A Detailed Explanation of the Rice Production Process: The Complete Journey from Sowing to Harvest

Growing rice requires going through seven processes: land preparation, seedling raising, transplanting, weeding and pest removal, fertilizing, irrigation and drainage, and harvesting.

The rice production process

1. Land preparation: this process is divided into three stages: coarse plowing, fine plowing and leveling. In the past, animal power and plows were used, mainly water buffaloes, to prepare the land and plow the fields, but today machines are mostly used for land preparation.

2. Seedling raising: in modern times, specialized seedling centers mostly use seedling boxes to grow the rice seedlings; good rice seedlings are the key to successful rice cultivation. When the seedlings grow to about eight centimeters tall, transplanting can begin.

3. Transplanting: the traditional transplanting method uses seedling ropes, seedling markers or transplanting wheels to make marks in the rice field. When transplanting by hand, a seedling separator is worn on the thumb of the left hand to help the farmer separate the seedlings and plant them into the soil.

4. Weeding and pest removal: while the seedlings are growing, they must be tended at all times, and weeds must be pulled out; sometimes pesticides are also needed to kill pests (such as golden apple snails).

5. Fertilizing: when the seedlings shoot up and grow their first rice stem node, this is called the tillering stage; during this period, fertilizing is often needed to let the rice seedlings grow strong and healthy and to promote the plumpness and quantity of the grain quality in the later heading stage.

6. Irrigation and drainage: rice depends relatively heavily on this procedure; for upland rice, the field is dry land, and the irrigation and drainage process is somewhat different, but generally after transplanting, when the young panicles form, and during the heading and flowering stage, water irrigation must be strengthened.

7. Harvesting: when the rice ears hang down, harvesting can begin. In the past, a sickle was used to cut them down, then they were bundled up, and a threshing machine was used to separate the grains from the ears. In modern times, there are harvesters that pull in the rice ears and directly separate the grains from the rice stems; grain by grain, the rice ears become paddy rice.