Wet Culture Rice

Wet Culture Rice (1974) Richard Chen for American Universities Field Staff. Supported by National Science Foundation Documentary on Taiwan's rice farmers whose meticulous cultivation methods achieve the highest average yields per acre in the world. 18:00:27 Taiwanese farmer w/ water buffalo plowing rice paddy field. Aerial view across paddy fields. CUs ploughing waterlogged earth w/ buffalo. Motor tiller plowing field, three men move rototiller from road to field.CU of wheels & barefoot farmers thru mud. VO “Growing rice is an intensive and highly demanding form of agriculture...” Farmer stands on harrow to level pulled by buffalo to destroy weeds. Markers pulled thru field to mark for planting. Men & women in pointed straw hats sprinkle fertiliser. 18:05:56 Transplanting rice seedlings by hand, digging & putting into baskets. Woman carries hanging panniers / baskets of seedlings along dikes. Women in colorful headscarves bent over in paddy field planting seedlings. Thunderstorm interrupts spreading fertilizer & planting. Farmers put on waterproof jackets & return to planting following grid system. 18:10:55 Weeding fields & cutting grass on dikes. Herbicide spraying against weeds w/ handpump. Also spraying for insects. Harvesting rice. Foot powered harvester. Sifting rice thru hanging sieves & mechanical screen. Grain laid out in courtyard for drying. Men tying shocks of rice stalks. VO gives statistics of income earned by farmers. 18:16:08 Domestic ducks grazing on dropped rice in field. Zoom out to aerial view of field now brown after harvest, full of corn stalks tied into bundles. Farming / Agriculture. Mechanisation. Travelogues. Asia. Republic of China. NOTE: Any one continuous minute sold at per reel rate.