Government of Papua New Guinea

Handbook for Upland Rice

Farming in Papua New Guinea
Under the Project on the Promotion of Smallholder Rice Production [Phase 2]
between Department of Agriculture & Livestock (NDAL)
and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

February 2015
FOREWORD

The Department of Agriculture & Livestock is pleased endorse this Handbook for Upland Rice
Cultivation for its Smallholder Rice Farmers in Papua New Guinea. It is timely for such infor-
mation to be made available when the Government of Papua New Guinea is encouraging the
development of a rice industry in PNG under its 2015 – 2015 Rice Development Policy. The
Government of PNG has two main strategies for developing the domestic rice industry and they
are the large-scale investor driven, highly mechanized paddy rice production system and the
smallholder rice production programme championed by the Rice Extension Unit of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture & Livestock. The smallholder upland rice production program has benefit-
ed from funding by the JICA since Year 2003.

This Handbook, from outset, was designed as an extension and training tool for the rural devel-
opment officers whose work has been to support smallholder rice farmers and growers in upland
rice production development.

The PNG Rice Policy 2014-2030 was largely guided and influenced by the 2003 JICA spon-
sored study investigating smallholder rice projects in Central, Morobe, Madang, East Sepik and
East New Britain provinces. This study was aimed at formulating a master plan for the promo-
tion of smallholder rice production in PNG targeting subsistence farmers, public institutions
interested in rice self-sufficiency and semi-commercial rice farmers. The report reaffirmed the
strategic shift in policy emphasis taken by DAL from the highly subsidized smallholder rice
development projects such the Bereina Rice Project and the Maprik Rice Development Program
to smallholder rice production by farm households and institutions for the purpose of producing
rice as a food crop for their own consumption. A key outcome of this program has been the
training of a sizeable pool of local farmers with the basic competencies for upland rice farming.
This handbook builds on this achievement and targets these pool of trained farmers and other
interested farmers in upland rice production.

Indeed, this handbook can enrich and deepen the rice growers’ basic knowledge and skills in
rice farming. Officers and Model-farmers who support and conduct farmer-to-farmers-extension
activity (FTFEA) will also find this handbook useful in demonstrating basic rice cultivation
techniques to interested farmers and rice growers within his or her community. This Handbook
contains notes and illustrations of basic skills in upland rice cultivation and is essential to pro-
moting sustainable smallholder rice production. This Handbook is also useful to the rural devel-
opment officers who are responsible for rice development program at the Ward, LLG, District
and/or Province level; and givens insights to officers when providing a support to model farm-
ers.
It is also the intent of the producers of this Handbook that it can be used for new rice growers
training; new model farmer training, and new rice officers or rural development officers’ train-
ing. It is the hope of the Department that smallholder rice growers, through their learned experi-
ences, can become the foundation for the rice industry in PNG in the foreseeable future.

Dr. Vele Pat Ila’ava.

The Secretary
Department of Agriculture & Livestock
KONEDOBU

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This Handbook was developed from the experiences gained from and during the implementation of
the Promotion of Smallholder Rice Production Projects Phase II between the Years 2011 and 2015.
Special mentioned is made for the stakeholders in the implementation of the Project, which was the
bilateral technical cooperation between Department of Agriculture & Livestock (DAL) on behalf of
the Government of PNG and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on behalf of the Gov-
ernment of Japan.
The following are acknowledged as member of collaborating provinces together with JICA Experts
at the Rice Extension Unit of Department of Agriculture and Livestock. Their involvement were in
the consultation and vetting of the draft documents in the month of February, 2015 in Madang,
Wewak, Alotau and Lorengau, which resulted in the final output of the Handbook for Upland Rice
Farming in Papua New Guinea..

NDAL Madang
1. Heai Steven Hoko 1. Mary Lilih
2. John Jave 2. Dolores Kamang
3. Miriam John 3. Joseph Wanom
4. Anna Kimam 4. Godfred Agabara
5. Boni Jules
Milne Bay
East Sepik 1. James Duks
1. Pius Numbatai 2. Jonathan Kapoila
2. Kevin Hawan 3. Ropsy Taudiri
3. John Worowan 4. Karajoy Domanai
4. Wilson Lambi 5.
6.
Manus
7.
1. John Lale Helepet
8.
2. Paul Bulei
3. Wamu Oma
JICA
4. Musato Sauto
1. Masakazu Kanamoto
5. Elisanty Eyabi
2. Shigeo Watanabe
6. Simon Gunik
3. Masaya Matsumura
7. Adela Pomat
4. Mizuhiko Nishida
8. Michaline Tausim
5. Tateo Ajika
9. Annie Pouru
1. Mari Ono
10. Ambrose Silih

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 Table of Contents

Contents:

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

1 Rice Cultivation Cycle..................................................................................................................1

1.1 Land Selection And Preparation ...........................................................................................2
1.1.1 Land selection ...............................................................................................................2
1.1.2 Land Preparation ...........................................................................................................2
1.2 Soil and Compost Preparation...............................................................................................3
1.2.1 Soil Preparation .............................................................................................................3
1.2.2 Compost Making ...........................................................................................................4
1.3 Transplanting ........................................................................................................................9
1.3.1 Preparing Seeds For Planting ........................................................................................9
1.3.2 Making and Caring of Nursery Bed ............................................................................10
1.3.3 Transplanting ..............................................................................................................11
1.4 Care and Management of Rice Garden ...............................................................................13
1.5 Weed Control, Soil Mounding And Soil Improvement ......................................................13
1.5.1 Water Control..............................................................................................................14
1.5.2 Pest Control.................................................................................................................15
2 Harvesting and Soil Treatment After Harvesting .......................................................................24
2.1 Harvesting ...........................................................................................................................24
2.2 Soil Treatment Just After Harvesting ..................................................................................25
3 Post-Harvesting ..........................................................................................................................26
3.1 Selecting Best Seeds ...........................................................................................................26
3.2 Threshing ............................................................................................................................26
3.3 Drying .................................................................................................................................27
3.4 Winnowing..........................................................................................................................27
3.5 Storing .................................................................................................................................28
3.6 Milling ................................................................................................................................29
4 Important Practices .....................................................................................................................30
4.1 Synchronous cropping and Crop calendar ..........................................................................30
4.2 Crop Rotation ......................................................................................................................30
4.3 Mixed planting and intercropping .......................................................................................33
4.4 Terraced Fields....................................................................................................................34

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 4.5 Keeping Demonstration Plot Diary .....................................................................................34
Appendix.............................................................................................................................................35

Appendix 1: Example of Crop Calendar

Appendix 2: Demonstration Plot Diary

[ Legend ]

Check box for Confirmation:

1Apr.
✔ 20xx

Put either the completion mark

(✔) or the completion date here
after having learned/ having done
at your field each technique item
by respective user.

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1 Rice Cultivation Cycle
What is a rice cultivation cycle? A cycle is a process or a motion in which one begins with one thing
to go through a several stages, steps, or material before you arrive at what you started off with. In
this case, a rice cultivation cycle begins with a handful of good viable seeds and you end up with a
good harvest of rice grains, returning your rice seed tenfold.

Rice cycle practiced and promoted through the smallholder rice and model farmer approach of rice
extension can be easily learned, understood and utilized for training farmers and interested persons
because it is simple and easy to remember and follow. Figure 1 below illustrates the several stages of
a basic rice cultivation cycle any one farmer or interested person can undertake;, and often it takes
four to five months from land preparation to harvesting the grains, before one can store away the rice
paddy or milling it for home consumption.

(Crop rotation) Soil treatment after harvesting

Figure 1: Illustrative Pictorial Stages of a Basic Rice Cultivation Cycle (4-5 months in duration)

A basic rice cultivation cycle includes land preparation, soil and seed-bed preparation, sowing of
seeds, transplanting seedlings, general crop growth management practices such as weed control, ap-
plication of composted organic matter for boosting soil productivity, water control, insect pest moni-
toring and control, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, drying, storing, selecting and collecting seeds
for next cropping, and eventually milling the paddy for family consumption.

