Traditional agriculture based on KSR cultivation
Variety diversity of KSR. A total of 61 KSR varieties were collected in ten Dong villages (Table 3), among which 14 varieties were cultivated on a large scale and widely used, 4 varieties were shared by two villages, and the remaining 57 varieties were different. The main KSR varieties planted by Dong people are also different in every Dong village due to the differences in geographical environment, dietary culture and other traditional cultures. In Huanggang Village, for example, "Liezhuhe" is the most widely grown variety in the area due to the dense jungle, short sunshine duration and high elevation of the paddy fields. This variety has a short awn, small grain shape and strong adaptability to cold conditions. "Baixianghe" is the main local variety in Yandong Village, which is suitable for planting at low altitude, has a strong fragrance and is suitable for the traditional cultural needs of the local Dong people. In addition, Dong people take mainly KSR as their daily staple food in some villages, such as Huang Gang, Jianhua and Zhanli; therefore, the planting area is large. In other villages, KSR appears in only Dong traditional cultural festivals and religious sacrifices; thus, the planting area is small.
The CII value of KSR in southeast Guizhou.
Although the number of varieties of KSR planted was reduced compared with our team's previous research [23], each household will continue to plant four-six different varieties for Dong people in most villages. We found that although there are various varieties of KSR, it has certain commonalities. The reason why Dong people continue to grow these varieties is not only because the local climate and environmental conditions are suitable but also, more importantly, because KSR is a very important cultural plant [32]. Therefore, the cultural importance index (CII) of all KSRs was calculated using quantitative methods to determine their importance. The CIIs of 61 species are listed in Table 3.
KSRs with a high CII often have adapt well to the environment. These dominant varieties have a pleasant taste and strong fragrance and are staple foods of Dong people, such as “Goucengengka” in Jianhua Village, “Liezhuhe” in Huanggang Village and “Niumaohe” in Kengdong Village. They are also used in other traditional cultures. In contrast, some KSR varieties have a high CII values at small planting scales, but their traditional utilization value is fully played in the specific festivals, culture and religion of Dong people. Only this unique variety can embody its cultural value in the eyes of Dong people. “Dongronghe” of Keng Dong Village, for example, is neither the staple food of Dong people nor the dominant variety of the village. However, due to its special seed coat color (red) and good taste, it is fully used in the traditional festivals of Dong people. Dong people will make colored glutinous rice, traditional Chinese rice-pudding and so on with “Dongronghe” as raw materials during festivals. Additionally, they believe “Dongronghe” is the most precious. We can screen out variety with high values using the CII, for which on-farm conservation can be enhanced and public recognition of the cultural value of these species can be increased.
Table 3
Inventory of KSR species in southeast Guizhou and their CII
Village
|
No.
|
Local name
|
CII
|
Traditional utilization of KSR in this village
|
Jianhua
|
1
|
120-days he
|
1.18
|
These varieties are kept by farmers for decades or hundreds of years;
The most important festivals in Jianhua are the Dragon Boat Festival, the Zongba Festival and Xinmi Festival;
Every family will steam glutinous rice and drink glutinous rice wine to celebrate the festival. They will also make glutinous rice pickled fish and sour soup to celebrate the festival;
The small amount of hybrid rice grown by the Dong people in Jianhua are used only to feed livestock or entertain guests who do not like KSR;
Local herbalists also add KSR to some herbs to enhance their efficacy.
|
2
|
130-days he
|
0.45
|
3
|
Black he
|
1.77
|
4
|
Goucengao
|
1.68
|
5
|
Gouyangdang
|
4.05
|
6
|
Goutunrong
|
0.91
|
7
|
Gouliejiu
|
1.45
|
8
|
Gouliezhu
|
1.86
|
9
|
Gouliedainian
|
1.86
|
10
|
Gongmuhe
|
1.09
|
11
|
Goucengaoka
|
5.05
|
12
|
Gouhuanggang
|
1.00
|
Zhanli
|
13
|
Wangni
|
1.22
|
Zhanli Village is famous in China for having only one boy and one girl in every family, and its natural population growth rate remains close to zero;
The most important festival in Zhanli is the first day of February and the first day of August, when every family will exchange different KSR as gifts;
Dong people often weave straw ropes and sandals from KSR stalks and burn them into grass ash for dyeing cloth.
