On Bali, an island in Indonesia, most people eat rice with two meals every day. When people eat in their houses, they have a large rice pot. Everyone takes a scoop out of it. Rice is important to Bali in many ways. It is a very good source of carbohydrates, the main thing that our bodies use for energy.
People in Bali also use rice in the religious shrines. They put rice, flowers, and incense in small baskets made of banana leaves. The little baskets are an offering to the gods to help keep us safe. The rice keeps the gods fed and happy.
People in Bali grow the rice on steep hillsides using old methods of farming. The fields where rice grows are called paddies and they are set along the hillsides in terraces. Terraces are made by cutting flat spots into the side of a hill, like giant steps in staircase. Then farmers plant rice on the flat spots.
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To grow the rice, the rice farmers start by planting rice seeds in the ground on the terraces. Once they have the rice in the ground, they use a dam and pipes to bring water from a nearby river. They use this water to flood the rice paddies, starting with the top one. The water flows down from the top terrace to the second terrace. From there is goes to the third and then the fourth. The water flows all the way down to the bottom so that all of the paddies are flooded. Redirecting water to help plants grow is called irrigation.
The rice plants like to grow in water, and they grow very quickly in the hot weather. After three months, the rice plants look like tall grass and have seeds at the top. It's almost time for harvesting.
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When the rice seeds are almost ready, the farmers put up bamboo poles on the terraces. They put bright flags or kites on the poles. Sometimes the kites are shaped like butterflies. The flags and kites blow in the wind and scare away the birds that would like to eat the rice seeds.
When the rice is ready to harvest, the farmers stop sending water to the paddies. The paddies dry out and the ground becomes hard. This makes it easier for the farmers to go into the paddies to pick the rice.
Picking rice in the hot sun is hard work. The farmers pick out all of the rice seeds and put them in big baskets. They leave the plants. These plants get buried back in the soil. This returns a lot of the nutrients to the ground so the next rice plants can grow just as quickly.
In Bali they plant and harvest rice four times per year. The farmers are always busy either planting, irrigating, or harvesting. Luckily, their hard work means that there is lots of rice to eat.
After the rice is harvested into baskets, the farmers dump it into the back of a truck and bring it to a factory. The factory has machines that take the shells off the rice. They put it in bags and send it to grocery stores and restaurants.
Related Resources for Teachers
Related lesson plan: Rice: The Global Crop
