Planting Rice

We were on the tail-end of a heavy rain that lasted about a day and a half. The rice fields were flooded, and it was time to plant. The Cornell Nepal Study Program (CNSP) has a “small” field in which they grow rice, or dhaan. (Later in the year our group will harvest the rice).

Some of the CNSP staff had already started when Kamal and I arrived. We took off our sandals and stepped into the field. The mud was about mid-calf deep, and the consistency of pudding. Before we started, one of the women came over and put rice shoots behind our ears, and gave us mud tikas. We had to use small hoes that were about two feet long to break up the hard mud into clumps, and then step on them to break them up – rice grows best in very loose mud. We took a break for a snack – potato achaar and Tuborg beer. It was legit beer…cold and carbonated. Kamal didn’t drink beer, because he’s a Hindu Brahmin. After the snack, we returned to the field to plant the rice. A few shoots at a time, the rice is planted by pushing the roots down into the mud. The whole ordeal is really back-breaking work – we were bent over the entire time. I was so exhausted and frustrated towards the end, because there were ants biting my ankles and small beetles burrowing into the mud that was caked on my leg hair.

It’s a very humbling feeling knowing how hard it actually is to plant and grow rice by hand. It’s also a very rewarding feeling knowing that your hard work is going to pay you back with food in a few months. Most importantly, this was one of the few times when I felt like a local – filthy and bent over in a field, alongside Nepali men and women.