Rice Harvest Time

Friday 15th May

Rice field or difficult jigsaw?

The rice crop which was being planted when we arrived in January is now ready for harvesting, so everyone (well, the locals at least) are hard at work.

This is it, looks like grass

The rice is still mostly harvested by hand, although where there are many fields close together it seems to be worthwhile for the locals to hire a (sort of) mini combine harvester.

I got a brand new combine harvester

Even with a combine harvester, it is still a very labour intensive process.

Come on, get back to work

After the rice has been cut and bagged the 'grass' is still left in the field and has to be bundled up by hand.

Does each worker have a supervisor?

Once bundled, the grass has to be transported away from the fields for drying.

Old style transportation

Cows or buffalos can be used, but today a lot of the work is done by motorbike.

Don't think you can get more on this bike

It is quite amazing the amount that can be transported by one motorbike.

You can carry more if you try

Having harvested the rice and cut the hay, both need to be dried, apparently, inside the rice husk the rice is liquid and needs to be left in the sun until it dries to the grain we would recognise.

Local rice drying facility

Where else would you dry your rice, other than on the local road. The general rule seems to be that as long as you leave at least half of the road, it's ok, even if you create a bit of a chicane.