Second Season

Hello Mr. Snails! We meet again for the second time! It has been a while I did not write a thing or two on this blog. Yup, I have been away to meet Mr. Snails again! I hope this project will turn out well and will benefit the paddy farmers in future. Well, let me keep it to myself first what is it all about. I don’t want to leak in some information or else I’ll be chopped off later on.

New plot for second season of the project.

          Well, besides meeting Prof Albert and Mrs Sacha, I met someone from Japan, Mrs Tomoko who will maybe be working with us in future. Happy! Meeting new people is refreshing indeed. And never forget OHMYENGLISH along the conversation. Lol. I need to sharpen my English after this. Manglish doesn’t help at all!

Mrs Tomoko. I need to have a hat for myself next time.

          After 12 day of hard worked, I am roasted alive by the burning sun. This will take for another 6 months to get to my former fairness. But I’m not so sure if by bleaching at the beauty spa can fasten the recovery. I will keep this in mind. Maybe in future I have to equipped myself with the farmer's hat because I do wear sun blocks but it didn't work. Sunblock, you have let me down!

The team

Jungle Tracking - Lintang Organic Valley, Sik Kedah

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to have a look and roaming around in some jungle at Lintang Organic Valley, Sik Kedah. Really its a jungle!

Excited - Have to get through them to reach The Lintang Organic Valley 

          But I am surprise that in the middle of the jungle, there is a paddy field. All the paddy there was organically planted with the SRI (System of Rice Intensification) method. Worry not! There are more people there and all of them are interested with the SRI Rice. On that day, from the SRI method, the total rice yield is 7.16 tonnes/hectare for MR263 rice variety. From my point of view, thus is such a good technique and the total rice yields increased compared to the conventional method. Plus it is ORGANIC! Such a good stuff.

1) The participants - most of them are students and researcher from the universities. 2) Won the gold medal for Malaysian Invention and Design Society. 3) Paddy sample for MR263 variety is about to be harvested. 4) Participants are counting the rice yield.

The objective of my visit is actually to know and learn what is ubi gadong or scientifically known as Dioscorea hispida. At first, I thought it was as same as tapioca plant but it was as closed to the yam family. Ubi gadong has the potential to act as an organic bane towards the parasitoids (such as Scirpophaga incertulasdan and Scirpophaga innotata) and the golden apple snail. The active compounds are toxic alkaloids known as dioscorine and dioscorine N-oxide that retards the development and insecticidal activity (act as depressants in the nervous system to the insect). The tuber is cut, put in a blender and then soaked in water for 24 hours. The soaked water were used to spray on the paddy plant. Meanwhile, there is another active component known as saponin that can be used to kill the golden apple snail. But in a large doses, saponin can kill any type of fish in the paddy field. I think further research is needed towards this matter before the tuber is use for reducing the golden apple snail invasion.

Ubi Gadong

Ubi gadong vines.

Besides ubi gadong, I was introduced to akar seruntun or also known as patawali, brotowali or batang wali. Scientifically it is known as  Tinospora krispa (miers) or tinosprora tuberculata. They said that the vine of this plant is so bitter and can be used as repellent for parasitoids. The preparation of the vine is as same as the ubi gadong. The soaked liquid is sprayed on the plant. Both of the vine and the tuber can be mixed together too.

Akar Seruntun

          The findings are much more interesting. I wonder, why should we go for chemical pesticides etc while there are abundance of natural sources that are much more safer for the environment. Let's think again!

References:

1. Two Isoquinuclidine Alkaloids of a Tropical Yam, Dioscorea hispida (Dioscoreaceae) as Antifeedant and Toxin Against Lepidopteran Insects.
2. Padi SRI Selangor
3. Wild Yam (Dioscoreaceae)

Burned Baby Burned.

It has been 11 days working at Penang as a part time farmers. The results are not only back aching and also my skin were burned to the core... Horey-Horey! Good job to me. 

           When I reached home from the adventures, my mom immediately said, " Wah, hitam berkilatnye kamu...Muka pun boolat!"... What a reactions, thanks mom! As fast as I could, when to weigh myself and the results is...TADA - Now I am 62kg! Duh, a heart breaking news! I told this weight news to BF and he said, "Ala, xpelah kalau gitu, nanti same2 demuk". Sigh~ New outfit for me as a therapy for gaining weight? Perhaps, perhaps. Very good indeed! Currently green is favorite color. Go Green Go!  

PS: I will be away again to the north from 11/4/12 until 19/4/12. 

Burning under the hot sun.

Motive: To kill Spongebob's pet...Thahaha.

Golden Apple Snails

Golden apple snails or locally known as Siput Gondang Emas has been infested the rice fields in Malaysia and other countries such as Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. There are two species were found are Pomacea canaliculata (golden) and Pomacea incerlarum (grey-brown with dark spots).  The snails are originated from Latin America and have been brought into the country to be raised by the food traders. It is believed to be unsuccessful and discharged to the environment. The invasion started in 1992 at Wan Mat Saman’s irrigation canal in Pangkalan Kundur, Kedah and spreading throughout the north region rapidly threatening not only the agricultural areas, wetlands, natural freshwater systems but also threaten native aquatic vegetation and aquatic fauna, including native snails.

The Golden Apple Snails having a sweet moments.

Life Cycle

The eggs are bright pink and changes to light pink when nearly hatched. The eggs will be matured between 7-15 days and the hatching process takes for 5 days. The baby snail has soft shell and will harden within in 2 days. It will start moving after reaching the size of 5mm. The smaller snails will feed on algae and detritus but as it getting bigger at the size of 15mm upwards the diet will changed to higher plants such as paddy. The snails are sexually matured at the age of 75-90 days and the life span is between 3-5 years.

Source : Kupunakalo

Infestation to the rice fields

The snails will attacked the rice plant from its base before proceeding to other parts of the plant.

About 93% of rice yield will be lost due to the infestation and damages by the snail to the rice seedlings until 30 days after sowing. Presence of the snails detected when there were blotches of lost seedlings at the rice field and the eggs. The spreading of the snails can be controlled by: 

1. Culture and physical control - The snails and the eggs were destroyed after being gathered from the field. Wood pickets were placed at the field infected for the snail to lay the eggs. In the beginning of the paddy’s growth, weeds at the field need to be cleaned.
2. Mechanical control - Net were installed at inlet and outlet of field’s water system to prevent the snails spread.
3. Biology control - Rearing ducks (Khaki Campbell and Muscovy) to act as controlling agent which will eat the snails and the eggs.
4. Chemical control - Using chemicals pesticides such as niclosamide, saponin or metaldehyde.

PS: More to learn! This is just the beginning and this page will be updated frequently!

References:
http://www.animalspot.net/pomacea-canaliculata.html
http://www.trc.zootechnie.fr/node/200

http://www.mada.gov.my/web/guest/siputgondangemas 

http://pertanianselangor.wordpress.com/tag/siput-gondang-emas/

http://livestockinformation.blogspot.com/2011/01/cara-baru-hapus-siput-gondang-emas.html

http://animhosnan.blogspot.com/2011/12/siput-gondang-emas.html

http://www.sabahkini.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5720:masalah-gondang-emas-di-tenom-selesai&catid=35:berita-sabah&Itemid=27

http://www.bharian.com.my/articles/Itikjawacegahsiputgondangemas/Article/

http://pertanianselangor.wordpress.com/category/padi-selangor/page/2/