A video recorded in 2020 with a drone in the Thai province of Nakhon Pathom. He himself shows some 10,000 ducks who were released in a rice field.
The ducks move in perfect synchronization with a single mission: get rid of pests of the rice fields. Traditionally, when farmers finish harvesting the fields, breeders in turn release those birds, which instinctively head to flooded areas in search of pests hiding there.
In Thailand they are known as «hunting ducks» and their prey are snails and insects hidden among the stubble that threatens to ruin future crops.
After being concentrated, they are launched into the hunt
The ducks are released after stay 20 days in a breeding center. They then spend about five months in the fields, and then return to the farms to lay eggs for the next three years. This is a traditional method of linking the breeding of these birds in the region with the production of rice.
«The benefit for the farmer is that we reduce the costs of feeding the ducks,» explained breeder Apiwat Chalermklin. «And in return, for the rice farmers, the ducks help by eating the pests, so they can reduce the use of chemicals and pesticides«he added.
«Ducks also trample the rice stubble, flattening the land and making the plowing process easier,» said farmer Prang Sipipat.
Chalermklin has four flocks of ducks that move through different fields in the province, where farmers typically grow three rice crops a year. He hopes that the «cleanup» work on the land that appears in the video, 67 hectares, take a little more than a week.
The spectacular image is reminiscent of the natural migrations of birds because they move in flocks by instinct.
GML
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