Rice cultivation is a delicate process involving soil preparation, sufficient water supply, temperature, and timing of harvesting. Globally, the process varies significantly from very basic agrarian standards in villages to mass mechanized processes on corporation farms. However, a number of factors are the same regardless of where and how rice is grown. These factors include proper treatment of the soil, sufficient hydration, and fertilizer.
Fundamental Farming Factors
The most basic rice cultivation occurs around the world with some of the oldest tools known for farming:
- Ploughing – the ground is split and upturned with a metal blade, often pulled and dragged by a buffalo or ox or horse. Mechanized farms use a tractor with a multi-blade attachment.
- Fertilizer – natural additives and treatments are mixed in to return minerals to the ground to boost crop production, the most common being manure. Bigger farms use factory-product fertilizer by the bag.
- Smoothing – a flatten process that reduces the rows of soil upturned and provides a stable bed for rice seedlings to be embedded into and control water depth. Villages use a dragged log for the flattening pressure, and mechanized farms use a similar approach pulled by a tractor.
- Water – a dedicated water flow and source that allows fields to be flooded during the initial growth stage with restriction. Most large farms are specifically situated near a canal, well or river for regular supply.
Production Differences
Crop growth factors often involve critical attention on the seedlings. Typical rice seedling require a range of thirty to fifty days to germinate and grow. Many cultures apply seedlings by hand but mechanized systems obviously can perform the process a lot faster. Irrigation is sustained and water levels kept at specific heights to ensure seedlings have plenty of hydration. Eventually, the water flow is then cut off and nominally dried out before the current crop is harvested. The most common irrigation method involves ground channeling which maximizes the flow and absorption of water that is available.
Advanced Farming
In advanced farms, laser measurement is applied to ensure channel ground levels and water flow paths are designed with the optimum possibility for maximum rice crop growth. Harvest yields are notably increased with these steps and water consumption tends to be far less as well, a particularly powerful advantage in arid regions or areas suffering from seasonal drought conditions. Both man-made factors consistently reduce cost and increase farming profit margins on each harvest. For farms able to afford the cost, one of the most common seeding methods tends to be crop plane dustings, dropping pre-treated seedlings in a saturation pattern over a targeted crop area. Harvested rice when fully grown is then picked up, dried from moisture and milled.
Factory-Produced Rice
On large corporate American rice farms, soil testing equipment and ground treatment machinery are the key factors of production aside from treated seedlings, making significant differences in production beyond all the above already applied. Between computerized estimates, planning, field architecture and mechanized application, mass rice production is an exact science in modern farming. Even the mild level of field slope is measured by percentages via sensors to ensure ideal water flow between rice rows. While a new farm can easily get started in most locations with mild to warm temperatures, soil and water are the key growing elements necessary. And soil testing equipment will literally dictate by results starting with where a farm field is likely to produce the best harvest.
