In May the field is flooded and the seed is scattered by hand.
Paula Ferrer is thirty-five and has twelve hectares of rice paddies in Sueca, by the lagoon. Her father, Toni, sowed them before her, and his father before him. Paula is a biologist and used to count birds in the nature park.
In 2019 Toni decided to give it up. Bomba yields half as much as other varieties and the sums did not add up. Paula thought that if nobody planted it, in a few years l'Albufera would only grow rice for packet paellas.
Now she sows only bomba and sells it under her own name. She still counts birds, only now from the tractor. She says that in winter her flooded fields feed thousands of ducks. Whoever buys the rice pays for that too.
