Eighty four plots under one water order, transplanted, two seasons a year. Fertiliser went on by the calendar because nobody had time to check every plot.
“We fertilised on the same days every season because that is what the schedule said. Some plots were ready and some were not.”
What happened
The platform tracks paddy by growth stage rather than by date, so plots reach panicle initiation on their own schedule and not the scheme’s. In the main season it showed about a nine day spread across the scheme, with the eastern plots consistently ahead. NDVI had already saturated past 0.8 on the earliest plots, so those readings came from NDRE instead. The team split the top dressing into two passes and moved the first four days earlier for the plots that were ready.
What did not work
“Two passes instead of one is more work for the team. It only pays off because we know which plots need it. If we were doing all 84 twice it would not be worth it.”
What they would tell a peer
“The schedule was never wrong exactly. It was an average, and we were farming the average instead of the field.”
