Are field weeds the farmer's enemy? A-Xiao from the fields answers for you

It has been nine months since I returned home to farm. Sometimes my family teases me that managing six fen of land keeps me busier than others who farm six jia. In fact, there is always endless work in the fields; it just depends on whether you want to do it and how you want to do it.

I chose a farming method based on biological inspection, without fertilizer or pesticides. Whether it is rice, vegetables, or fruit, aside from sowing and harvesting, roughly speaking there seem to be only two things to do: controlling the water level and controlling weed growth, and these two things determine whether the crops grow well.

In a rice paddy, when the water level is low, damage from apple snails is less, but weeds grow easily; when the water level is high, weeds do not grow easily, but apple snails run rampant. When I planted rice for the first time last year, many experienced farming friends reminded me that apple snails are very formidable, so I had to prevent and control them well to keep the rice seedlings from being eaten completely. Therefore, the strategy I adopted was to lower the water level.

Sure enough, the apple snails had no room to operate, while the weeds were delighted, spreading the word to one another: this field has not been sprayed with herbicide, so hurry and grow! Ludwigia octovalvis, soft rush, arrowhead, bermudagrass... all popped up to compete for territory.

To grow and reproduce, weeds must grow quickly, flower, and set seed; rice plants cannot match this. However, this is farmland, and it must produce crops to provide people with food. So when I pull weeds, I am only controlling them so they do not suppress the growth of the crops.

It is entirely natural for a field to have grass and insects. Where there is grass, there will be insects; where there is grass and insects, there will be more plants and animals to balance things out. In this way, nature's workings can sustainably and naturally fertilize the soil. When the ecology above ground is rich, the soil below ground will slowly become fertile, and artificial fertilizer can gradually be reduced.

Weeds are not the farmer's enemy. Managing farmland with a thorough ecological concept and finding a farming model that coexists with weeds and creates mutual good with the land is one of my goals.