are going into rice growing, which is fast becoming the popular crop in blocks of land and around unused land near village homes. With the provincial government giving the support and capacity in training within wards and LLGs and in working with OISCA, the future of rice in the province is flourishing. But for Mathew it was not an easy journey. Married with three children, he began his rice farming journey earlier than the cocoa pest’s arrival and impact. He began cultivating the land purposely to farm market produce like egg plants, cabbages and other vegetables and his wife supports him by selling them at the local market. One interesting geographical advantage of the Bitakapuk area is the cool temperature of the higher Warzin Mountains. Mathew said in 2002 he started planting cabbages, broccolis and carrots, which grew in the higher altitude areas and found the crops growing very well. He began rice farming in late 2002 and it was all trial and error until 2005 when he got his first rice seedlings. Everything after that was all self-taught. “I nursed the rice seedlings and watched them grow; I ploughed some 100 square metres of my garden area and started planting rice seeds. It was not long when I had to expand the area and planted more seedlings,” Mathew said smiling.
It was a good feeling to watch something new growing well in your garden and that was the driving factor for him to learn more about this new crop and look after it like he did to the other garden crops. “When my rice was ready I wanted to sell it because it was a high demand food source,” he said. But he never got very far in selling because he soon realised he was in short supply. Mathew had his first harvest of 15 kilograms of rice. After milling it dropped to 11 kilograms. He made the second harvest the same year which got his 150 kilograms and after milling he had three 20kg stock feed bags filled. This young man never stopped there. He then sold one cup of rice for twelve dry coconuts and started working on copra. With strong determination in one day doing something much bigger then rice farming and copra, he was putting all his effort into knowing how this important crop grew and survives throughout the year. He said sometimes birds fly into the rice field to pick the seeds but “they are not really a threat because the rice has kernel cover that acts like a defence. He said it was also important as he learnt over the years about the weather for different rice varieties. He said one type of rice cannot grow well in windy times and he has experienced that and now knew how to avoid that. Mathew speaks about rice like an expert. It all boils down to how much time you give to nursing and growing and treating the plant as important as anything else, he said. He said unlike cocoa, rice is easier and much more manageable. Mathew has one hectare of land devoted to rice farming and many other sections allocated for rice. He said he plants three types of different rice, the Finscahhafen white and brown and IR64 rice. He encouraged a lot of people in the area to grow rice and use it as food security. He now gives seeds to people to plant and keeps his hard earned harvest as food security for his small family.
What do you think about this article? Add you comments and views below:
|