More threshing, Pujas and Gokarna

Last Saturday I made my first solo farm visit, in order to conduct more extensive threshing measurements. This will be one of the final threshing tests of this season, and on arriving I found the farmers were still in their paddy fields cutting the harvest.

I joined in, carrying sudis (bundles of straw, tied together with string) along the edge of the field, across a stream and up to the farm courtyard. I'm fairly sure they tied smaller bundles especially for me! 

I was given a special hat (bundle of cloth and a wooden ring) which sat on my head to help balance the weight of the sudis.

Following the field harvest, the rice was threshed both by hand and using the machine we had provided. This was a great opportunity to observe the threshing methods side by side. I took some videos and counted the threshing rates. We tested the threshing machine with both motor and pedalling power. 

There is a time of year when it is traditional in Karnataka to bless your car and other mechanical appliances. Yashwin & I visited Mangalore at the time when this was going on.

Garlands for sale for the blessings

Yashwin's uncle blessing their extended families' cars with flowers, coconuts and rice.

Tricks following their blessings

That weekend Yashwin and I explored up the coast towards Goa, to a beach called Gokarna. We slept overnight in an empty building on the beach and hiked along the coast. The scenery was beautiful, although I was a bit too tired to fully enjoy myself.

Our beds for the night. 

Interesting design of these small wooden fishing boats  

                                    

...the larger fishing fleet

Omm bay

Exploring the quiet bays along the coast

                                    

Riding in my favourite seat on the train home

I took on Saturday off to travel on my own to the nearby Belur & Halebid temple sites. There are amazingly intricate soapstone carvings making up the temples.

Goa, trains and a visit to the hospital

It's been an eventful week! Last weekend a group of us travelled to Goa to visit the Dudhsagar water falls. As we only have Sundays off, this involved some fairly intense travelling to make the 1000km round trip and still be back in work for Monday morning.

Leaving the office on Saturday evening, we caught a bus to Mangalore and then the sleeper train to Magdow, arriving at 5am. On the bus ride I received some over friendly attention from a tipsy elderly lady in a sari, who started blowing me kisses!

We boarded the sleeper train at midnight and walked down the dark aisle to reach our berth, avoiding the pairs of feet sticking out from bunks at different levels. During the journey, tea pedlars came down the corridor chanting “chai, chai, chai” and someone was snoring loudly!

Magdow train station at 6am

In Magdow, we changed to a second train, and rode in the luggage compartment with several “stowaways” (although we had bought tickets!).

In the luggage compartment

Not exactly first class

The rail route from Madgow to Kulem passed over several large rivers and through miles of coconut plantations. We arrived into Kulem at 10am on Sunday morning, and started the 11km walk along train tracks to the water falls.

The walking route to the falls follows a rail track and passes through seven short tunnels

Dutsugar means "milk ocean"

The falls themselves were beautiful, unlike the crowded viewpoint which was scattered with rubbish

 

Boarding the freight train (with the driver's permission)

After an hour at the falls, we jumped on a freight train to Kulem which had stopped for a brake check near to the falls.

The engineers headed straight to the cabin of the train!

From Kulem, we retraced our steps all the way back to Ujire, where we arrived around 4am on Monday morning. This 32 hour adventure cost about £7!

Even at 4am Yashwin and I still couldn't go to bed. During the bus ride back to Ujire, the bus driver hit a bump in the road, and sent everybody in the back of the bus flying out of their seats. I hit my chin on the chair in front, and needed five stitches in Ujire hospital. My stitches were removed this afternoon and the total procedure cost me less than £15.

he brand new hospital is funded by the wealthy Dharmasthala temple, and only opened last week. The hospital serves a large area, so I'm lucky it is so close.

We conducted several more threshing tests this week, and gathered some good data on the rates and lots of feedback from farmers. 

Brining one of the threshing machines to a farm. The white bandage on my chin means I am stared at even more than usual!

Transporting the machines between farms in the back of a Mahindra pick-up truck. Riding three abreast in the front seat with the gear stick between my legs, I sat sweating with my hands over my crotch as the driver speed shifted from 1st to 2nd going up the steep bumpy track from the farm.

I also did some work measuring the yield of some paddy fields which had been transplanted by a transplanting machine.

Other than testing, this week the Nine Nights "Navarathi" Hindu festival has been going on, and Ujire is constantly filled with the sound of dance groups which go from shop to shop asking for money from the owner before moving on.

Helping to make a Rangoli in the college library which was for the Navarathi celebration.

Threshing

Over the last week and a half I've spent several days at a local farm testing threshing machines and talking with Parmeshwar, the farmer. It's been good fun getting out of the office and spending time on the farm, which is located along a windy road passing through groves of rubber trees and rice fields.

View over some of the large paddy fields next to Parmeshwar's farm

Threshing is the process of removing rice grains called “paddy” from the straw stalks. Traditionally, farm labourers will beat bundles of straw called “sudis” over a wooden board, causing the paddy to fall off. This is a slow and labour intensive process which is becoming increasingly expensive due to a labour shortage in the area, as young people move from rural areas into large cities like Bangalore. In order to introduce farmers in the area to threshing machines, Selco has recently bought two different types of machine and it was our job to test the machines in order to measure their performance and gather farmer feedback.

In the background women thresh using the traditional beating method, while another farm worker threshes on one of the machines. This mechanical thresher can be used by two people and is about three times as fast as the hand method. After some practice threshing, we ran several controlled tests to measure the performance of each machine. Several local farmers dropped by to take a look at the machines and they seemed quite interested

While we were working at the farm, Parmeshwar's wife cooked up meals of rice and curry for the farm workers and offered us lunch too! Parmeshwar would pile massive servings of boiled rice with two types of vegetable curry onto our banana leaf plates. I'm still getting used to eating with my right hand, much to the amusement of the farm workers. Most days one curry was cucumber in a watery coconut sauce, while the other had a thicker spicier sauce containing chunks of a local gourd. We were also offered boiling hot cups of sweet, milky Indian tea, and once had a really tasty cream of wheat containing dates and nuts.

Parmeshwar crossing a stream carrying the second threshing machine to his crop. After rain that afternoon we had to rush back before the water level rose.

The second threshing machine was powered by Parmeshwar's 28 year old tiller

 

Stopping threshing for a snack of freshly cut cucumber with salt

In general both machines worked well, and Parmeshwar said he may be interested in investing in one of the machines. We found that threshing performance varied significantly depending on the rice variety being threshed, so will be investigating this further at different farms over the next few weeks.

In India it is normal to work a six day week, so last Sunday a group of us hiked up a nearby granite hill called Gadaikallu. At the top there is a fort called Jamalabad, which was built by Tipu Sultan who ruled the area around 1790.

The view of Gadaikallu from a distance protruding up from the surrounding farmland.

Tipu Sultan built a steep staircase up the lower slopes. Here we are climbing up the steep & slippery steps cut into the granite rock near the top.

At the summit!