The key to sustainable rice cultivation is for every farmer or rice planter, at each harvest of rice crop,
should actively select and harvest enough rice grains as seeds for the next cropping. When harvest-
ing rice grains for seeds, the area of land for the next crop can be decided at this time and the ade-
quate amount of grains as seeds can be safely set a side.

The Handbook on Upland Rice Farming basically follows basic rice cycle as illustrated in Figure 1
due to its simplicity; it can be easily integrated into the PNG’s traditional root, tuber and banana crop
farming system.
The following sub-sections further describe each stage of the rice cultivation cycle.

1
 1.1 Land Selection And Preparation
1.1.1 Land selection
The first step is to select a land to cultivate rice. Upland rice cultivation is basically rain-fed farming
practice. So it is also important to select an area with adequate rain-fall throughout the year. The
land with soft-top black soil with more than 2 cm is preferable. It is preferable to select a site that
has flat to middling rolling land ground surface rather than on steep, sloping and mountainous sites.
Flat or mildly rolling land will have little or no problem with soil erosion and will hold the soil con-
taining essential plant nutrients when there are high or intense rainfalls. If it is difficult to find a flat
land, try to find an area that is not too steep. If you need to use a slopping site such as on mountain
sides, you will need do some soil digging or excavation to build terraces where good gardening or
organic surface top-soils can be filled onto the excavated material. Well-constructed terraces can
hold the soil to hold essential plant nutrients, organic matters and even saturated soils or rain-water
that can prevent plant nutrients and soils losses through soil erosion or land-slips.

When thinking of the size of farm, you need to consider the available resources such rice seeds and
man power.

When you decide on the new garden and how big the garden should be, remember to take into con-
sideration your available resources and inputs for rice cultivation. The first consideration is your rice
seeds, then the family labour you have, and the tools and the means by which you will cultivate your
land.

If you are going to cultivate rice for a first time, it is better to start with a area that is 25 m² (5m x
5m) or less, and this will require only 30 grams of rice seeds. It is preferable to select a site near or
not so far from one’s house or dwelling place (village) so that it is easier to manage and give a close
attention to your garden. If you have somebody who can help you to manage your rice garden such
as your relatives and sibling, you can start with the bigger area.

If you have 0.5 kg of rice seeds with a good germination rate (80%), the quantity of rice seeds and
germination rate can enable you to plant garden as wide and as long as 20 m x 20 m giving you a
total crop area of 400 square metres (400 m2).

1.1.2 Land Preparation

After you have selected your rice garden site, you can now plan to clear your land at the time of year
as indicated in your cropping calendar.

Clearing of thick wooded forested area may take longer time to clear so consideration should be giv-
en for their felling and clearing. Soft wooded forest may take shorter time to clear and for the grass
and broad-leafed site, it may even take much shorter time to clear.

All forest tree twigs and leaves, brush, shrubs and grasses from the cleared sites can be utilized for
composting and are excellent source of organic matter for composting and soil improvement when
they are incorporated into the rice garden soils.

All cleared plant materials from the rice garden sites should not be thrown away. Burning of dried
plant matters should be discouraged as well as. Burning of dried materials from the forest, brush,
shrub and grass clearings will destroy all organic matter and in most cases will destroy the soil struc-
ture and its fertility.

Sites cleared for rice cultivation should be devoid of all solid materials that would obstruct planting
of the rice crop. Where the soil is been tilled with hoeing or ploughing, the soil surface can be manu-
ally evened out with hand-tools or leveling equipment.

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 Figure 2: A farmer clearing the land by slashing grass and wood shrub.

Check box for Confirmation:

1.2 Soil and Compost Preparation

The next step after selecting the garden site and preparing the land is the soil preparation, which is
one of the most important steps The condition of soil influences the fertility of land, presence of
pests and diseases, and eventual yield. Therefore, the simplest and effective way of obtaining a good
condition of the soil is to plough the available organic materials or green manures or composted or-
ganic matter into the soil. Weeds, kitchen wastes, home-yard shade tree leaves, including the previ-
ous crop stubbles, and rice husks, can be used and ploughed into the soil for adding plant nutrients
into the soil.

1.2.1 Soil Preparation

Soil preparation should take place one month before transplanting in order to give enough time (1
month) for organic materials or plant or animal materials to de-compost completely and become fer-
tilizers in the soil. Basic steps up to digging trench, which can be done in a day, are indicated below.

Figure 3: (1) Hoe the soil to a depth of Plough Figure 4: (2) Till all grass or rice Plough straw, weeds,
20 to 30 cm depth to mix soil itself (plough 30- any soft plants like banana stem and leaves , and kitchen
40 cm depth when using a machine) wastes (without seeds or flowers) into the soil

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Figure 5: (3) Garden should look like this after Figure 6: (4) Make a trench by digging the surrounding
tilling or ploughing with organic materials of the garden (10 cm depth) and putting soil back to the
garden for covering green manure with soil. Make a gate
to release water for water control.

Figure 7: (5) Soil after tillage and use of

compost would be friable and easily crum-
bles in one's hand after a month

1.2.2 Compost Making

Compost should be used as an organic fertilizer and must be applied one month after sowing of the
crop. The ideal time to make compost is during the garden site clearing and soil preparation. The
reason for doing so is that compost making is similar to soil preparation. It is good to prepare
compost right next to the rice garden to make it easy to create and apply compost to the garden.
Basic steps for compost making are described below.

(1) Secure a site and designate an area for making a compost-heap.

(2) Dig the borders of the designated area for the compost-heap digging to about 10 cm depth or
place logs to differentiate the compost area from the other areas.
(3) Collect rice straws and other organic materials (green manures) such as weeds, any soft plants
parts like banana stem and leaves, kitchen wastes, etc. Weeds with seeds and flowers can be
also put into compost because the temperature inside the compost will be high and hot enough
to destroy most of the seeds and will not germinate.
(4) Lay the rice straws on the entire heap area as the first-layer as shown in Figure 9.
(5) Put a layer of plant materials or organic matter on top of the first-layer of straws.

4
(6) Sprinkle some soil over the plant materials, and build a thin-layer of soil. This soil layer
should not be more than 1 cm in thickness (less than 1 cm in thickness).
(7) Even out the layer of the soil by hand and by using a straight-edge implement or stick. Slight
down-down pressing can be done on the soil layer by foot.
(8) Repeat (5) to (7) to make three to five layers of green manures and thin layer of soil as
illustrated in Figure 8.
(9) Sprinkle some water to make 50-60% wet-basis moisture content. An indication of 50%w.b.
moisture content in the compost is achieved when you grab and squeeze it in the palm of your
hand and be able to make a mass of earth or soil without it crumbling quickly. An indication
of 60%w.b. moisture content is when there is visible small amount of water squeezed out of
the soil. Further illustration of soils having 50-60% moisture content (w.b.) can be seen in
Figure 25 and Figure 26.
(10) Cover the whole compost with banana leaves to promote de-composting to take place.
(11) Turn-over the compost heap after a month, and add some water if the heap is too dry and
cover the heap again with fresh banana leaves again. The internal temperature of compost
should be higher than 40°C at the peak stage of compost activity. It is preferable to turn-over
the inner materials to that of the outside from time to time when checking the compost, to
ensure even decomposition and break-down of organic matter.

Figure 8: Schematic illustration of a compost-heap construction, showing each layer of material.

Figure 9: Compost-heap being pressed down- Figure 10: Newly completed compost-heap with
ward with foot as organic matter and soil are broad banana leaves covering the top.
added on layer after layer (Step 1-5 in compost
making).