|
14
|
Gouliezhu
|
0.89
|
15
|
Zhanliheinuo
|
1.22
|
16
|
Yangdanghe
|
1.00
|
17
|
Yansanse
|
0.94
|
18
|
Gouhada
|
0.56
|
19
|
Dabaohe
|
0.94
|
20
|
Gonggu
|
0.56
|
21
|
Zhanlinuohe
|
2.39
|
22
|
Danglao
|
1.78
|
Xiaohuang
|
23
|
Red he
|
2.84
|
The Mid-Autumn Day is the most solemn festival of the year in Xiaohuang, every family steamed glutinous rice, drank glutinous rice wine and so on;
Dong people also use KSR to extract maltose and make candy in daily life.
|
24
|
Yangwenna
|
0.52
|
25
|
Dabaohe
|
1.04
|
26
|
Gouhagongniu
|
1.48
|
27
|
Goubadang
|
0.52
|
Baba
|
28
|
Liezhuhe
|
3.93
|
Baspa Village is rich in folk traditional culture, with various types of performances and folk activities;
The Xinmi Festival and Spring Festival are more important festivals in Basha, and the villagers will make different foods with KSR to celebrate;
Baba Village has developed into an ethnic tourism village and has exchanges with the outside world; thus, KSR varieties have been exchanged with other villages.
|
29
|
Babagonghe
|
0.79
|
30
|
Danianhe
|
1.21
|
31
|
Jiuyuejiu
|
1.00
|
32
|
Gougong
|
1.14
|
33
|
Gouhadang
|
1.21
|
Dingdong
|
34
|
Gouyongmi
|
1.48
|
Dingdong Village is a relatively wealthy Dong village;
Selling KSR is an important livelihood for farmers. The better varieties are sold at a price of 4.76$/kg in the market;
The grandest festival in Dingdong village is "Adult Day" on July 14, which is mainly held for young men and women aged 16-18, every family eats KSR.
|
35
|
Gouyongwai
|
0.92
|
36
|
Dingdongheihe
|
1.72
|
37
|
Goudainian
|
0.80
|
38
|
Goudang
|
0.68
|
39
|
Xianggu
|
0.72
|
Huanggang
|
40
|
Red he
|
2.12
|
Every family grows KSR and raises fish, ducks in Huanggang village, and is famous for its rice-fish-duck ecosystem;
Dong people in Huanggang are particularly fond of eating KSR, which is indispensable for all meals and festivals;
The grandest festival in Huanggang Village is "Hantian Day" on June 15. Dong people would invite friends from neighboring villages to participate in the festival, eating glutinous rice and drinking glutinous rice wine;
Villagers in Huanggang do not eat hybrid rice and use it only for tourists.
|
41
|
Liezhuhe
|
4.79
|
42
|
Old-Liezhuhe
|
0.39
|
43
|
60-days he
|
1.36
|
44
|
70-days he
|
0.61
|
45
|
Jindongnuo
|
0.33
|
46
|
Huanggangyangnong
|
0.55
|
Kengdong
|
47
|
Heimanghe
|
0.95
|
KSR is mainly used for market sales, festival celebrations or as gifts in Kengdong;
The most important festival in Kengdong is the “Shuaijiao Festival” on February 15. Villagers fry or steam KRS, which is not completely ripe, as a snack.
|
48
|
Niumaohe
|
2.53
|
49
|
Tonghe
|
0.84
|
50
|
Dongronghe
|
2.89
|
51
|
Gonggenghe
|
2.79
|
Yandong
|
52
|
Wuminghe
|
2.52
|
KSR is mainly used to make snacks such as glutinous rice oil tea in Yandong Village, which Dong people drink in the morning and afternoon every day;
The most important festival in Yandong is the Black Rice Festival on April 8, when the KSR is dyed black with leaves of Vaccinium bracteatum Thunb. and steamed.
