Farmer's Gold

When we think of the rainy season, it is time to cultivate rice. Meanwhile, a heavy storm is starting and on the other hand, the people of the village are throwing sacks of rice towards the pond. Thundering is jumping up and down. Not only the fishers but also the boys of the village are wandering around the banks of the pond, some are filling bags and some are filling hollows. Fish are killed leaving the slope at night. Sona used to say "hei-hei, go straight,      

Riyay" from the morning, but these words have been washed away by the flood of modernity, even though now various types of machines such as tractors and tractors are being used in farming, but they are still bought. Not everyone can afford it.

On the other hand, sprouts are coming out from the sacks of paddy, which is called 'Jala' in the village language, on the other hand, the place for planting these plants is being prepared, the village people call the places for planting Jala many things, but most of the people use the word 'Loo'.

As the days went by, the seedlings were growing, and the rice seedlings were growing. In fact, in our village Bengal, rice seedlings are not called seedlings, they are called 'Ali'. As soon as the sprouts grew, it was time to plant them a second time, so farmers were running for places to sow golden rice seedlings.

Paddy fields are mainly grown in three seasons; There are three types of paddy for three seasons - Aush, Shail and Barua. Farmers start Aush paddy cultivation in the month of Boishakh and harvest the paddy in the month of Shravan. After the Aush paddy, the farmers take to the cultivation of Shail paddy and this Shail paddy ripens in the month of Agrahayan known as the paddy ripening month of the year. Barua paddy is planted in relatively low places so that it gets water easily in wet weather. Cultivation of this rice is done between Poush and Chaitra. The farmers of our village Bengal usually make a living by cultivating these three types of gold. Our India was called the golden bird in history because India was a very prosperous country and the main pillar behind this prosperity of India was agriculture. A total of 110,000 varieties of rice were cultivated in India but now it has been reduced to only 6000 varieties. India is the only country in the world that if a seed is planted in its soil, it will grow into more than a hundred.

Before entering the month of Shravan, a crowd of farmers could be seen in the fields, but now farmers are seen walking with caps on their heads, towels around their waists and working as day labourers. The workers are carrying umbrellas on their heads and are planting them on the muddy ground.

Fifteen days later…

The trees have grown a lot. Since there are no previous days, 'decomposing manure' and 'dung manure' are no more, there are only factory-made chemical fertilizers which farmers buy from the market and bring to the field. Earlier farmers prepared fertilizers in many ways but did not use chemicals in them. They prepared organic fertilizers by mixing equal amounts of dung, cow urine, gur, pulses etc. in the drum.Because those fertilizers were biological, they did not cause any harm to the environment and at the same time, they would increase the growth and yield of the plants, but as a result of the chemical fertilizers of today, the environment is being produced in various ways and the organisms that maintain the organic mass are dying.

The day was the Sankranti of the month of Ashwin, the paddy trees were beginning to blossom and all around was a crowd of farmers, they were going to the agricultural land with leaves of Dhurba, Chandan, Chalta leaves. And going there all began to say together -

“ ashiwn jaite kartik dhukte,

bhuijirila devir pute ।।

Sunda, metti, beler pata ;

hija fele arai hath ।।

 Arai hath dorse ,

korer ek o kittay !

Non ek bhandar ।। “

After a while I came to know - according to Hindu culture, on the Sankranti day of the month of Ashwin, Dhurba, Sandalwood, Chalta leaves are taken and placed on the agricultural land.

When the farmers went to the fields, the rice flowers would take off their petals when they saw the farmers.

There is a word -- the flow of the river and the ticking of the clock do not wait for anyone, just as the rice flower was growing from time to time; And the paddies were getting nourished. Again with time the paddy was ripe and looked like a field full of gold.Metallic gold not only adds beauty but our farmer's gold not only adorns the fields but also preserves life by becoming human food. Now the paddy is ripe and it is time to harvest so the farmers are out in the fields with scissors in hand, while some rich class farmers have started cutting the paddy with modern rice harvesters .    

On the other hand, paddy will be threshed so 'chatal' is being made. Usually, in our village in Bengal, threshing is done with tractor, cow or buffalo, but a group of engineers have made a new machine for the benefit of the farmers, which is very easy but the method of threshing is completely different. .However, after threshing the rice is done, what remains on top is the dry paddy plant called 'khedar' and below are the glittering gold particles. The gold particles seem to shimmer when the sun hits them. After the paddies are dried, they are kept in storage. So that you can eat full of rice throughout the year .

The rice produced by our farmers in India is exported almost all over the world. And this is how rice is keeping our children of Bashundhara alive in its glory.........