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Figure 11: A partially decomposed wood and tree twigs and leaf-matter in one-month old compost.

It is important not to put too much soil when making compost: just sprinkle over green manure and
form a thin layer of soil. Covering the compost with banana leaves is also very important to ensure
the heap does not dry-out and allow to green manure and organic matter to de-compost. A well-
constructed compost heap will have its internal temperature rising above 40°C during de-composting.
The height of compost should shrink down to one third of the original height after which the com-
post is ready to be used as an organic fertilizer.

Application of compost is explained in the ‘Further Explanation’ section below.

Check box for Confirmation:

Further Explanation:

About the soil

For the growth of rice, there are some basic necessary elements as depicted in the picture below.

Light

CO2
CO2

Water
Other
minerals
N
K
Water P
Nutrients
Figure 12: Schematic illustration of the relationship of soils, plants, and
plant nutrients, including the air and water and light

6
The basic elements for rice to grow are sunlight, water, air (CO2) and soil nutrients. If any one of the
element is lacking, rice plants cannot grow or will stop growing. Similarly, it is true for human be-
ings and all other living organisms that it requires sun light, water, air (O2), and nutrients (food) for
it to grow and live. All plants, including rice crop, extract and obtain its nutrients and water from the
soils through its roots as illustrated in Figure 12 above. The major elemental nutrients that plants
require and are essential for the growth of rice plants include Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Po-
tassium (K).

Nitrogen (N) promotes rapid growth and increase leaf size, spikelet number, and percentage of filled
spikelet. Nitrogen (N) is the most influential element for the growth and yield. If there is not enough
Nitrogen (N) in the soil, plant roots will not take enough of it and the rice plant growth will be is
very slow and the normal green colour of leaves are will be light green to yellowish showing lack of
nitrogen.

Phosphorus (P) promotes tillering, root development, early flowering and ripening. If there is not
enough Phosphorus (P) in the soil, the number of panicles will be reduced and plant nutrients uptake
from the soil will be reduced due to plant roots not developing well.

Potassium (K) increases the number of spikelet per panicle, percentage of filled grains and each
grain weight. If there is not enough Potassium (K) in the soil, the leaf’s time-span will be reduced
and drop-off sooner and the incidences of crop lodging will be higher.

The adequate supply of plant nutrients in Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) will
greatly influence the eventual yield of the rice crop. See the sufficiency of essential elements’ influ-
ence to yield in the picture below.

Figure 13: Level of plant nutrients influencing the rice crop yield.

The simplest way to enrich the soil with Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) with soil is
to apply available organic materials to the soil. Weeds, organic kitchen waste, leaves, husks, rice
straw and root stumps are good sources of the organic materials one can used and returned to the soil
to enrich essential elements of nutrition.

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Adequate tillage or soil hoeing to return organic matter to the soil will improve the soil aeration, wa-
ter control and resistance to soil borne diseases. Decomposed organic matters acts like glue that
binds soil particle together and assists in the development of soil structure through the aggregates if
forms. Soil aggregations creates both the small soil pores and larger soil pores as indicated in the
picture below. Smaller soil-pores contribute to water-holding capacity of the soil while larger soil
pores contribute to soil-water drainage and air movement. Organic materials also enrich the diversity
of soil organisms and enhance the resistance to soil-borne diseases.

Figure 14: Schematic illustration of soil particle structures in the soils when
treated with organic matter.

It is for this important reason that all organic materials should be returned to the soil, in another
word applying “Back to the soil approach”, for the improvement of soil fertility, capacity of the land
to produce and sustaining rice production over long-term period.

Demonstration plot
The construction of the demonstration plot is the best way to see and show the importance and effec-
tiveness of “Back to the soil approach”. Farmers can apply this approach in the half area of the farm,
and apply the usual approach (no application of organic materials or tillage) in the other half and
compare the yield outcome as shown in the picture below. The outcome and yield of course will be
influenced by other factors such as climate and pests. Past experiences have shown that the treated
soil get 4-6 ton/ha while the untreated soil get 1-1.5 ton/ha. It is better to experience the difference
by trying out both treatments of comparison.

Soil Not Treated Soil well treated

By ploughing with organic
Figure 15: The Model Farmer Jack of Maprik besides hismaterials
plot of rice treated
with organic matter and simple hoeing of the soil.

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 1.3 Transplanting
There are two method of planting a rice crop. One is by directly sowing the seeds into the soils;
whilst the other is to raise the rice plants as seedlings and transplanting it onto the prepared land or
garden site.

When direct sowing, seeds are place into the soils at depth of 2 -3 cm; and when transplanting, rice
seedlings are placed into the soil at depths ranging from 4-5 cm deep. In transplanted rice crop,
there is uniformity in height, form, growth, and eventually tillering, flowing, and grain ripening. This
will enable uniform harvesting of the rice crop. In directly seeded or sown crop, there may be high
variability in crop establishment and the rice crop flowering, ripening and harvesting may not be
uniform or within a narrow period to time.

This handbook promotes transplanting of rice crop over direct-sowing. Direct sowing may be easier
and a quicker way of planting one’s rice garden but it does not guarantee good rice crop
establishment. It produces an uneven crop germination due to different soil conditions, resulting in
variation in the crop stand, and the flowering and grain ripening is spread over time., Transplanting
is less easier when its technique is understood well and properly practiced, it can produce a more
uniform crop establishment, even crop ripening and hence allowing only one-time harvesting.

Transplanting of rice offers effective care and management on a small rice plant nursery bed then
when directly sowing a large area of land where the crops’ emergence may be problematic due to the
sowing of seeds into the deep planting holes or some seeds sown are not viable or were bad seeds. It
is better to obtain poor germination in the nursery bed rather poor emergence of rice crop in the field
or garden because you can still make up for the short-fall in the nursery and in the field. A garden
will fail plants growth or lines due to poor germination the crop is directly sown needs to be avoided
at times.

Sowing seeds in the nursery bed allows one to obtain the level of germination and number of
seedlings required for planting the prepared field or garden. Whether one obtains 100% germination
or less than 50% germination in the nursery, you can select healthy seedlings to cover the entire area
of your garden land or field then to get disappointed when your directly sown field has many
missing plants. It is preferable to over-sow a rice nursery seed-bed and selecting healthy and
vigorous seedlings to transplant the entire garden or field, giving 100 per cent crop establishment.

Transplanting of the garden or field will also allow quick and early establishment and a uniform crop
growth and formation. This will then allow a more synchronized panicle initiation, flowering, and
grain-filling. This will allow for a narrow period of crop performance, thus minimizing significant
insect pests attack. Less or no pest damages means a good crop harvest is expected.

In terms of timing, sowing and transplanting should take place when the wet season starts while
harvesting should take place in a dry season. It takes about 130 and 136 days from the time of
sowing to harvesting for late-maturing varieties, 113 and 125 days for medium-maturing varieties,
and 110 days for early-maturing varieties. Based on the information of varieties, you should decide
the appropriate timing for sowing.

1.3.1 Preparing Seeds For Planting

You need to have good rice seeds for successful rice cultivation. After the 1st season, you should
keep and use the best seeds from your own garden to continue to cultivate rice.

You should use the same variety of seeds for a garden to manage your farm well. If you don’t have
seeds, you can enquire about the available seeds which are resistant to pests and your environment at
the local office of Division of Agriculture & Livestock (DAL) or National Agriculture Research
Institute (NARI).

