The oldest rice seed found in archaeological excavations date more than 3500 years. Until now, rice is the source of life for 60% of the population in Vietnam.
For every meal in Vietnam, rice is the basis food, with meat, fish, vegetables...
In general, we have two crops a year: in May and in November.
In the Mekong Delta, we can make three crops, depending on places.
At the high mountains of the North, we have only one crop because of winter being lack of water.
Each year, we produce 40 million tonnes of rice, 5 millions tonnes for exportation.
On average, each Vietnamese consumes 13 kg of rice per month.
Rice is used to feed animals, to make the noodles, distilling the rice wine...
Rice is so necessary to be called: Pearls of Food.
So I show you the main steps needed for rice culture:
1 - Soil preparation:
Plowing and harrowing are done several times so that the soil is soft: This work is often done with the buffalo. Except in the Mekong Delta with big surfaces, it is already mechanized:
2 - Sowing:
At the time, women sow the seeds on the best soil to prepare rice nurseries:
3 - Young Rice Plants:
Pulling out young rice plants to take them to the fields two weeks after sowing:
4 - Transplanting:
We take 4-5 young rice plants to make a tuft for planting out with fingers: This work is often done by women:
5 - After transplanting:
Caution: Water is the basis element of rice, which is always kept in the fields. In addition, it is often fertilized with manure, nitrogen…
The people are beginning to use the insecticide because rice is fragile with insects.
It should also weed fields because weeds grow very fast in the wet earth.
6 - Harvest:A bout 3 months after transplanting, we begin to harvest the rice with sickles:
7 - Threshing:
We must thresh ears rice to pull out the seeds:
We take a big tuft of straw, threshing it on a wood floor surrounded by a basket to keep the seeds.
In many areas, farmers are beginning to have harvesters and threshers:
8 – Drying and fanning:
We must dry rice seeds in court house, on road ... where we can! The goal is to drive away the empty seed and keep compact seed for longtime:
A woman fanning the rice grains to keep the compact:
9 - Final steps before having a bowl of rice:
It’s not finish: We must shell grain, whiten it before putting it in the pan.
Now, farmers have machines to remove shell. But, when I was a kid, I had to turn this mill by hand:
10 - New Rice Ceremony:
Before eating, we made a meal with harvested rice and put it on the ancestor altar with pork, incense, water, alcohol, fruits to thank to Sky, Earth and to ancestor for helping us to have the harvest and to ask help for the next harvest:
Because the farmers of my country say that: For having a rice grain, nine drops of sweat run. But when we drink water, we must be grateful to its source. When we eat fruit, we must be grateful to those who plant trees.
But it is a very really hard job. Young people are no longer interested. They prefer to study in town to work or even work in factories.
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