Rice Harvest

Last weekend, I rode my bike around Tra Vinh province. I wanted to see what people were doing for the rice harvest. A harvest is the word we use to talk about the cutting of the rice or corn or wheat that is growing in a field. It is also the word we use when we talk about picking fruit (apples, mangoes, bananas, etc.) from trees.

Tra Vinh has many rice harvests each year. Many fields have two harvests each year. Some have three. And a few, my friends tell me, have four harvests each year. Many of the fields were planted with rice last September and October. The rice has been growing for five or six months since then. In some fields, the rice was harvested in January, after just three or four months, but in most fields, it took the rice longer to be ready for harvesting.

Although I am not a farmer and my parents were not farmers, I was raised in a small town in America in a farming area. Many of my friends when I was growing up were farmers. So, for me it is interesting to see some of the differences and similarities between farming in Iowa, the state where I grew up, and in Tra Vinh, the province where I now live.

One similarity is that whole families work together to do the harvest. In my state, the most common crops (plants for food) were corn and soy beans. In Tra Vinh, the most common crops are rice and corn. In both places, parents and their children work together to get the crop out of the fields. This is important since when a crop is ready, it must be harvested soon. Crops don't wait for the weekend! On my bike ride, I saw many adults in the rice fields cutting the rice plants and tying them together. This is hard work, and children can't easily do it. I also saw people drying the grains of rice along the sides of the roads. This is easier work, and older children can help, but they must be careful because of the traffic.

In both Vietnam and the United States, the grain (the seed) of the rice or corn plant is only one part of the crop. Farmers in both countries also use the stalk (the grassy part of the plant) for food for animals. People call this stalk "hay" or "straw", and it both countries, it is a useful product. In Tra Vinh, I saw many people gather the straw and make large piles of it in the fields or near the houses. They first make sure the straw is dry. If it is wet and they make a pile, the straw will spoil and become bad.

In Tra Vinh, I saw many people taking dried rice and putting it in large bags. They tie the bags tightly shut and then carry them to motorbikes or small trucks. These then carry the bags of rice to the river where other people put the rice inside large boats. The boats will carry the rice to different places where it will then be