9
 After obtaining seeds, you should check if your seeds are heavy, full and uniform in size. Make sure
your seeds do not contain weeds or trash. If you find weeds or trash, you should winnow it
(winnowing is explained in the Section 3.4 below).
In order to ensure the quality of seeds, you should conduct germination test in the following manner.
You can consider the seeds are in good quality if the germination rate is higher than 80%.
(1) Select a number of small random samples from the seeds to be planted and select a subset (e.g.,
100 seeds) of the combined sample. Soak the seeds in water for 24 hours;
(2) Arrange 100 soaked seeds in a grid pattern on a wet paper towel (10 seeds by 10 seeds) and
place a cover for protection;
(3) Ensure paper remains moist;
(4) Count the germinated seeds 3 to 5 days later and record the germination percentage; and
(5) If more than 80 seeds have germinated, seeds have more than 80% of germination rate.

1.3.2 Making and Caring of Nursery Bed

You need to sow rice seeds in your nursery bed to grow seedlings. If you want to cultivate 0.5 kg of
rice, you need the nursery bed of 2 m² size. Follow the steps below when making a nursery bed to
raise rice seedling:
(1) Soak rice seeds in a dish or container of water for three days in an open sun before sowing,
change water every day;
(2) Designate the area for the nursery bed and place logs to fence the nursery bed;
(3) Put the banana leaves with some holes beneath the nursery bed to make it easier to transplant
seedlings later without damaging the roots;
(4) Put the soil over the banana leaves for less than 5 cm or a half finger height. It is good to use
compost as the soil for nursery bed if it is ready;
(5) Sow rice evenly on the nursery bed (give at least 1 cm space between the seeds);
(6) Cover the seeds with light soil and sprinkle water over the nursery bed;
(7) Cover the nursery bed with banana leaves to make uniform germination and for protection;
(8) Sprinkle small amount of water every morning and afternoon;
(9) Seeds should germinate in 3-5 days. Remove banana leaves to give sunlight after germination;
and
(10) Seedlings will be ready for transplant when they get three leaf-stage or two weeks after sowing;

Figure 16: Farmers sowing his rice seeds onto Figure 17: The resulting germinated rice seed-
the specially prepared seed-bed using com- lings from Figure 16.
posted organic matter rich soils.

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 1.3.3 Transplanting
Transplanting the seedlings from the nursery bed to the rice garden should take place when seedlings
grow three leaf-stage. You have to be careful to transplant in the right time because if seedlings grow
too big, the roots might be damaged when transplanting and will not grow further. It is better to
transplant in the early morning or in the late afternoon when the sun light is not strong.

Spacing between the seedlings depends on the variety (size) of rice, but should be around 20-30 cm
x 20-30 cm (depending on the variety) to give enough space for people to pass through such as for
weed and pest control.

Figure 18: The laying out of a garden field for transplanting the rice
seedlings can be done using sisal/agave strings.

The following are simple steps used in transplanting the rice seedlings:
(1) Monitor the growth of the seedlings and wait until it has reached the three leaf-stage or for two
weeks after sowing;
(2) Make holes by a stick along a rope as a guide to plant seedlings in rows. Give about 20-30 cm x
20-30 cm spacing;
(3) Bring seedlings with full soil and place them in a reachable distance in the rice garden;
(4) Select only good seedlings and transplant one by one (or two by two) immediately, covering the
root with soil gently. Press soil around the seedling softly;
(5) Go backward when planting not to damage the planted seedlings; and
(6) Give small amount of water in the afternoon after transplanting. The roots are exposed outside
the soil and the seedling may look weak. The roots need to take some water to recover.

11
Figure 19: Rice seedling transplanting hole are Figure 20: Rice seedlings been
may be using stick picket, along the straightened picked out of the seedling bed.
strings.

Figure 21: Individual seedling is selected for Figure 22: Seedling being placed into the planting
transplanting. hole and soil pressed firmly around it.

Check box for Confirmation:

12
Further Explanation:
About the number of seedlings per hill
Plant 1 to 2 seedlings per hill. If more than 3 seedlings grow per hill, they cannot take enough nutri-
ents from the soil because of overcrowding. If seedlings are overcrowded, they attract more pests
and diseases as well. It is important not to plant more than enough seedlings.

Thinning out [off]

It is also important to transplant only the good seedlings. Discard small and poor in colour seedlings,
and transplant only good seedlings which are big,
good colour, and have good root system to achieve
the good yield. Transplanting seedlings which
match in size is also important to harvest all at the
same time for pest control measures.

As for the function of transplanting for synchroniz-

ing the harvesting period, this is the last opportunity
to sort out poorly grown seedlings, thus it is neces-
7-12cm
sary to thin them out without hesitation.

Homogenization upon the harvesting period/post-

harvest treatment
Timings for unification:
1) To sort out seeds so as to plant only favorable
ones
2) To prepare evenly fertile soil
3) Not to directly seed but to transplant
4) To shorten the tillering period
5) To control well-timed watering
6) Not to allow and not to use late growth
7) To complete harvesting in one or two days
8) To finish drying paddies evenly Figure 23: Ideal seedling
9) To remove dust, including empty/immature grains

1.4 Care and Management of Rice Garden

You have to regularly visit your garden and check the condition of the garden and take necessary
and timely care. It is during these visits, that the farmer will need to do weeding, some soil tillage to
improve the surface soils, and undertake some water control and pest control activities.

1.5 Weed Control, Soil Mounding And Soil Improvement

3 weeks to 1 month after transplanting, you need to control weeds at your garden. Weeds take nutri-
ents from the soil and compete with rice growing. Weeds also attract pests and diseases as well. If
you control weeds, you are also controlling pests and diseases as well.

What you have to do is to remove weeds from roots using a hoe between rows and put them back to
the soil as organic fertilizer as indicated in the picture below. Make sure you shave and stir more
than 10 cm to remove roots completely and mix with soil well. At the same time, you should land up
area where the soil flew out.

You should also apply compost during the time of weed control. Just bring compost between the
rows and stir together with existing weeds.

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In terms of frequency, one time weed control 3 weeks to 1 month after transplanting is enough. You
should do weed control, soil mounding and soil improvement all at once to save your time and ener-
gy. After 1 month, weeds rather work to prevent water evaporation of the soil.

Figure 24: Farmer weeding the rice garden using a weeding hoe.

1.5.1 Water Control

The ideal moisture content of the soil is 50-60%w.b. A good indicator of 50%w.b. moisture content
in the soil is when you work the soil with your hand and are able to make a mass as shown in Figure
25. A 60%w.b. moisture content or higher in the soil is indicated by you being about to able to
squeeze small amount of water out of soil ball held in your hand as shown in Figure 26.

Figure 25: Soil ball made between the palm-of- Figure 26: Soil with higher moisture
the-hand with 50% moisture content. content of above 60% may look this
when worked between of palm-of-the-hand.

Check the moisture content especially when the weather changes and give water if the moisture con-
tent of soil is less than 50%w.b. This should be practiced in the case where irrigation is practiced. If
the moisture content is more than 60%w.b., you have to open the gate of the trench and release ex-
cess water.

When rice starts to bloom, it is better to create a dry environment soon after 4-5 days of flowering so
then the rice crop will stop further tillering and panicle initiation and concentrates all its energy to
filling in the grains. If you see some water in the trench or paddy field, improve the drainage to re-
move excess ground and surface water to influence the crop to start filling-in the grains rather than
causing more tillering and more flowering, with extended period of flowering.

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 1.5.2 Pest Control
It is also important to protect your garden from pests. You have to go to the rice garden every day
from the time of flowering stage till harvesting and control pests if you see any, before it gets too
late to control.

Some of the major pests and control measures are indicated below.

(1) Stem Borer

Stem bores are one of the major pests in Papua New Guinea. The life cycle of stem borers is 41-60
days. Eggs of stem borers are laid on leaves or leaf sheath. Larvae bore into stem, eat through the
node, and bore down to the base of stem. Full-grown larvae pupate in rice straws or stubbles. Infest-
ed rice plants get white heads or white colored panicles. Boring causes panicles with half or empty
grains, destroy the crop and reduce the yield.

