Rice is more than a staple to the Balinese. It is a way of life deeply rooted in religion and history which impacts social, agricultural and economic cycles. It's an ecosystem all on it's own and it works like this:
Plowing fields churns the spent soil and sends any hiding frogs, geckos, etc. running into the adjacent flooded fields..
Where these lovely birds await their next meal...
The irrigation system is a series of small locks and dams and these fields are ready for planting. Flooding the fields actually has a purpose ~ bringing nutrients to the surface the next stage.
Fields are planted with young rice plants when the planting and calendar cycles along with the blessing of the Goddess of Rice, Dewi Sri.
The ducks are coaxed into the fields for feeding and fertilizing as the fields are now drained.
Along the way, some of the grasses are trimmed back to make way for producing stalks. These grains will be ready in about 21 days.
At harvest, a community based social organization comes together to work the fields, cutting the stalks into bundles.
Each bundle is beat, shaken or hit against a surface to release the grains.
Grains are bagged to carry home.
Grains are then spread onto tarps for drying for several days, raked and turned along the way.
Again, ducks are sent into the spent fields for feeding on leftover grains.
The fields are burned off to end the cycle and enrich the soil. Fields are rotated though rice contains to be the primary crop.
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