🌾RICE 2022 PRODUCTION SEASON BEGINS
Dear Sponsor,
Thank you for your confidence in GrowForMe to be your â„–1 crowdfunding and crowd farming partner. We do appreciate your trust in sponsoring farmers to grow more to make food accessible and affordable while reaping the rewards that comes with it.
As we begin the 2022 rice production season, we are very excited to embark on this journey with you our sponsors. In bridging the gap between our farmers and sponsors this season, we will be informing you on the rice production cycle. This enable our sponsors to have a better understanding of what goes on during the entire production season from the field till it finally gets to the off-taker.
KNOW YOUR RICE PLANT
It is an annual grass with round, hollow jointed stems, flat leaves and a terminal panicle or inflorescence. The variety used by our sponsored farmers is the Ex-Bakai (aka Legon-1). It is short duration variety maturating within 120 -125 days after germination (DAG).
Rice plants go through three main developmental stages of growth. These include:
- Vegetative stage (germination to panicle initiation [PI]: 60 DAG),
- Reproductive stage (PI to heading: 90 DAG) and
- Ripening (Heading to maturity: 120 DAG).
The Rice Production Cycle
The life cycle of rice begin from varietal selection through the management of the plants to postharvest procedures. Every stage of the production cycle is important to have quality rice grain while minimizing damage.
There are three main steps in the rice production cycle.
Pre-planting: A crop calendar is develop at this stage to guide each and every activity that is to take place during the production cycle. Farmers select the variety of seed rice to grow. This stage also marks the beginning of land preparations. Mechanized land preparation takes about a month. Farmers use the power tillers, moldboard plow and rotovators to achieve a well till, moist and levelled field. During this stage, all sponsored farmers are provided with tractors services to ensure a smooth start and uniformity among fields.
Growth Phase: Farmers decide on the planting method to use at this stage. Our sponsored farmers decide on the planting method to adopt taking into considering certain factors like seed viability, money to hire labour and availability of labour. Farmer either use the broadcast, drill or dribble method of planting. Farmers are however, advice to use the dribble or drill method of planting to ensure an optimum population. Other important management practices done during this phase include fertilizer application, water management, weed, pest and disease control is paramount at this stage.
Postproduction: This is the final yet delicate stage of the production cycle. Each activity at these stages must be timely to ensure the wholesomeness of the paddy prior to milling. Harvesting, drying, storage and milling determine the quality and marketability of grains.
Weather Conditions
The weather condition over the rice farm from January to March, 2022 shows that temperatures are high, above 30 degrees Celsius (℃). For germination to occur, rice seed require a moisture content of 30 % to 40 %. At a temperature below 8 ℃ and above 45 ℃ no germination will take place. Optimum temperature needed for seedling emergence is 25–30℃. Temperature higher than 40℃ will result in death of seedling while lower than 10℃, seedlings will not grow.
Current temperature reading from satellite indicate temperature at 39℃ and 0.8mm precipitation. For good rice plant growth, precipitation (rainfall) should be more than 20mm.
Low precipitation in the area has cause land preparation to be behind schedule. Farmers are however, waiting on the Kpong Irrigation Scheme management to finish up with the routine maintenance work and release water to all fields to begin land preparation.
WHAT TO EXPECT ON UPDATES ON RICE I 2022 PRODUCTION SEASON
In the next six months, sponsors will be receiving monthly picture updates of the farms on their Dashboard and also feedback from satellite imagery on the status of the farm.
Picture updates on your rice farms will be in the following main stages:
- Weather Conditions
- Land preparation
- Seed preparation
- Crop establishment and maintenance
- Crop developmental stage
- Harvest and post-harvest activities
We therefore entreat sponsors to patiently monitor activities both from their GrowForMe dashboard and via the email update.
Farmland location: The rice farm in Asutuare under the Kpong Irrigation Scheme in the Eastern Region. Below is drone image taken during last year’s rice production season.
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.
