When it comes to rice planting they're a lot of stages that'll be followed. This stages may not be applied in some communities, and other countries. For we in Ebonyi State specifically in Afikpo North Local Government Area we follow different stages when it comes to rice planting.
One of the stages that's so important to achieve a success rice planting is the nursery stage. This stage is the stage where we usually plant only the rice seed on a soil. We pour the rice seed at the surface of a cultivated land and allow it to germinate before we can then transplant. Rice seed nursery planting usually takes only four weeks minimum before we can uproot the stems used from the transplanting.
Our area for the rice nursery planting is the stages that we usually apply to secure the rice seeds from allowing birds not to eat them before the time of germination. Because we pour the rice seeds at the surface of a cultivated land if we don't secure the rice seeds they'll all be swallowed by birds and this is very bad for a farmer.
To protect or secure the rice seed nursery from birds they're actually many stages farmers of different communities usually apply. The stages are followed to make sure birds doesn't swallow the rice seeds before they'll germinate. The stage I'll be discussing today is how to use net to secure our rice seeds from birds and why it's the most secure method farmers should follow.
When a farmer has cultivated her farmland and pours rice seeds on the surface of the land what she is supposed to do is to immediately cut a large net that'll cover the whole rice seeds from the land.
After covering the rice seeds with a net, it's very important that the nets be covered round using a stone. The stones are supposed to be kept at the top of the net around the whole farmland.
The important of the stone is to hold the bet very strong so that heavy breeze will not blow them of and thereby exposing the rice seeds for birds. The stones also help to hold the net so that sensible and big birds will not remove everything.
Net use is actually the best one to use to secure our rice seeds from birds because it still allows sun and rain to be touching the planted rice seeds unlike some other methods.