LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Living in the field
In Rice farming and rural life in Vietnam, page 17
Highland families may use these small houses on a permanent basis, especially if they are near permanent wet-rice fields. Yet the houses sometimes are moved or abandoned when families cultivate other fields during different years or seasons. The canal running...
By Lorraine Aragon.
Ducks and rice
In Rice farming and rural life in Vietnam, page 10
In many parts of Southeast Asia, farmers raise ducks and farm wet-rice fields in a mutually beneficial, or symbiotic, relationship. Duck droppings fertilize the water in which the rice grows. Ducks also eat the algae and other weeds that grow near the young...
By Lorraine Aragon.
Wet rice in the highlands
In Rice farming and rural life in Vietnam, page 3
This photograph, and most of the photos that follow, was taken in Mai Chau, in the highlands of northwestern Vietnam. In most of Southeast Asia, the highlands are too dry or steep to construct the standing water pools required to nourish wet rice. Therefore,...
By Lorraine Aragon.
Women working
In Rice farming and rural life in Vietnam, page 21
The bright green rice plants in the field are still young and unripe. Note, again, the power lines running in the background.
By Lorraine Aragon.
Working in the fields
In Rice farming and rural life in Vietnam, page 5
Both men and women work in the wet-rice fields. Rural women living in highland Southeast Asia typically scale high mountains and do hard outdoor physical labor, which keeps them physically fit and strong. With one basket strapped at the waist and another larger...
By Lorraine Aragon.
Irrigating the fields
In Rice farming and rural life in Vietnam, page 4
Wet-rice farming requires that plants stand in water during early stages of their growth. The water then must be drained away before the rice fully ripens for harvesting. Bamboo wheels such as the one shown here aid this process of water management in places...
By Lorraine Aragon.
Protection from the sun
In Rice farming and rural life in Vietnam, page 6
Rural women, men, and children throughout Southeast Asia commonly weave their own hats, sleeping mats, and baskets from a variety of palm leaf, bamboo, and rattan fibers. Mountain groups or highlanders are less involved in the national cash economy (often...
By Lorraine Aragon.
Rice farming and rural life in Vietnam
Photographs and text tell the story of rice and rural life in Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on the highlanders, or Montagnards.
Format: slideshow (multiple pages)
Wet-rice fields with mountains in background
Wet-rice fields with mountains in background
This Balinese landscape scene shows rectangular wet-rice fields in the foreground and blue-tinted mountains in the background. The rice plants are partially submerged in the flooded fields, adding nutrients for rapid plant growth.
Format: image/photograph
Flooded rice fields
Flooded rice fields
Flooded rice fields at Middleton Place Plantation near Charleston, South Carolina.
Format: image/article
Nine ducks swim in newly transplanted wet-rice field
Nine ducks swim in newly transplanted wet-rice field
Nine ducks swim together in a newly transplanted wet-rice field. Four are white and two have mottled brown feathers. They swim in the blue-tinted water feeding on algae and insects among the young green rice seedlings. Once rice seedlings are transplated into...
Format: image/photograph
A farmer is bent at the waist working in a wet-rice field at Mai Chau
A farmer is bent at the waist working in a wet-rice field at Mai Chau
A farmer wearing a conical sunhat is bent at the waist working in a ripening wet-rice field at Mai Chau. With one basket strapped at the waist and another larger one nearby, the farmer may be weeding the rice field, or else foraging for edible plants or fish.
Format: image/photograph
Woman leading buffalo past a girl doing laundry in wet-rice field at Mai Chau
Woman leading buffalo past a girl doing laundry in wet-rice field at Mai Chau
A highland woman walks a water buffalo along a dyke in a wet-rice field at Mai Chau. She passes a girl who is squatting to do washing in a water stream running by the field. The bright green rice plants in the field are still young and unripe.
Format: image/photograph
Bamboo pipe leading from water wheel to irrigate wet-rice field at Mai Chau
Bamboo pipe leading from water wheel to irrigate wet-rice field at Mai Chau
A bamboo pipe leading from a nearby water wheel irrigates a wet-rice field at Mai Chau. Water is pouring out of the bamboo pipe at left and dropping down to a lower elevation field containing unripe rice plants needing irrigation.
Format: image/photograph
Balinese man hoeing terraced wet-rice field
Balinese man hoeing terraced wet-rice field
In the center foreground of this lush scene, a Balinese man is hoeing a wet-rice field terrace level in preparation for its next round of planting. Some terraced fields at heights above and below the farmer are flooded with water, but the man is turning dark...
Format: image/photograph
Balinese farmer herds ducks into rice fields at dawn
Balinese farmer herds ducks into rice fields at dawn
A Balinese farmer herds a large flock of ducks into maturing rice fields at dawn. Two thatched roof buildings are visible in the background. Ducks are an important aspect in the ecology of Bali's wet-rice agriculture. Ducks are herded into fields well prior...
Format: image/photograph
Ducks swim in canal near Mai Chau
Ducks swim in canal near Mai Chau
Ducks swim in a canal near Mai Chau. These brown, white, and black ducks with yellow bills are a domesticated variety raised by local rice farmers. In many parts of Southeast Asia, farmers raise ducks and farm wet-rice fields in a mutually beneficial, or symbiotic,...
Format: image/photograph
Farmer leans over and washes his feet after long day working wet-rice fields
Farmer leans over and washes his feet after long day working wet-rice fields
A Balinese farmer wearing shorts, T-shirt, and straw hat leans over and washes his feet in irrigation canal water after a long day working his two newly flooded rice fields. Because the soil is wet and sticky, the farmer has worked barefoot all day. He now...
Format: image/photograph
Rice farmer levels wet soil with hand tool before planting
Rice farmer levels wet soil with hand tool before planting
A barefoot rice farmer wearing shorts, shirt, and a brimmed hat levels the muddy soil in his field with a hand tool before planting wet-rice. A thatched shelter and more tools are visible on the left, while a bush bearing red and white flowers protrudes from...
Format: image/photograph
Field house located on canal in highlands near Mai Chau
 Field house located on canal in highlands near Mai Chau
A thatched roof house is located along a canal used for irrigating wet-rice fields in the highlands near Mai Chau. Such small houses built of local plant materials may be used by Southeast Asian highland families on a permanent basis, especially if they are...
Format: image/photograph