Rice harvest:
Harvesting rice is labor intensive. The stalks must be cut, threshed, winnowed, dried, sacked, then sold or stored . Cutting is done with a hand sickle, threshing by hand beating stalks against the inside of a heavy wooden tub. Harvesting is a family affair with usually 4-10 people working together in the various phases of the harvest. Grandmothers and grandfathers take care of the less taxing jobs that can be done at home. Mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles work the fields. The young are at school or seeking jobs away from the farms. The set of pictures shows some of the devices used in harvesting rice.
The Hunan country side is filled with rice. Starting in mid-summer fields come to harvest and continue throughout autumn. Farmers only have a few fields of rice each but they also have lots of vegetables and cotton for consumption and cash so have plenty to do while rice is ripening.
The yield per stalk is amazing and new and improved varieties under government study with great promise as to size and weight. What is missing in the numbers is food value per weight.
