Village Life - Rice Fields Photo and Text by Siri
Once the seedlings are well established fertilizer is applied, and as weeds begin to grow, children will go through the paddy pulling them up and burying them beneath the mud, where they also act as fertilizer as they decay. Time to mature, which is generally three to four months, depends on the variety of rice being planted. Harvesting is always planned before the monsoons start, which is very predictable in the tropics, and therefore the varieties that take longer to mature are planted early. Harvesting rice is considered man's work, and it is a time of joy. A sickle is used to cut the dry, mature rice plants at ground level, and bundled for transporting to the threshing field ("kamatha").

||- Next -||- Previous -||- Page One -||