As a control measure, stems with white heads should be pulled off from stem based and opened up
to reveal the larvae and pupae. Stem borers larvae and pupae must be pick-off by hand and destroyed
immediately. Ants are one of the natural enemies of stem bores; once larvae are put down on the
ground, ants will prey on them as shown in Figure 30.
Having a fallow or rice-free period for two months between cropping is the best preventative
measure as this allows the removal of the habitats of stem borers. Harvesting all at once is im-
portant; if you leave some rice plants still standing after harvest, adult stem borers can continue to
lay eggs on those plants, thus maintaining its life-cycle. Harvesting all at once needs to be applied to
all the surrounding farms and destroying all standing crops after harvest. Just doing this to your farm
is not enough as other farmers’ field would provide the habitats to stem borers and other pests.
Therefore, harvesting at the communities level at the same requires good cropping planning. This
can be achieved by communities developing their own crop calendar to implement synchronous
cropping, which is explained in section 4.1.

It is also important to remove stubble and stems completely and immediately after harvesting not to
give the habitats to stem borers. Stubbles and stems should be removed completely and ploughed
into the soil.

Figure 27: 'White-head' is the Figure 28: Adult moth of the

sun-bleached rice plant's panicle rice stem borer.
that is an indication of rice stem
borer attack.

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 Figure 29: A stem boring larvae or Figure 30: Rice-stem borers being
worm extracted from a rice stem. devoured by ants.

(2) Rice Bugs

Rice bug is one of the major pests in Papua New Guinea. The presence of the insects can be easily
determined by an offensive smell it gives off when touched. Milky stage of the rice plant attracts rice
bugs. They prefer to feed on the endosperm of the rice grain during the grains-filling (milky) stage
and often cause empty or stained grains after the milky stage. The bugs feedings also causes the
grains to loss form and becomes stained when milled. The bugs’ feedings causes yield losses and
lowers the quality of grains due to the presence of defective grains.

The life cycle of rice bugs is 88-101 days (Juvenile stage: 23-36 days, Adult: 65 days – See Figure
32). Rice bugs live off on wild hosts, mainly weeds of rice family (Poaceae) one or two generations
before migrating into the rice field at the flowering stage.

As a control measure, rice bugs should be removed by hand, using a net or plastic bag by sweeping
the top of the panicles as shown in Figure 34. Rice garden should be visited in the morning and af-
ternoon during the milky stage to carry out pest scouting and administer control measures. As the
preventive measures, weeds of grass and rice family should be weeded or slashed eliminate the
habitats of rice bugs.

Figure 31: General appearance of the Figure 32: Adult rice bug, on the rice
rice crop been attacked by rice bugs. panicle with grains at the milky-stage.

Figure 33: A road side Grasses like this Figure 34: Rice bugs being caught
act as the alternative hosts for rice bugs. and collected in a sweeping-net.

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(3) Brown Plant Hopper
Rice is the only host plant for brown plant hoppers (BPH). The life cycle of brown plant hoppers is
19-24 days. Brown plant hoppers lay 200-500 eggs on the rice leaf-sheath and the nymphs and adults
feed at the lower stems of rice plant. They migrate from other rice fields and can reproduce or
generate 2-3 generations within on crop of rice. Hopper-burns observed in crops area main
symptoms of serious BPH infestation, causing complete death of the plants, resulting in yield loss.
They also transmit plant virus and plant diseases related to virus to healthy rice crop.

As the control measure, BPH should be removed by net or plastic bug to reduce the number.
However, once the brown plant hopper occurs in high density, no other option is available to control
the BPH except for insecticide spray or early harvesting.

As the preventive measures, you can use the rice variety which is resistant to the brown plant
hopper such as NR 1. But any variety can become susceptible to BPH so it is advisable to check the
latest information with DAL or NARI.

Having a fallow or rice-free period for two months between cropping is the best control and
preventative measure removing the habitats of BPH and stem borers. Harvesting the entire rice crop
at once is important; if you leave some rice plants from the crop harvested still standing in the
garden or field, all the BPH and stem-borers will move to those plants and can survive to cause
further damage. Synchronous rice cropping is another control measure for avoiding the BPH
population.

It is thus important to remove stubble and stems completely and immediately after harvesting so as
not to give BPH a habitat or host plant to thrive on. Stubbles and stems should be removed
completely and ploughed into the soil.

Figure 35: Female BPH Figure 36: Male BPH Figure 37: Cluster of BPH infestation
5-6mm in length. 5-6mm in length. & causing hopper damage on rice.

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(4) Rice Root Aphids

Rice root aphids (Tetraneura) are pests found in Madang and East Sepik Provinces (see Figure 38).
They are also known as the grass root aphids because they infest the roots of other plants such as
yam. They suck the plant sap from the roots and cause change of colour and distort the growth of
rice grains. When these plants are pulled out, a large number of aphids can be seen on the roots.

The control and preventive measures are now studied and yet to be made known.

Figure 38: Root aphids on rice plants roots.

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18
Further Explanation:

Insect pest control

It is important for all rice growers and training instructors to learn and understand the life cycles of
all the insect pests. Practically identifying the insects in the field and taking note of the different life
stages and behaviour will help identify cut-off points in the life cycle of each pest species. Knowing
this, farmer can take actions to terminate the insects. For this purpose, it is essential to organize
study meetings involving model farmers and instructors working from each region to study the life-
cycles of each insect pest. Studies will include different life-forms from eggs to larvae, juveniles or
nymphs to adults, their migrating habits, sites, feeding habits & life cycles (metamorphosis from egg
to adult stage and the numbers of days of passing through each stage). Knowing the weakest point in
the insect life-cycle, farmers can devise means or methods apply to knock or terminate the life of the
insect, thus controlling insect pests.

It has been shown that rice brown plant-hoppers are rampant in East Asia region and that BPH infes-
tations in all rice growing areas have reached epidemic proportion due to large-scale planting of
broad area of rice fields with susceptible rice varieties. Many BPH have also built up tolerance or
resistance to many insecticides due to over-use of only one or two pesticides. Break-out of BHP is
also attributed to destruction of natural predators with the regular use of insecticides. This is one of
important point that PNG’s emerging rice production and farming system developers need to be
aware of before it becomes a similar outcome for PNG, if it is not careful—use of chemical insecti-
cides must not be encouraged carelessly as being the case and used in other tropical countries.

At present (Year 2015), PNG does not have entomologist specializing in rice insect pests and its
ecology. Thus, there are very few opportunities for government workers in charge of agriculture,
agricultural instructors, and model farmers to acquire present-knowledge on the biology and control
of insect pests occurring on upland rice fields. Partly, the reason for this is, although some of these
people have some knowledge of rice insect pests, pest names and their control measures in general,
many do not have in-depth understanding and knowledge of life-cycle of rice insect pests and their
ecology. Therefore, for all who are involved in the development of smallholder rice production in
PNG to control and minimize the destructive effects of rice insect pests without resorting to the use
of expensive, highly toxic, and environmentally unfriendly synthetic chemical insecticides, one must
understand and have an in-depth knowledge on the life-cycle so that cultural and biological control
methods can be used for pest control in rice crops.

Rice Stems-borers (Pickle-worms)

In PNG, the stem-borers larvae that infests and damage rice crops includes the Red Stem-Borer
(Sesamia inference) and a type of White Stem Borer (Scirpophaga sp.). These are the two main spe-
cies that infest and affect rice plants and crop. The other species is the Gold-Fringed Stem Borer (re-
lated) Chilo auricilius that was confirmed to occur in rice crops. A Rice Leaf-Roller (Cnaphalo-
crosis medinalis) has also been found in the rice crops in PNG.

