2003 Volume 41 Issue 2 Pages 239-261
It has been argued that one of the characteristics of swamp rice cultivation practiced in the tropical rain forest climate of the lowlands of insular Southeast Asia is the transplanting of seedlings grown in nurseries to paddy fields. Such transplanting is carried out as a countermeasure to the problem of vigorous weed growth in tropical climates, but the author has reported in previous papers [Ichikawa 2000a; 2000b] that swamp rice cultivation in Nakat village located in the Bakong River basin, Sarawak, East Malaysia, is carried out by broadcast seeding. In this village, seeded fields were sometimes shifted to fallow grasslands and forests to solve the weed problem.
The objectives of this paper are to describe other examples of broadcast seeding in swamp rice cultivation, to examine the distribution of this practice, and correlate it with the natural and social characteristics of the areas where it is currently practiced or was formerly used.
Interviews in villages located in some large river basins in Sarawak revealed that, although transplanting is the principal planting method used, broadcast seeding is also practiced in some villages. It was also discovered that even in villages in which transplanting is the only method practiced today, broadcast seeding was practiced successfully up to from 10 to 60 years ago. Previous studies have reported a few cases of shifting swamp rice cultivation utilizing broadcast seeding in the Malay Peninsula, West Kalimantan and Sarawak. Such rice cultivation is observed not only in Nakat, but also in the abovementioned areas, and was no doubt practiced more widely a few decades ago.
Among the various conditions to be satisfied in the areas where shifting swamp-ricecultivation with broadcast seeding is practiced, the two main conditions are: existence of abundant fallows which can be converted easily to new paddy fields, and favorable water conditions, the areas concerned being naturally protected from sudden flooding, and not being prone to flooding in the seed broadcasting season. To meet these conditions, swamp rice fields where broadcast seeding is practiced need to be located in swamps on slightly elevated grounds, such as flood plains, low terraces and fans, such as in Nakat. Insular Southeast Asia with its tropical rain forest climate is characterized by vigorous growth of plants and low population density. It is under such conditions that broadcast seeding in swamp rice cultivation has been practiced over broad areas as an appropriate labor-saving method, weeds being countered by shifting planted/seeded fields to fallows where few weeds grow.
