Using iron chain and long brush for weeding in the rice field -A Taiwan experience

Abstract

(1) Kimura’s method of iron chain weeding machine

(2) The long brush is the 21st century’s weeding tool for rice field

Our experience is that regardless of each method, weeding work should be carried out as early as possible, preferably one or two weeks after the transplanting. At this stage the young sprouting weeds can easily be wipe out.

Article

On regular days, I work as a white-collar worker in Taipei. Since last year, I started to be a part time woman-farmer to run a rice farm. For the sake of my health, I decided to do environment-friendly organic farming i.e. producing rice without using any chemical pesticides, chemical herbicides and chemical fertilizers.
Last year, I planted an high quality Japonica-type rice TNG 71. The seedlings of rice were transplanted by the rice transplanting machine with the spacing of 30 cm between rows, and 20cm between hills. Each hill is consisted of 4-5 seedlings. Which are raised in the seed box for 3-4 weeks. Instead of using chemical herbicides, I used traditional hand weeding method to eradicate the weeds in the field, I had to bend my body all the way down toward the ground to pull off the weeds. It was a tedious and painful work for me. I thought that there must be some other easy way to do it.

(1) Kimura’s method of iron chain weeding machine
While looking for an easy non-chemical way of weeding, I had an opportunity to listen to the lecture given by Mr. Akimori Kimura at the National Taiwan University last year. He is a renounced Japanese expert in natural farming. His so called Kimura’s Method of Organic Farming is completely in harmony with nature has been accredited by the FAO (Fig. 1). His story of environment friendly farming appeared repeatedly on NHK television program. I was especially impressed by his invention of using iron chain for weeding in his rice field.
From his lecture, I learned that his iron chains are fixed on a long pole and is pulled by a tractor. The weeding is usually taken place at the young stage of weed growth i.e, 1-2 weeks after transplanting. At this stage, the growth of weeds are easily be suppressed after rolled over by the iron chains. When the weeds come out again at the later stage, repeat the work once, then it will be completely eradicated. This labor saving method is not painful as compared to that of the manual hand weeding. 
After listening Mr. Kimura’s lecture, I decided to make the similar one by myself.  Instead of using a tractor to pull it, I designed a very simple hand pulling tool by myself. The tool is consisted of 1.2 meter long plastic tube of 10 cm diameter on which 30 iron chains of 30-40 cm length are fixed at a space of 25 cm. apart. A long rope is bound on both end of the plastic pole. (Fig. 4). Although this tool is a little bit heavy to be carried by a young woman like me to the field ,however, it is easy to be handled in the field by manual operation. The question arises as to whether the iron chain will do some damage to the rice seedling? The answer is no, even the iron chain some timed caused to bend down rice seedlings, but they will soon stand up again by themselves. This is because the stem of rice seedlings are more tolerant to external pressure than the weeds. Occasionally, short height seedlings of rice would stick to mud after iron chain passed over them. In this case, they need to be helped by hand to return to the upright condition. The home made iron chain could cover 4 rows by each passing, therefore, it is a very efficient and time saving practice.  
 My feeling is that it is very easy to make by yourself and easy to be handled in the field, and efficiency of weeding in the rice field is very high. The most importantly, it is very cheap to make it, and you do not need to bend down to do the weeding work thus you can avoid the back pain.

Fig. 1.  Japanese (above) and English (below) versions of Acron7ms and Term explanation of natural farming.

 
Fig. 2.  Kimura’s chain- weeding- machine is pulled by a tractor
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uj2Et9Z4fU&feature=youtu.be)

Fig 3.  Another view of Kimura’s chain- weeding- machine is pulled by hands (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uj2Et9Z4fU&feature=youtu.be)

 
Fig. 4. My home made iron- chain- weeding- tool is operated by manual pulling

 
Fig. 5.  An elementary school six- grade student is pulling the home-made iron chain weeding tool to control the weeds in my rice field

(2) The long brush is the 21st century’s weeding tool for rice field

For safety, I was looking for alternative easy way of weeding in the rice field. While reading a Japanese comics entitled「Natsuko’s Wine」 authored by Mr. Oze Akira (1988) (Fig.6), I learned how to use a long brush to control the weeds in rice field (Fig.7).  The  cartoon  emphasized that 「the long brush is the weeding tool of 21st century」.The comic repeatedly saying「try it, you will be very happy to sing for it!」，「Try it, you will be very happy to sing for it!」. Then farming will become an easy work, and it will bring you joy and happiness everyday!」(Fig.7).

 
Fig. 6. The comic’s book entitled 「Natsuko’s  Wine」by Oze Akira (1988) is very popular in Japan as well as in Taiwan

 
Fig. 7.  Scenes of using a long brush for rice field weeding in the cartoon comics of「Natsuko’s Wine」

I am curious about from where the cartoonist got the idea of using a common house cleaning tool to control the weeds in the paddy field? Later I came to know that the cartoonist Mr. Oze Akira interviewed the famous organic farmer Mr. Yoshinori Kaneko at his organic farm and saw the demonstration of using a long brush to control the weeds in his rice field. So he drew a series of pictures in his cartoon book. I surprised to know that the cartoonist drew pictures based on the real story but not based on a fiction.

Fig. 8. Mr. Yoshinori Kaneko the famed organic farmer is the very first man to use the long brush for weeding in rice field in Japan
 ( http://www.nhk.or.jp/professional/2010/0105/index.html)

I bought a long brush from the hardware store at the cost of NT$50~70. It is generally used by a housewife to clean the toilet. My experience is that the brush is very light, easy to handle and labor saving. It took me only 5 minutes to finish a 100- meter- row of rice in the field. The professional farmer can do much faster. Many old farmers first time saw this simple and cheap method of rice weeding, and curiously asked me where did you get the idea to use the brush for weeding in the rice field? I told them the idea came from my comic reading. “It works surprisingly well”. 「Why nobody thought about the idea before?」 They questioned. I told them that the original idea was from famed organic farmer Mr. Yoshinori Kaneko, and he regarded it as the method of 21th century.

Fig. 9.  A scene of using a long brush to clean my paddy field in Taiwan.

 
Fig. 10. The weed- less part (left) has been cleaned by the long brush one week earlier as it is compared with the new budding of weeds (right part)which is not cleaned by the long brush at the drainage stage of paddy field.

 
Fig 11. Last year, time of weeding was too late to be carried out. As a result, full of weeds came out as. shown in this picture. Under this condition, weeding becomes a very difficult work .
 

Fig. 12. The early weeding was taken place this year. As a result, effect of controlling weeds is very significant as shown in this picture.

It is concluded that in the course of producing organic rice, I came across the difficulties of weeding in the paddy field. To avoid using the traditional hand pulling of weeds, I adopted two simple weeding methods, i.e. iron-chain weeding tool and a long brush weeding tool. I regarded them to be cheap, labor saving and efficient methods to control weeds in an organic rice field. I want to share my experience of using these two methods to those who are interested in trying them in their fields.
The two tools can be self-made and low cost. They are very light and can be carried by a woman. They are easily being handled and do not need to receive a special training before using them. While use them, you don’t need to bent down your body so that you can avoid being suffered from a back pain caused by the traditional hand pulling method of weeding in the field.
Our experience is that regardless of each method, weeding work should be carried out as early as possible, preferably one or two weeks after the transplanting. At this stage the young sprouting weeds can easily be wipe out.