Paddy transplantation
Also called: Transplantation · Topic: Economy of Early India: Agriculture, Trade, Guilds, Coinage · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"
Meaning
Paddy transplantation is a way of growing rice in two steps. First, seeds are scattered thickly in a small seedbed. When the young plants (saplings) have grown, farmers pull them out and plant them again in fields filled with water. More plants survive this way, so the harvest is much bigger. In early India it greatly raised rice output in the Ganga valley, along with the spread of plough agriculture from c. 600 BCE. It was very hard work for the farmer: NCERT calls it "back-breaking".
Example
In the middle Ganga plains, transplanted paddy fed the growing towns and mahajanapadas (early states) of the 6th century BCE, such as Magadha. The extra grain also gave rulers a larger crop to tax.
Don't confuse with
- Broadcasting: seeds are scattered straight onto the field and left to grow there. In transplantation the seedbed is only the first step, and the saplings are later moved to waterlogged fields.