Lazy Farmer's Farming Journal 5: The Rice Plants' Clothing Is Clear Water Reflecting the Moonlight

Rong-mo-bo asked with concern: "A-zhong, what kind of rice are you planting?"

"I'm planting No. 71," I answered.

He began analyzing the characteristics of different varieties: "No. 71 isn't true fragrant rice. True fragrant rice needs less fertilizer, is planted about a month later than other varieties, and harvested a month earlier than others. The rice plants grow smaller, reddish and short." Then he muttered as he calculated: "Seedlings are 20-something per pi, transplanting is 500 per fen, tilling is 1000, plus fertilizer, water and electricity, land rent. If others harvest 1800 jin, you'd be lucky to get 1000 jin."

How much you harvest and whether the price is good are a farmer's fate. Once you start farming, you're bound to be calculating it. Sometimes prices fluctuate, like watching the stock market go red and green, except farmers can't hold onto their rice. When a living crop has grown, you can't just not harvest it, even if the market is a miserable green limit-down, you can only silently sell at a loss or plow it under.

My field is located beside the village's main road, so the villagers passing back and forth surely all see it. The landlord brother most often says: "People all ask if this field is the one I farm? Of course not, how could my field grow like this. But they don't understand, you're farming organically, they just don't get it!" The seedlings grow some tall, some short, the colors yellow and green, and the scene of overgrown weeds is something never seen before. An old man who has farmed his whole life would surely find such a sight outrageous, wondering how anyone could ruin a field like this. Even the landlord brother, who supports us spiritually, cannot bear the neighbors' gossip.

Trying to make the elders understand green consumption, friendly farming, community-supported agriculture... no amount of talking does any good. Even for the younger generation of farmers, because they bear the farmers' duty and mission, it's very hard to take that step and put it into practice. Usually when I hear them talking back and forth, I choose to smile and not explain much. The community's experience tells me that if the direction is right, keep at it, and in the end explain it in the language closest to them. For the industry, calculating how much a fen of land can earn is the clearest thing of all.

From the past upheaval of spatial renovation aesthetics to today's changes in farming methods and operating models, they always observe with such curiosity. We young people, who throw ourselves into all sorts of community affairs big and small, forever look like forever-young college students in their eyes, and because of this, we carry no farmer's baggage and can bravely push and experiment.

Chuan-zong-mu said today: "A cold snap is coming, you need to add more water, otherwise the rice growing in the higher spots will freeze to death." So water gives the rice warmth, just like people need to add a layer of clothing when the weather turns cold. Farmers pay close attention to the weather, checking three times a day, deeply afraid that when the cold snap comes, the rice will catch a cold.

The rice is like the farmer's child. When the weather turns cold, the parents worry more than anyone, wanting the child to put on an extra layer of clothing. And the rice's clothing is clear water reflecting the moonlight.