Students of Class – 6 had knowledge in agriculture and practical experience lively when they visited paddy and Sun Hemp fields at Bendapudi as the part of field trip. Agriculturalist Satyanarayana Raju garu explained the whole process of cultivation of paddy in detail – ploughing, sowing, planting, weeding, fertilizing, reaping, so on….. Types of cropping seasons such as Kharif, Rabi and Zaid are also explained. Paddy requires 100% water and temperature. Moreover, cultivation of sun hemp (Janumu) as rabi crop gives a double benefit one hand it increases the fertility of the soil and the other hand it is used as animal fodder. Janumu (sun hemp) is sown few days before reaping the Kharif crop paddy. The sun hemp grows within 3 months. It can survive with a little water of even with moisture. When it grows fully blooms yellow flowers then it is cut and made a heap.
Then sun hemp is generally sour in taste in order to reduce its sourness some salt is sprinkled over every layer while making heap. This process adds a little taste to the sun hemp. So that the cattle can eat it better. There are two ways for feeding cattle. They can either be eaten feed raw instantly as grass or chopping Janumu in to small pieces and then boiled. Cattle eats boiled Janumu better than raw. Generally it is preserved for summer as there would be no green grass.