|
53
|
Baixianghe
|
4.29
|
54
|
Huangshanxue
|
2.00
|
Miedong
|
55
|
Wuminghe
|
2.06
|
The KSR in Miedong Village is mainly used in festivals, such as Zongba Festival on June 6 and July 15.
|
56
|
Gouzhaige
|
3.75
|
57
|
Ougen
|
1.19
|
Zhaoxing
|
58
|
Black nuo
|
2.61
|
Zhaoxing Village is the biggest and oldest Dong village in China, The village is a wonderland for Dong festivals, songs and dancing. The most famous event is the Grand Song, a unique polyphonic folk music tradition that has been passed from generation to generation for over 2,500 years, the KSR in Zhaoxing is used mainly in these activities.
|
59
|
Hongmangbainuo
|
2.86
|
60
|
Changmangdanuo
|
0.81
|
61
|
Wumangdanuo
|
0.44
|
Breeding, storage management and field management of KSR
Variety breeding and field management based on male and female division of labor.
Dong people engage in different farm work according to different seasons and agricultural terms, and men and women have their own division of labor, forming a set of conventional breeding and field management mode. From the second month to the fourth month of the lunar calendar belongs to the stage of preparing for cultivation and raising seedlings. The male labor in the field is mainly to rake the field and build irrigation canals. Women are mainly responsible for clearing weeds near the field, collecting farm manure, selecting seeds and raising seedlings. In terms of variety selection, a family will generally choose 4-6 varieties of KSR. Women mainly choose suitable varieties according to different maturity stages of KSR, adaptability to field soil and resistance to diseases and insects. If a family chooses a slightly larger variety of KSR, they don't plant them all in one year, but rotate them over many years. Because different KSR varieties have different requirements for paddy fields, changing the varieties planted in paddy fields every year is beneficial to the balanced utilization of soil nutrients and the control of disease, insect, and also can effectively improve the physical and chemical properties of soil and regulate soil fertility. After the transplant rice seedlings, the Dong people regularly take care of the seedlings, weeding and topdressing, which are usually done by men, Dong women will put the fish and ducks into the paddy fields, forming a rice-fish-duck symbiotic ecosystem when the seedlings grow to a certain stage. The ninth lunar month is the season to harvest KSR, women will cooperate with men to release water and catch fish to harvest rice. Dong people attach great importance to seed selection and seed retention of KSR. Dong women usually choose the rice ears with full grain and no disease in the field in the mature stage and reserve them as the next year's rice seeds for sowing.
Therefore, male and female labor division is a cooperative and complementary relationship in the field management of KSR, they formed a set of traditional agricultural management knowledge related to KSR. Males are very familiar with the construction and irrigation of KSR terraces, while females are more familiar with the breeding and growth habits of varieties. These traditional management systems with different emphasis due to gender differences are the important social foundation for the long-term inheritance of KSR.
Traditional agronomic management of multi-variety mixed planting.
Dong villagers have formed the traditional agronomy of multispecies mixed planting to resist natural disasters and insect pests, which is profoundly ecologically wise. They skillfully use the different biological properties of different varieties of KSR to avoid natural risks and form the unique ecological ethics of the Dong people. On the one hand, the mixed planting pattern creates conditions for cross-pollination between different varieties; thus, other varieties naturally emerge, and Dong villagers will consciously retain such varieties for trial planting. If they can adapt to the local environment, they will expand the planting. After generations of cultivation, they can select and breed new glutinous rice varieties. On the other hand, different varieties mature at different times, and harvesting seeds at different times can avoid the impact of labor shortages to ensure the output and harvest of rice seeds.
Traditional storage and management techniques of KSR.
