Harvesting rice from our rice farm

The children in Childlife eat about 45 kilograms of rice a day. It is often difficult for Childlife to procure enough rice for all the children each month. Often, we have enough rice donated by kind people but sometimes we have to buy rice using money from our fund that is needed for other parts of Childlife. When Khun Narong Suttisampan from Bangkok let Childlife use his farm nearby the shelter 4 years ago, we began learning how to plant our own rice hoping to eliminate the need to buy rice.

Some seasons we produce a lot of rice but other seasons, especially dry season, we cannot produce much rice at all due to lack of skills and knowledge in rice farming. During the off-season of rice this year, the children and staff of Childlife planted rice in our farm. Because we had no professional training, we planted the rice 2 months late, so our rice was not so good. Even though we did not maximize produce, we will still be able to harvest enough rice for about a month and a half. It is a good start in learning to be self-sustainable.

We also have land from the Satyasai Foundation near Ban Sankong school, the owner lets us plant rice and vegetables; Charles and Lilly donate funds for ploughing. Because we planted late, we will sell the rice we harvest and use that money for planting next season. Next season, we will be more educated and plant rice in a manner that will produce the most amount of high quality rice.

These are pictures of harvesting machine in the rice farm. Rainy season starts soon so it is not good to harvest by hand. When we first tried to harvest, it rained so we had to wait to harvest the remaining rice until the rain let up. After harvesting from the rice farm, the paddy rice is sent to the shelter and stored in the meeting hall where we dry it until it is ready to send to the rice mill. Staff and children helped each other to move paddy rice into the hall and spread it over the ground to dry it. Children learn the entire process of producing rice, from planting to tending, until harvesting. Now they appreciate and value their meals because they understand all the work that goes into producing tasty rice.

We hope that this rice can last for 1 and half months.

Now, we start rice farming in rainy season again. We invite any one who want to take part of the rice farming before the end of July, from 23-24 and 30-31 of July.