Rice in Thailand

Rice is a staple crop in Thailand. It is grown in paddy fields. Water buffalo pull wooden ploughs that stir up the rich soil in the paddies. Around each paddy, farmers build low walls to hold the water in. The paddy fields are then flooded with water from nearby rivers.

Rice seedlings are planted by hand in neat rows, 12 centimetres apart. Monsoon rains keep the paddies flooded for about four months.

Planting rice seedlings

Several weeks after planting, flowers appear and the plants bear rice grains in husks.

The crop is harvested by traditional methods, whereby each worker uses a sharp, curved knife to cut off a few stalks at a time at ground level. The rice is bundled up and left to dry in the sun.

Threshing the harvested rice

The rice is threshed to separate the grain from the stalk. Threshing is done by beating the plants with bamboo poles. The grains are then placed in large baskets and pounded to remove the husks.

Finally, the husks are separated from the rice seeds by tossing basketfuls of the pounded rice into the air so that the wind can blow away the husks. This process is called winnowing.

Because Thailand produces such great quantities of rice, it sells some to other countries. Thailand is in fact one of the world's largest exporters of rice.

In many parts of Thailand, rice paddies are made on terraces cut into mountains.

Acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:
Thailand (2001). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au

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updated February 2001