Threshing is one of the most important part in the harvest process of crops, but it is very difficult to threshing of KSR under natural conditions, the Dong people need to manually harvest with the original picking tool——" half-moon pliers"—— and threshing is only carried out when eating. Dong people use half-moon pliers to harvest the ear of rice one by one and tie them into a bunch, then carry them home with a shoulder pole and dry them on the grain rack, which is commonly known as "heliang" in Dong areas, that is a beautiful cultural landscape in Dong villages every October. The seeds are thoroughly dried after one month and then stored in a granary. Granary and drying grain rack ("heliang") are often away from the house (Fig.4a,b), "heliang" was built in a row along the river to facilitate drying and ventilation, while avoiding fire, "granary" is not in the house but is built on the pond, convenient for fire protection, and convenient for rat. The germplasm resources of KSR are continuously preserved year by year in this way.
Dong people have strict requirements on stored grain, such as removing impurities as much as possible, strictly controlling moisture and strengthening ventilation to avoid mildew of grain. It can be seen that the traditional rice storage technology is closely related to the local Dong people's life style, which is the result of Dong people's understanding and adaptation to the local natural geographical environment, as well as the experience and wisdom crystallization of long-term practice of Dong people, and plays a very important role in maintaining the survival of Dong people.
The conventional tillage system of water and soil conservation
The paddy fields of Dong people are divided into mainly terrace fields (the bench section field constructed along a contour line on a hillside), Bang fields (the field on top of a hill), Bazi fields (the field on a partial plain) and Chong fields (flat field between mountains) according to Chen's research [33]. The proportion of paddy fields of ten villages with different types is shown in Fig. 5. The KSR fields of the Dong people are mainly terraced fields (“Yav Janc” in the Dong language and “Titian” in Chinese). Dong people build terraced fields into a typical constructed wetland ecosystem using their wisdom of traditional farming techniques. Most of these terraced fields are built on the same level as the hills surrounding the cottages (Fig. 2e). There are also some villages, such as Huanggang, that cannot be connected with the paddy fields due to the high altitude and complicated terrain; hence, the Dong people must build terraced fields in the forests around the village (Fig. 2f). Therefore, the paddy field ecological landscape of Huanggang Village is completely different from that of other Dong villages; you will see only the forest but not the field when entering the village.
Terrace fields: the bench section field constructed along a contour line on a hillside; Bang fields: the field on top of a hill; Bazi fields: the field on a partial plain; Chong fields: flat fields between mountains.
The Dong people build terraced fields along hillsides to form a three-dimensional structure. Natural spring water is then diverted to the terraces; for the terraced fields along the river, the water is poured into the fields by a traditional water wheel (Fig. 2d). The KSR terraces of the Dong people are a unique natural water cycle ecosystem, and they collect rainwater for terraces all year round. The natural differential pressure is used to supply the water needed by the terraced fields in the rainy season when rainfall is abundant, and the water is irrigated from high to low. Finally, the excess water is discharged into the river from the bottom of the slope. It also replenishes groundwater through osmosis, and the water in the paddy fields naturally evaporates into clouds and rain in the case of the drought season, which helps in regulating the climate. This unique regional microclimate environment not only avoids the greenhouse effect but is also conducive to water and soil conservation. The beautiful ecological environment in the Dong area is formed and preserved in this way. In ten villages we surveyed, most of the terraced fields had thickened and raised ridges, which villagers said were designed to maximize rainwater storage. The KSR planted in the terraces is generally the variety carefully bred and domesticated by the Dong people, and the plant height can reach 1.5-1.8 m; therefore, they are not afraid of flooding and easily store deep water. These KSRs have good resistance to diseases and insects and seldom use pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which also play a positive role in promoting the protection of the local ecological environment. In addition, the growing period of KSR is longer than that of hybrid rice (usually about 160-180 days); thus, terraced fields can be filled with water year round, forming a natural miniature reservoir. The good ecological environment and relatively fewer flood and drought disasters in the Dong nationality area are closely related to this conventional tillage system.