The most cost effective and practical way to control and limit rice stem-borer infestation is not to
allow any rice plant or plant stumps still standing in the garden or field after the crop is harvested.
All the rice straws should be completely destroyed on the field or garden after the harvest is com-
pleted. This will reduce the chance of insects building up their population. Synchronizing the rice
cropping season is another effective way to minimize the population build up, and all cropping
should be organized within the entire rice farming community or region and not just for one or few
rice growing gardens or areas. This includes when rice garden fallows are set in and when fallows
are opened, at least for three months after the harvesting of rice. Croprotation is one site manage-
ment technique used to confound the insect pest dynamics and hence disrupt its breeding cycle.

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 Figure 39: Life Cycle of Rice Stem Borer Figure 40: Selection of Crop

Crop Rotation

Figure 41: Synchronous Crop Figure 42: Crop rotation

Rice bugs [Dimorphopterus pilosus (Barber, 1958)]

Of all the rice bugs that infest and damage emerging rice grains, Leptocorisa sp./ Dimorphopterus pilosus
(Barber, 1958) is the most dominant species in PNG.

Rice bugs thrive on other grass weeds, and often the adult bugs migrate to upland rice fields by flying and
cause damage to the emerging rice grains in the early stage of grains formation (milky stage). In order to
control and reduce the insect population density, one effective method of control is to manually catch the
insect with the use of trap net. Trap net is used in a scooping manner but the action to use is often in
sweeping manner across the top of the crop. Catch insects are killed by crushing them against hard sur-
faces or burning them in a fire furnace. Another approach of control and minimizing rice bug infestation
is to remove and clean the garden site or field perimeter area of all grasses and grass-like weeds. There-
fore, it is important not to neglect your rice garden and the areas surrounding your rice garden against the
insect pests and follow the simple practical ways suggested above to control your pests.

Stem-borer and Rice bugs do have alternatives host food crop plants to survive and thrive on and this in-
cludes sugar-cane, corn, and sorghum. Scouting for insect pests and their movement within the cropping
area is important for their control and management.

Practicing crop-rotation with vegetables and non-graminous food crops; and weeding out and clear-
ing all grass related weed species is an effective method for limiting the population growth of stem-
borer. As the larvae and pupae of stem borers tend to get into the lowest part of rice stubble, it has
been shown that when harvesting rice, cutting off the straw as low as possible will leave little or not
much plant part for the insect pest to thrive on. Rice plant stumps should be dug up and ploughed
back into the soil; and where there are lots of stumps and straw, burning can also help to reduce in-
sect population. In order for such cultural insect pest control method to be effective, it must be im-

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plemented by all individual farmers at the community level or region level at large, thus the im-
portance of the community-based adoption of these methods is very important and should be comply
by all when implemented.

Rice planthoppers
The brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens) and the white-backed planthopper (Sogatella furcifera)
were detected. As they often come in from a distance, selecting tolerant cultivars is the most effec-
tive method.

Rice root aphid

The rice root aphid (Tetraneura nigriabdominalis) is presently the dominant species. Although this
type of insect pest occurs rampantly during the dry season, its density seems to be reduced during the
rainy season; and, as shown below, the possibility of seasonal changes in host plants has been indi-
cated. Also, the occurrence of the rice root aphid has been confirmed on rice after the ear emergence
stage, and the aphid is known to change host plant by season. In addition, in temperate zones such as
Japan, in the summer it occurs on dry rice and on gramineous weeds, while in winter it forms galls
on tree leaves such as the ulmaceous Japanese elm and lives in the leaves. However, in tropical
zones including Papua New Guinea, it is not yet known whether the rice root aphid changes host
plants as it does in temperate zones or if it lives with dry rice and gramineous weeds all year round.
Clarifying this point is the most important issue when considering measures against this type of in-
sect pest in PNG; thus, the survey on occurrence status studied host plants other than dry rice. As a
result, numerous galls were found to have been formed by this aphid on one type of tree (name of
tree not currently identified).

Figure 43: Illustration of insect pest control: rice root aphid

Rice root aphids, rice stem borers and rice bugs incidences and infestations can be avoided and min-
imized through a synchronous cropping, and proper and adequate disposal of crop residues after har-
vesting. The removal of weeds and brush surrounding the rice garden or rice field is one effective
way to minimize insect pest pressure. Further, as the possibility has been shown in Figure 43 that
this type of insect pest often occurs during the dry season and moves to other host plants including
trees during the rainy season (and when the rainy season is over and the dry season begins, it comes
back to the rice), it is considered that delaying the start of dry rice planting during the dry season by
half a month or one month is an effective way to limit the population of aphid. The use of wood vin-
egar solution is also considered as one effective means of rice roots aphids.

Chinch bugs [English name: Pacific rice chinch bug]

One type of chinch bug that collectively sucks and damages the lowest part of the stocks has been
identified. Rice damaged by this insect pest shows poor tillering and short stock.

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Insecticide Resistance and breaking of natural enemy complex by insecticide
Spraying insecticide can be very dangerous as shown in Figure 44. The spraying method, frequency,
etc., are quite technical; and the problem is that pest insects may become insecticide resistance [tol-
erant] to the sprayed insecticide and destroyed natural enemy complex, resulting in a higher concen-
tration of insecticide being required, which can ultimately result in adverse effects on humans.

Figure 44: Insecticide Resistance

Wood/ bamboo vinegar

In PNG, the utilization of wood/bamboo vinegar is recommended. Wood/bamboo vinegar is made in
such a way that highly moist wood is smoked, and in a chimney, as shown in Figure 45, the mois-
ture-laden liquid forms condensation, which produces the vinegar to be collected. When the vinegar
is diluted by 10–100 times and sprayed onto plant beds, grove soil, or paddy stalks, it is effective for
insect control.

Figure 45: Making Wood Vinegar

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Cultural control
• Understanding life cycle of insect pests is most important to adopt proper control methods.
• Monitoring of insect pests is essential to decide whether control them or not.
• Cultural control methods such as synchronous cropping, crop rotation and weed control are
effective to cut out of life cycle of insect pests.
No by individual farmers but community-wide adoption is most effective for cultural control.

Shown in Table 1, insect pest control by main rice insect in PNG is summarized.

Table 1: Summary of insect pest control

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2 Harvesting and Soil Treatment After Harvesting
2.1 Harvesting
There are three basic method of determining the harvest time for your rice crop. One is by counting
the number of days between planting and harvesting. Each rice variety has a crop-duration measured
in the number days from planting to harvesting, when the optimum ripening age is reached and the
crop can be harvested. This number varies from 110 to 135 days-after-planting.

Another method for determining the harvest time is the percentage of grains that have turned yellow
and are full at ripening. It is harvest time when about 80% of grains turned yellow regardless of the
weather conditions. The ripening grains should never be allowed to fully ripen at 100% level be-
cause at this stage the rice grains and crop starts deteriorating and can be devour by birds and wild
animals.

The third method of determining the harvest time is by the grain’s moisture content. The ideal grain
moisture content for harvest is between 18 and 22%w.b. Grains should be firm but not crumbly
when bite or press between the teeth.

When harvesting, it is important to harvest all the grains together at once. If the crop is big and can-
not be harvested in one day, you must organize a hired or pooled labour and harvest the crop in a day
or two. Never leave your rice crop to another week or fortnight to harvest. Doing so will cause your
crop to degenerate and allow insect pests, vermin and birds to thrive eating off your ripen grains.
Leaving your crop to a delayed harvest may generate through crop lodging, grain shattering, and
mouldy or pre-germination whilst still in the field. Therefore, the use of correct timing to harvest
will help reduce crop losses as described above.

Delayed harvesting will also cause grains to fluctuate in its moisture content over the period they are
still in the field, casing grains to deteriorate in physical integrity. Harvesting too early will result in a
larger percentage of unfilled or immature grains, which will lower the yield and cause higher grain
breakage during milling. Generally the ideal harvest time lies between 130 and 136 days after sow-
ing for late-maturing varieties, 113 and 125 days for medium-maturing varieties, and 110 days for
early-maturing varieties.

