Rice farming in Ganges Delta

REQUIREMENTS:
1. Rice seeds need a growing season of 5 months with temperatures > 21 degrees C
2. Rice needs an annual rainfall of over 2000mm with at least 120mm falling in each month of the growing season.
3. A dry sunny period is needed in November and December for ripening and harvesting
4. The delta provides a large amount of flat land which can be flooded to create the padi fields. Mud banks (bunds) are built by hand to enclose the fields.
5. Each time the Ganges floods fertile alluvium is deposited ove r the delta area.
6. There is an impervious subsoil of clay to stop water draining away


PHYSICAL INPUTS
The continuous growing season allows 2 crops to be grown annually on the same piece of land.
Rice, initially grown in nurseries, is transplanted as soon as the monsoon rains flood the padi fields.
During the dry season, when there is often insufficient water for rice, either vegetables or a cereal crop is grown.

HUMAN INPUTS
Rice growing is labour-intensive
construct bunds
to build irrigation channels
to prepare the fields
to plant, weed and harvest the crop