🌾 RICE I 2022 UPDATE №2

Dear Sponsor, We gladly bring to you another update on your sponsored rice farms. This update is on the activities that have been carried out by farmers and the stages of growth of your rice plant. The twenty-two hectares of sponsored rice farms have been staggered into two main batches. Staggered planting is the act of planting fields at different time periods during the cropping season rather than planting them simultaneously. This will allow the rice fields to be at different points of maturity, creating a gap among fields for harvesting and post-harvest activities to be done at a reasonable pace. The first batch of paddy fields have completed the following stages in the production cycle: Land preparation, seed preparation and crop field establishment. Farmers in the second batch will be finishing with the final stage of land preparation and start their field establishment activities from the first week of June. Land Preparation As of May 20th, 2022, 50% of sponsored rice fields have been ploughed and fields rotovated with transplanting already done on these fields. The remaining 50% rice fields have been soaked and puddled to ensure uniformity in the fields. All the nurseries setup by farmers were successful with a 99% germination rate. Paddy seedlings in the nurseries are healthy and are ready for transplanting. Developmental Growth Stages of Paddy Seedlings . The first batch of paddy rice fields are in the early Vegetative growth stage (germination to panicle initiation [PI]). The vegetative stage starts with paddy seed germination and lasts through the tillering stage. Transplanted fields are in their seedling growth stage. Most of the transplanted seedlings have passed the four leaf stage and these transplanted paddy fields are all growing well and in good conditions. The farmers are currently ensuring proper maintenance of these fields to promote crop protection and reduce weed growth. Fertilisation and chemical control of most fields will begin in the first week of June Weather Conditions The weather pattern over the farming areas has been generally good with consistent rainfall. The images below show the accumulated rainfall, daily precipitation and daily temperature respectively from Mar 31 to May 30, 2022. Precipitation (rainfall) should be more than 20mm for optimum paddy plant growth. Current precipitation recorded in the area is 258 mm. The optimum temperature range required for seedling emergence and development is 25–30℃. The temperature reading from the satellite showed a Maximum reading of 32 ℃ and Minimum of 23℃. This indicate a favourable condition for seedling germination and development. The current weather conditions coupled with good management practices, we expect the paddy plants to progress steadily from the seedling stage through to the tillering stage. We entreat sponsors to patiently monitor activities from their GrowForMe dashboard and via the email update. Do not hesitate to contact us at support@growforme.com. Now tell a friend to tell a friend to grow what we eat with GrowForMe. Press enter or click to view image in full size