LAOS: Rice Farming

Rice farming is a way of life in Laos. 

They say "rice is life".  They eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, 

Our tour itinerary told us we would be rice farmers for a morning.

It seemed like a great idea at the time, until I realized I would be barefoot and knee-deep in mud. 

You have no idea how much I do not like to be dirty and how much I do not like to have dirty hands and feet. 

But there are times when "no choice" is a "good choice".

I now have an appreciation for the incredible amount of work that goes into a simple bowl of rice.

Agriculture is the main form of employment for people in Laos. 

It is estimated that 85% of the population works in agriculture and it generates over half of the country’s GDP. 

The main products, along with rice, include coffee, tea, sweetcorn, sugar cane, cotton, poultry and cattle. 

The least profitable of these products is rice, which, given that 60 percent of all agricultural land in Laos is devoted to its cultivation, explains why the country is so poor.

There are many different types of rice, but in Laos, sticky rice called “Khao Niew” is the base of every meal. 

One to 2 crops a year is the norm and rice is planted in May. They still practise slash-and-burn farming.

Rice production is labour-intensive. The Lao rice farming industry has an overall low level of mechanization which generates lower incomes for the people supplying labour to commercial rice-growing farms.

It is mostly organic farming and I suspect the cost of fertilizer is part of the reason. 

Have you ever thought about what "organic fertilizer" is? I had never thought about it before. You really might not want to think about that one too hard.

As organic farm helpers, we started by learning how to select the rice seeds. We used a pot, water, mixed in salt, and then an egg was dropped in to determine if the water was salty enough. 

Then the rice was dropped into the salty water, stirred and the rice that floated was scooped off and given to the chickens. The rice that sank was planted.

The fields needed to be plowed into patches before we planted the rice. Water buffalo are used and it was not an easy task. 

We then threw the seeds down and covered them with mud.

The plants grow in clumps so the clumps need to be pulled and separated into groups of 4 or 5 stalks to then be replanted. 

The rice plants then sit in water for 3 days. 

Using bamboo pipes the field is drained from one patty field to the next patty field. 

Weeding is also required.

Then it is flooded again for 3 days. After one month the draining and flooding it is ready to be harvested. 

The stalks are cut, tied up and dried for a week.

After drying for a week the rice is thrashed. 

Then using a fan the pile of rice is winnowed so that the empty ones fly away and the full ones stay. 

The batch keeps getting mixed and swept up with the stalks. The stalks are then given to the water buffalo.

The rice is then packed into baskets. There are a couple of styles of carrying baskets. 

Then they use a mortar and pestle to break the husks off. This is the women's job.

Sifting the rice to get all the pieces of rice husks broken.

The next step is also "woman's" work, grinding the rice into flour.

Before you cook sticky rice, you need to soak it overnight. The traditional way to cook it is in a bamboo steamer basket placed over a pot with boiling water and then covered with a lid to steam the rice for around 20 minutes. 

It contains a higher sugar level than the usual rice, which gives it its stickiness.

We learned a few more tasks required of rice farmers. Like making bamboo baskets from strips of bamboo and then weaving them into useful baskets. 

Our attempts at weaving did not produce useful baskets.

We also crushed sugar cane for juice.

 It was sweet and delicious with a squeeze of lime juice. (I think there is no such thing as "too sweet".)

Lao culture eats sticky rice by grabbing a small piece with your hand and rolling it up into a small ball shape. They serve it in individual little bamboo baskets called “Lao Aep Khao.” It has a lid to keep it warm. 

Believe it or not, dirty feet and all, this was definitely a highlight of our time in Laos. 

If you are ever in the neighbourhood, check them out.

P.S. Many thanks to our travel companion and new friend, Lydia Wright from Australia, for taking awesome photos of John and me. 

"No Choice".