As tools for harvesting, you should have bush knife or sickle to cut the base of the stem. You should
have hoes and shovels to treat soil immediately after harvesting.

Before harvesting the entire crops, you have to harvest best rice seeds to use for next cropping. It
should be harvested in the middle of garden because the rice at the edge of the garden could have
been affected easily by surrounding environment and seeds might not be ideal. You have to select
and harvest healthy and full mature rice panicle for seeds and separate from other grains.

After harvesting best rice seed panicles, you should harvest all the rest of grains by cutting the base
of the stems.

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 Figure 46: Training youth harvesting rice crop using the
harvesting knives or sickles.

2.2 Soil Treatment Just After Harvesting

After completion of harvest, you have to remove all the weeds and stumps from the roots and plough
them back into the soil by ploughing with hoes or any other gardening tools, to prepare for next
cropping. Soil treatment should be done together with harvesting, to remove all the habitats of pests,
put green manures back to the soil, and give enough time for green manure to de-compost for next
cropping.

Figure 47: Soil tillage using hoe before planting

and soon after harvesting.

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25
3 Post-Harvesting
Post harvesting is an important process to obtain and keep good quality of rice. The basic steps of
post harvesting are indicated in the followings.

3.1 Selecting Best Seeds

You should select best seeds from the selected panicles as seeds for next cropping. Pick healthy, ful-
ly-matured, and uniform seeds in size especially from the center of the panicles. Try to select 40% of
your selected panicles as seeds and the rest for usual consumption in order to obtain better germina-
tion ratio and uniform quality.

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3.2 Threshing
Threshing is a mechanical process of separating the ripen grains from the panicles or from the straws,
either manually or by the use of threshing machines. Threshing of rice must be done on the day the
rice crop is harvested either by panicle-harvest or by straw-harvest. When the rice crop is harvested
and grains are separated from the pedicels and dried, the grains should not be wet again. Repeated
condition between drying the rice grain and absorbing them of moisture will cause grains to crack
and break during the milling process.

If the rice crop is harvested while there is light rainfall and/or a drizzle, the harvested grain-straws
should be allowed to dry off the rain drop-lets on a canvass or by hanging them on raised stake or on
bamboo or wooden pole scaffold.

Rice can be threshed using hands as shown in Figure 48 or by a more commonly and effective way
of threshing by beating the grain-straw against a wooden frame as shown in Figure 49. One im-
portant method of threshing rice when rice is panicle-harvested is the use of both foot, with the cir-
cular and wringing motions using the foot’s sole.

Figure 48: Panicle-harvested rice may Figure 49: Straw-harvested rice is

require hand-rubbing to separate grains. threshed by beating against wooden
frame an on canvass.

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26
 3.3 Drying
Drying the harvested grains to the appropriate moisture content is important to prevent the growth of
fungi, moulds and prevents the attack of stored-grains pests such as grain weevils. Rice grains must
be carefully dried and over-drying must be avoided as it causing the moisture content to fall below
12% that leads to grains cracks and resulting into broken grains when milled.

The drying of freshly threshed grains should be done on opened canvass in sheltered area or in a
shed which is protected from direct sunlight and any expected rain-fall as shown in Figure 50. In-
termittent drying can be done under direct sun-light but this must be done under 30 minutes to less
than an hour each day or in each drying season as shown in Figure 51. This drying method is called
air-drying. The grains spread onto a canvass should have a spreading thickness of 4-5 cm (but not
more than 5 cm) and occasionally turned over and re-spread until ideal moisture content of 14-
15%w.b is consistent achieved. Never use concrete or iron sheets like corrugated roofing iron sheets
as surface to spread your grains onto for sun-drying as this material can trap sun’s heat and raise the
temperature to the detrimental level.

Grains moisture content can be determine by biting-method or by using an electronic moisture read-
ing meter supplied through REU and the provincial DAL.

It may be difficult to determine the duration of grain drying period or timing due to most rice har-
vesters not knowing the initial grain moisture content and when to step drying when the appropriate
MC is achieved. The speed and the effectiveness of grain drying are influenced by the surrounding
air temperature, humidity level, wind or breeze velocity, and general weather conditions. It might
take just half day or more than three days to completely dry the rice grains to storable moisute con-
tent. When drying the grains, rice grains must be turned-over every 30 minutes by using a rake or by
hand.

Figure 50: Rice grains being sun-dried Figure 51: The same rice grain being
spread on canvass. dried in sheltered area or shed.

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3.4 Winnowing
Winnowing is a mechanical means of separates chaffs from the rice grains. It is a very simple work
but very important process and can be done manually or by a using a winnowing machinery. If you

27
don’t winnow or separate chaffs, stones, and foreign matter from your rice grains, the chaffs and
foreign matter will cause grains to break while milling, increase the cost of milling rice, increase the
wear-and-tear in the milling machine components responsible for husking and polishing.

There are two means of winnowing, (1) by natural breeze or wind and by, (2) electric motor fan
driven wind. You can use the breeze to blow the chaffs away from rice by dropping the grains from
an overhead position to the ground on the canvas several times as indicated in the Figure 52. Avoid
contaminating the hill of grains with soil particles, stones or grits. You can also throw up the rice
grains to blow away the chaffs, empty grains and foreign matter using the bamboo-strip winnower
several times in a circular and rolling motion as shown in Figure 53.

Figure 52: On spread canvass, rice grains can Figure 53: The same rice grains can be
be winnowed with prevailing winds or breeze winnowed using round winnowing
while being dropped from a height either by trays made from weaved bamboo-strips.
small bowls or container.

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3.5 Storing
After winnowing, the rice grains can be milled right away for consumption or the grains bagged into
sacks and stowed away. Rice grains in storage should be stowed away in dry, well secured and pro-
tected shed, away from the family dwelling house or home.

Rice grains dried in direct sun-light conditions would have high grain temperature soon after its re-
bagging and sacks brought into the storage room must have their sack mouth left open to allow air
movement and grains temperature to reach the room temperature as shown in Figure54. Fairly well
prepared rice grains can be stored for much longer storage period and later milling for consumption.

Rice should be stored in sealed sacks and should be placed in a protected place to avoid damp, rats
and insects. The rice should not touch the ground to avoid the possibility of absorbing moisture from
the floor and causing high-moisture relating spoilage to the rice grains.

It is also important to store seeds for next cropping appropriately. Life of the seeds will be halved for
every 1% increase in moisture content or below 36°C in grains temperature. The rice seeds can also
be stored in sealed sacks and should be placed in dry sheltered storage rooms as shown in Figure 54
and 55.

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Figure 54: Rice grains in sacks whose sack- Figure 55: Sack-mouths with grains left to
mouths are left open to allow the heat to es- settle to the room temperature and not allow-
cape soon after sun-drying and allowed to ing the hot air to condense if the sack mouths
settle to the room temperature. are closed soon after sun drying.

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3.6 Milling
The final step before consumption is the milling of rice. You can bring your rice to the nearest mill-
ing station. If milling station is not available in your neighborhood, you can mill your rice manually
using kisér or tong-tong. Basic instruction on how to construct rice milling tools such as kisér and
tong-tong can be sourced from “Basic Rice Farming in Papua New Guinea –Let’s Grow and enjoy
our own rice” by DAL and JICA. You can also enquire about suitable motorized rice mill to DAL.

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29
4 Important Practices
4.1 Synchronous cropping and Crop calendar
You need to crop rice at the same time with other farmers in the same area to avoid concentration of
pests and to prevent the yield losses. You also need certain period of time when no farmer crops rice
in the same area by synchronizing the rice cropping season to cut the life cycle of pests and diseases
as explained earlier. You should implement the synchronous cropping of rice with other farmers to
protect your farm from pests and diseases by creating community-based crop calendar for rice crop-
ping. See the example of crop calendar in Appendix 1

Create common understanding and set the rules about rice farming in your area. The problem of
pests and diseases cannot be solved by individuals. They need to be tackled by the community.