Rice-fish-duck symbiotic farmland ecosystem
Dong farmers have traditionally raised fish and ducks in KSR fields since ancient times (Fig. 6). KSR varieties in this rechecked ecosystem of the Dong community have the following common characteristics: 1) The variety of KSR is abundant to meet different soil and climate conditions to ensure sustainable farmland ecosystems; 2) these varieties should be tall, not prone to lodging, and resistant to flooding, which is not only conducive to water storage in the terraces but also conducive to the free movement of ducks and the growth of fish; 3) The KSR varieties are tolerant of the cold because most of the paddy fields are located in deep mountains and forests where the sunshine hours are few; 4) These KSR varieties have good resistance to disease and insect pests and do not use pesticides and chemical fertilizers during the growing period to ensure maximum economic benefits and ecosystem security.
Dong villagers actively control the entry time of rice, fish and duck by taking advantage of the time difference in the growing season of biological species to realize the sustainability of the KSR farmland ecosystem. When transplanting rice seedlings, the fish fry is put into the paddy field. The paddy field is generally dominated by carp (Cyprinus Carpio), while the fish pond is mostly grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella). Duck seedlings are put into paddy fields when the fish grow to 4-5 cm, and most of them are local ducks domesticated by Dong people who are small in size and have a high rate of meat and egg production. Fish and ducks not only remove pests and weeds from rice fields and increase oxygen levels in the water, but their excrement is also a good fertilizer for rice growth. The ancient business model keeps agroecosystems sustainable. We often see villagers who leave for work always take poultry and livestock out at the same time in our field study. This is the necessary operation of breeding check. There is another plant in this system called the duckweed, Dong people have unique survival wisdom that they never clean the duckweed in the paddy fields. The microorganisms and duckweed in the traditional paddy field ecosystem could interact and promote each other's growth, maintaining a benign paddy field ecosystem [34].
Although the yield of KSR is not as high as that of hybrid rice, the economic value of the rice-fish-duck symbiotic ecosystem is higher than that of KSR or hybrid rice alone. Referring to previous studies [35], the economic value of paddy fields per hectare was calculated according to data provided by Wu Yusheng, who is a village cadre in Huanggang. The prices are based on 2021 prices ($1 USD = ¥6.3) The results showed that the rice-fish-duck symbiotic farmland achieved the economic benefits of minimum input and maximum income (Table 4), and the economic benefit of the rice-fish-duck symbiotic system was 3.07 times that of hybrid rice alone.
Table 4
Economic benefits of rice-fish-duck symbiotic farmland and hybrid rice farmland in the Dong nationality
Item
|
Category
|
KSR-fish-duck farmland
|
Hybrid rice -fish-duck farmland
|
KSR farmland
|
Hybrid rice farmland
|
Income
|
Rice
|
16.67 kg ×2.20$/kg=36.67$
|
30.00 kg×0.73$/kg=21.90$
|
16.67 kg ×2.20$/kg=36.67$
|
30.00 kg×0.73$/kg=21.90$
|
Fish
|
1.53 kg×7.90$/kg=12.11$
|
0.90 kg×4.70$/kg=4.39$
|
/
|
/
|
Straw
|
23.33 ×0.16$/bundle =3.73$
|
/
|
/
|
/
|
Expenditure
|
Seeds
|
0.07 kg ×6.30$/kg=0.42$
|
0.10 kg ×12.6$/kg=1.26$
|
0.07 kg ×6.30$/kg=0.42$
|
0.10 kg ×12.6$/kg=1.26$
|
Pesticides and fertilizers
|
/
|
1.83$
|
/
|
3.39$
|
Cost of harvesting
|
3.11$
|
1.05$
|
3.11$
|
1.05$
|
Total
|
/
|
49.82$
|
22.14$
|
33.14$
|
16.20$
|
The calculation method refers to the research of Luo Kangzhi, and data were provided by Wu Yusheng and Xiang Kebiao in Huanggang Village.
The income of ducks is not considered here since the number of ducks in each household varies greatly.
Straw income: Because the straw of KSR has good flexibility, Dong people often use it as weaving material, such as in brooms and straw sandals, or as dyeing materials after burning.
|