John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series NEPAL |
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278-320 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series NEPAL |
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278-320 |
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| 278. Most of the people who live around Ramja Thanti are farmers and grow crops to feed themselves. They also keep a few animals -- some for food, others to help with farm work |
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| 279. Until recently much of the land here was owned by great landowners who had earned the favour of the king or prime minister. Their properties were worked by share-croppers who were required, typically, to hand over 50% of their harvest to the owners of the land -- who lived in houses like this one. |
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| 280. The farm now owned by the family of my friend Gopal lies just below the village. Like those of many neighbours it is really too small; and can feed the family for only half the year. Covering only one hectare it is bigger than most farms in the Midlands, but his parents survive still only because Gopal sends them money from time to time. |
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| 281. The fact that few farmers in the hill country have enough land to feed their families all year long is not due only to the shortage of suitable land, but also because when a man dies his land is divided equally among his sons. The youngest one has first choice of fields, the second youngest chooses next, and so on. Farms, therefore, were inevitably minute. |
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| 282. Similarly, when Gopal’s father dies his youngest brother will have his choice of houses, and the second youngest will get the other one -- even though the new one (on the left) was designed by Gopal. |
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| 283. Because the land is steeply sloping it has been terraced, with long narrow fields sometimes only one or two metres wide. They were cut into the hillside long ago, and are looked after carefully to make sure that the soil does not wash away when it rains. |
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| 284. They are cultivated either by hand, with a hoe, or with simple equipment drawn by draft animals. No one here could afford a tractor and they would be of little if any use on these terraces. The two basic items of equipment (shown here) are the plough and the harrow. |
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| 285. The farm owned by Gopal’s family, though small, was made up of 15 different fields. They were not all contiguous, and much time was invested in moving between them, and in maintaining the walls of the terraces (on which dhal was planted). |
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| 286. There is no snow here: it is not high enough. Instead it is mild even in the cool season, and crops can therefore be grown throughout the year. This is important because, with small farms, people must get as much food as possible from every plot of land. (Winter crops) |
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| 287. Many fields are cropped continuously and most will provide three separate crops each year, though the poorest fields sometimes support only two -- usually wheat (in the foreground) in winter and corn in summer. |
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| 288. Rice is planted in the wet season, in fields near the bottom of the valley -- as it is warmer there and the land can be irrigated more easily. After the rice has been harvested, they plant wheat, which grows in the cool season. And in the spring they plant corn -- one crop after the other. |
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| 289. Since there are no canals here, farmers whose fields do not adjoin the river devise uncontrolled ad hoc arrangements to divert water from natural channels. To do this they divert the water using temporary earth banks -- till someone else comes along and they must share the flow. They’ll even divert streams by torchlight at night, for the last person to water his fields can do so till dawn. |
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| 290. Higher up the slope, away from the river, in fields that are not irrigated, they plant crops that need less water. Corn is again planted in the spring and harvested before the rains. Next they plant millet and harvest that in early winter. They then plant wheat or mustard. This woman is harvesting mustard. Its seed is crushed to make vegetable oil. |
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| 291. Since the fields are ploughed before each of these crops is planted, farmers are kept busy throughout the year. First, manure from cow sheds and compost heaps is dug from the heap near the house. |
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| 292. It is then carried to the fields, and spread around by hand. [Video Extract 02] |
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| 293. It is then dug into the soil using a wooden plough pulled by oxen. Two oxen are needed to pull a plough and those families who have just one will share their animals. Families without oxen exchange personal labour for the use of a neighbour’s animals. The women are using long-handled mallets to break up soil clumps |
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| 294. The field will then be harrowed, to smooth the surface prior to planting. |
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| 295. In the case of rice, the dikes between fields usually need to be repaired when the land is ploughed. It is then flooded and the soil is smoothed off using a wooden harrow. Rice seedlings raised in a nursery bed are then transplanted to flooded fields. The women place them in clumps of two or three seedlings, about 10 centimetres apart. (Nursery bed) |
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| 296. With crops like corn the seed itself is spread by hand. It is simply dropped into a furrow made by the plough while another member of the farmer’s family breaks up any clumps that remain. The seed will be covered on the same day using a harrow or log pulled behind the oxen. [Video Extract 02] |
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| 297. At harvest time each corn stalk is cut individually at ground level with a sickle and carried back to the house. Here the cobs are stripped off and the stalks set aside for use as fodder later. |
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| 298. The corn cobs will be stored in above-ground stacks or under the eaves of the house. |
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| 299. When rice crops are ready the whole stalk will again be harvested using a curved knife or a sickle. |
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| 300. But it will then be left to dry in the field for two or three days, before it is bundled up and moved to a threshing floor nearby. |
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| 301. This will have been coated with mud to produce a smooth surface against which the sheaves will be beaten to loosen the grain. |
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| 302. The detached grains will be swept up and either winnowed there and then or bagged and taken back to the house. |
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| 303. The straw, which is then crushed by oxen harnessed to a pole, will be used as fodder, and is stacked nearby. |
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| 304. In the case of wheat, the head is cut from the stalk. It’s a task in which everyone in the family shares. [Video Extract 03] |
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| 305.The straw that remains will be harvested also, and bundled up for use later as animal feed or bedding. |
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| 306. At the end of the day the wheat will be carried home for threshing |
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| 307. After drying it will be beaten with a stick (usually by men) to knock the grain from the husks. |
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| 308. Mustard (shown here), millet and lentils are threshed in the same way. [Video Extract 04] |
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| 309. My friend’s parents helped with their feet. His mother was far from well that day, and greatly discomforted by giardia, but she insisted on doing her share of the work. |
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| 310. During winnowing the grain is separated from the chaff (husks and straw fragments). Wind, if there is any, is used to get rid of the lightest particles, by tipping the basket so that the grain falls on the ground and the chaff blows away. |
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| 311. The baskets are then vibrated or shaken vigorously (usually by women) to separate off the heavier grain from the remaining chaff. Again, nothing is wasted, for the chaff is kept as animal feed. [Video Extract 04] |
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| 312. Every family will also have a kitchen garden near their house, nourished by ash from cooking fires, washing-up water, compost and manure. Here Gopal’s father is establishing a new cucumber bed, providing poles for the vines to grow on. The cucumbers will be used in curries not salads. (See “Food and Clothing” below) |
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| 313. Cows are sacred and are neither slaughtered nor used as beasts of burden. Instead they bear calves, and provide milk (though the yield is low), plus dung. Male calves, however, will be castrated to provide oxen for heavy field work. [Video Extract 05] |
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| 314. Male buffaloes are used as beasts of burden or sold to lower castes and butchered for meat. The females produce a creamy milk (more than cows usually), which is sometimes turned into yoghurt or ghee. |
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| 315. Goats here are raised mostly for religious use. They will be sacrificed during festivals, their blood spread around a shrine, and their meat eaten during the celebrations that follow. They are let out to graze sometimes but are also fed on leaves gathered in the forest. |
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| 316. The higher slopes are not suited to cropping and are used for grazing towards the end of the cool season when farmers can no longer feed all their animals at home on last year’s fodder. |
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| 317. In areas of orthodox Hindu beliefs herds are dominated by old and sick animals, which are of no further use but still must be fed. Hillsides are overgrazed as a result. |
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| 318. Most of the forest above is common land and people can collect as much firewood, timber and fodder as they wish, thereby increasing the danger of soil erosion. |
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| 319. As a result much of the “forest” higher up has been reduced to scrub woodland and little vegetation is left to retain the soil on steep slopes. |
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| 320. Even close to Ramja whole hillsides have been scarred by erosion and still more so by massive landslides. |
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