Check box for Confirmation:

4.2 Crop Rotation

If you continue to cultivate rice in the same field, there will be a growth injury due to continuous
cropping of the same crop. The yield will be smaller and smaller every time you cultivate in the
same field as illustrated below.

Figure 56: Schematic illustration to show decline in rice

yield if cropped on the same land repeatedly.

If you try to cultivate a new field every time to avoid a growth injury, it causes deforestation, dam-
ages the ecological system and gives the permanent damage to the environment. Shifting cultivation
needs to be avoided. (See Figure 57: Illustration of Crop Rotation)

What works best is crop rotation. There should be one year interval for the same crop to be planted
to prevent a growth injury, but you can cultivate different types of crop during this one year interval.
So if you are going to plant and harvest rice twice a year, you should think of two other crops, which
are not similar to rice or each other such as peanut and carrot and are not likely to cause mono-
culture injury, and rotate the garden for each crop in the field every season as indicated in the picture
below. (See Table 2)

Green manure crops are those which should not be harvested for consumption but should be utilised
as organic fertilizers. Peanuts and pigeon peas are good as green manure crops. So If you chose to
crop peanuts for crop rotation, you can apply back to the soil approach to peanuts just like weeds

30
(but much more effective) by ploughing the peanuts back to the soil and make your farm much more
fertile.

Crop rotation does not have to take place in the same area. You can do it in different locations. If
you want to plant rice for one season per year, you can plant peanut and/ or pigeon pea in between
rice cropping and make your farm fertile.

Plot A Plot B Plot C Plot A Plot B Plot C

1st season (1st year) 2nd season (1st year)

Plot A Plot B Plot C

3rd season (2nd year)

Figure 57: Illustration of Crop Rotation

Further Explanation:

Crop rotation is a practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in se-
quential seasons. This practice is also to diversify cultivated products. Growing the same crop in the
same place for many years in a row disproportionately depletes the soil of certain nutrients and such
a soil condition gets concentrated and reduces production, increasing the risks of pests and diseases
such as wire worms (a kind of nematode which comes to rice grains). This is called ‘injury by con-
tinuous cropping1.’

Crop rotation is necessary to prevent injury by continuous cropping. A crop that leaches the soil of
one kind of nutrients should be rotated by a dissimilar family crop that returns that nutrient to the
soil or draws a different nutrient for next cropping. For example, rice can be rotated by peanut and
peanut can be rotated by tomato. There needs to be a one year interval to go back to rice cropping.
See the different types of crop family which can be cultivated in PNG below.

1
Injury by continuous cropping: The negative impact of continuous production on soil productivity has been demon-
strated but is less well researched and understood. In the history of cropping, farmers continuously combat their way
to avoid injury by continuous cropping.

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 Table 2: Interval the next cultivation of agro-products by Order and Family

Taxonomic affiliation Interval to the next

Crop
Order Family cultivation (year)
Poales Poaceae Maize 1
Paddy upland 1
Low injury but need to
Paddy irrigated
take measures
Apiales Apiaceae Carrot 1 (low injury)
Parsley 1-2
Asterales Compositae Lettuce 1-2
Asteraceae Garland chrysanthemum 2-3
Sunflower 1-2 (low injury)
Brassicales Cruciferea Broccoli 1-2
Cabbage 2
Napa cabbage 2-3
Turnip 1-2
White radish 1 (low injury)
Leaf mustard 2-3
Brassicales Cruciferea Melon 2-3

Pumpkin 1 (low injury)

Water melon 4-5

Zucchini Low injury

Caryophyllales Chenopodiaces Spinach 1-2
Fabales Fabaceae Chickpea 2-3
Alfalfa 3-5

Pigeon pea Low injury

Mucuna Low injury

Peanuts No injury
Lamiales Lamiaceae Peppermint No injury
Liliales Liliaceae Green onion 1-2
Onion 1-2

Garlic 1-2

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 Asparagus 1 (low injury)
Malvales Malvaceae Okura 2～3
Scrophulariales Pedaliaceae Sesame 1 (low injury)
Rosales Rosaceae
Strawberry 2-3

Pear 2-3

Peach 2-3
Brassicales Solanaceae Green pepper 3-4

Paprika 3-4

Potato 2-3
Tomato 3-4
Solanales Convolvulaceae Sweet potato 1 (low injury)

Crop rotation allows farmers to keep their fields under continuous production, instead of letting them
fallow, and also reduce the need for applying artificial fertilizers, both of which can be expensive.

4.3 Mixed planting and intercropping

Mixed planting is the practice of planting two or more crop species in the same area, either at the
same time or in sequence to allow for insect pest control, and weed control, to allow for beneficial
insects to thrive while maximizing the use of the land space. Mixed planting is a form of multi-
cropping that can be used for cultivating rice while the nearly planted cash crops such as cocoa, co-
conuts, rubber, oil palm are establishing.

Intercropping is the practice of growing one or more crops in the same area in addition to the main
crop. For example, you can grow rice in the palm oil, cacao, or banana plantation. The most common
goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a fixed size of land by making use of resources
that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop. For intercropping, careful planning is neces-
sary not to have crops competing with each other for physical space, nutrients, water, or sunlight.

Mixed planting and intercropping are the alternative cropping methods in addition to crop rotation to
avoid the ecological destruction through slash-and-burn farming.

Figure 58: Rice being inter-cropped Figure 59: An establishing oil-palm have spaces
with a banana crop. in-between each palm that can be cropped with
rice or other short-term crops.

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 4.4 Terraced Fields
A terraced field is a piece of sloped fields that has been paved, graveled, raised or reinforced with
strong timbers to make a flattened area for farming and prevent the soil to erode. It is ideal to culti-
vate rice in the flat land, but if you cannot find the flat land and need to use sloped fields, you need
to construct a terraced field first.

Figure 60: A sloping land can be cropped using land-terracing

techniques and sloping land technologies.

A raised terrace field keeps water in the soil and avoids draining of nutrition from the soil. The ter-
raced field will have higher yield than non-terraced field in the slope. With terraced fields, you can
avoid shifting cultivation as you can continuously crop in terraced fields with good soil treatment,
and reduce the abandoned fields which are the source of pests and insects.

Construction of terraced fields should be done gradually over time from the small area of low-
pitched slope. Regarding terraced fields, where the slope is steep, it is preferable for cultivation to
make each terrace flat over duration of two years, as the soil can fully spread itself. (On the contrary,
if a slope is made flat immediately, it is not good for planting because the surface layer becomes
formed from less fertile soil.)

4.5 Keeping Demonstration Plot Diary

You should keep record of your observation and care provided at your demonstration plot in the
Demonstration Plot Diary. See the template in Appendix 2. You can record the date of your visit,
weather, condition of soil and rice, and care (if any care is provided). It should take only a minute to
keep such a diary. Demonstration Plot Diary is a useful tool you can use to teach others about rice
production based on your own experience.

Check box for Confirmation:

34
Appendix

Appendix 1: Example of Crop Calendar

Appendix 2: Demonstration Plot Diary

35
Appendix 1: Example of Crop Calendar
Crop Calendar template
Item/ Month January February March April May June July August September October November December
Weather Pattern
Soil Preparation

Sowing at nursery

Transplantation

Weed Control

Pest Control

Harvesting

Fallow period of rice garden except for nursery bed

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Appendix 2：Demonstration plot Diary

Care
Date Weather Condition of soil and rice
(if any care is provided)
Soil is dry. I cannot make a mass
ex. sunny Sprinkled water
with the soil.

37