At
First Step the rice was cut and put to dry on the rice field for a few days. Then the rice all put together and then a mobile Threshing & Cleaning machine comes to separate the rice from the straw. How does that work?
- Two ladies are putting the raw rice on a belt, 1 man is securing the belt and the machine so all raw rice goes straight into the machine
- One man catches the rice in big buckets at the side of the machine
- The machine spits out the rest material (straws) at the other side
- The buckets of rice are emptied in 40kg rice-bags that are hold-up by 1 lady
That Threshing & Cleaning of the rice is a bit unhealthy for the people working with it and any people nearby. As said "the machine spits out the rest material (straws) at the other side". This creates a terrible dusty cloud in the air that spreads in a area of about 500m around the place of work.
This was all done at our own land, about 540 sqm. and it took about 20min. to make 10 bags of rice. We do not pay in cash for this work but we give the people doing the work 1 bag of rice. The rest material (straws) are used at next farming jobs, like growing onions. The straws are put over the young plants to protect them from the sun. In the end there are 2 products :
- 10 bags of rice (that still have to be polished)
- Rest material (straws, we did give away)
As we lost already 1 bag of rice for the work we now have 9 bags of rice left. That will have to be dried for 1 or 2 days. Then we will have it polished in a small rice-mill in our village. We had 2 bags of rice polished now and about 40% in volume is lost (weight about 20% lost). We are using some for ourselves and did give the rest away. So we now still have 7 bags of sticky rice left that still have to be polished. Each bag is about 40kg, of what about 20% will be lost with polishing. After polishing the 7 bags we would have about 224kg of eatable sticky rice. The price that farmers get for this rice is so low that I wonder why people are farming rice. It is a lot of work and your end profit is very low.
This travelogue follows my traveling in Thailand (and beyond) with in between information that might help you when traveling in Thailand. For a personal touch of help or for creating your own personal tailor-made holiday together with a local travel specialist, feel free to send an email to
Your Personal Travel Butler The Little Elephant (free of charge).
 |
| All rice collected |
 |
| Threshing & Cleaning the rice |
 |
| Threshing & Cleaning the rice |
 |
| Threshing & Cleaning the rice |
 |
| Threshing & Cleaning the rice |
 |
| The end result : Almost eatable rice |
 |
| Drying of the rice |
