Rice - how it is produced in Nepal

Namaaste!
Rice is the staple food of most Nepali people. Daal Bhaat is the meal most eaten, sometimes twice a day, and is Daal - lentils cooked into a soup/sauce and Bhaat - boiled rice. Of course curry and rice are also frequently eaten. Nepalis also eat 'beaten rice' as a snack and use rice flour for cooking breads and biscuits. The country needs more rice than can be grown, so has to import rice from surrounding countries.  However many people who live in rural areas grow their own, rather than have to spend money buying it to feed their families.

All around the Kathmandu Valley, beyond the city limits, rice is grown in terraces and small fields. This crop is planted, tended and harvested by hand - very labour intensive and much of this work seems to be done by women.

Small rice plants need to be hand planted into very wet soil, and the women wade, calf deep in mud, along the rows, bending to plant the young seedlings. This must be back-breaking work. Some women are experts and can plant up to 100 in a minute! Sadly I have no photographs to show this planting time, as it happened this year before I arrived in Nepal.

Come September the first of the rice is ready to harvest. Rows of people, men and women, anyone available it seems, move across the terraces cutting the plants just above root level. They are then put into small stooks to dry, either balanced upright or leaning against the terrace wall.

The next stage, removing the grains from the stem, I have seen done by a small machine powered by a generator. However the rice stalks have to be fed, a few at a time, into the machine, and there are a number of people needed just to keep the machine fed with a steady supply.

In this picture a small machine is removing the grains which then run into sacks.
Many people are needed to supply the machine.

The rice stalks, the straw, are now left to dry thoroughly, so that it can later be used for animal bedding or tinder for fire lighting during the colder months.

Rice straw drying against the wall of the house. In top
right of photo maize heads can be seen drying too.
The grain is spread on large tarpaulins to dry.  I have seen whole village/town squares filled with drying rice, watched over by women who periodically rake the rice to turn it and allow all grains to dry evenly. The village square seems to be a good place as the stone surface holds the warmth and is not damp, but other places are also used. Many houses have rice drying around them, on terraces or paths.

Winnowing seems to be also done by hand by women.  This is when the chaff, the hard but light cases that surround the grain are removed. A small amount of rice grains are scooped into a flat round basket, then shaken gently so that the lighter husks fall or are blown out. Sometimes small electric fans are used to blow the chaff away, just leaving the useable rice grains.

Next time you eat a bowl of rice, think about the amount of work that goes into growing and preparing it in some parts of the world; I know I shall.

pheri bheTaulaa! (see you again)