Buffalo or ploughing machine?
Forty years ago, most villagers were against the ploughing machine and swore that the buffalo would never disappear from Thai villages. For 3000 years, it had been a part of rice farming, Thai culture, and it could not disappear unless Thai culture disappeared. However, events proved otherwise. The buffalo, as well as the zebu, have entirely disappeared from plains villages. The water buffalo is becoming an endangered species.
The buffalo was habituated to the existence that followed seasonal changes. In the dry season, buffalo were kept on the fields, grazing on rice stubble and grass growing on the dams. In the rainy season, when rice was growing, the buffalo had to be herded elsewhere, and it was work allocated to children. They had time for it, as there were no schools, and even later on, their school attendance was not considered to be important.
The buffalo is an undemanding animal, eating whatever nutrition was available in the environs of the village. In the dry season, the buffalo was satisfied with rice straw that would otherwise have been unused. Buffalo and zebu dung was used in seedbeds, fields and vegetable patches. Many of the informants pointed out that the buffalo fertilized the field even during ploughing, and in the water the dung was well mixed in the soil. Buffalo dung also harboured insects that were a local delicacy. By Matti Sarmela
