KHANH HOA – The T’Rin in Khanh Vinh district sow seeds on the hillside, without watering or fertilizing, but still giving large round rice seeds, using their hands to harvest.
In the early morning, Ms. Ca Them (37 years old, from T’Rin) brought water, sacks into her basket, crossed the stream nearly a kilometer from her house to go up the hillside in Giang Ly commune, where the rice fields are ripening. full of seeds. Almost 20 minutes walk, she arrived. Instead of using a sickle, she used her hands to pluck each grain of rice and put it in a basket.
This work requires careful attention, inadvertently, the hand will be cut off by the rice leaves. Just like that, when the rice is heavy, she puts it in a sack and then continues to work. “I’m used to using my hands, doing so will collect rice faster without fear of the seeds falling,” said Ms.
Almost half a day, she collected nearly two sacks of rice (more than 70 kg) and brought it home. The rice is dried in the sun, then packed in bags and kept high up. This season, her family harvested 700 kg of rice when cultivating more than 3,000 m2 of hilly land. She chooses a few dozen kilograms of good rice, large seeds are used as seeds, the rest is saved to eat gradually.
Ms. Them said that upland rice is grown on steep hills, below the stream water flows all year round. In the seventh lunar month, people in the village sow seeds by poking holes, sowing the seeds and then filling them with soil. They only weeding a couple of times when the rice is new. Rice plants grow naturally, without watering, fertilizers or pesticides. Thanks to the fertile soil, rice plants grow well, giving large and round seeds.
About 40 meters away, Ms. Ca Hom, 36 years old, is harvesting rice for her sister in an area of about 2,000 square meters. The family has four sisters, Hom is the youngest daughter, married, has a 4-year-old daughter. They built houses next to each other. Every day we go to the fields to grow bananas, noodles, and acacia. When the season comes, families call each other to gather to harvest to prevent the rice from falling, then people exchange labor, or pay with rice.
Rice from upland rice is flexible, fragrant, and has high nutritional value. People can only grow one crop a year, the yield is only enough to eat, so they don’t sell it out. Last season, the rice field of Ms. Ca Hom yielded 40 bags (30-35 kg each), enough for use. In addition to rice, the T’Rin people cultivate corn, potatoes, and vegetables.
The T’rin people in Khanh Vinh district consider rice a precious product. After harvesting, they choose the most beautiful bushels of rice to cook and offer to the gods, praying for the best, hoping for a bountiful harvest. Important holidays such as eating new rice heads, leaving graves, paying filial piety… in addition to chickens, ducks, pigs, the offerings are indispensable for rice grains and wine to be cooked from upland rice.
Khanh Vinh district has more than 190 hectares of upland rice fields, distributed in the communes of Giang Ly, Lieng Sang, Khanh Thuong, Cau Ba… Mr. Ha Duy, Vice Chairman of Giang Ly Commune People’s Committee, said the local terrain is mountains. People in the district are mainly ethnic minorities, doing agriculture, growing rice, bananas, acacia, pineapple…
According to Mr. Duy, the last crop, people planted rice well, more than 30 hectares of rice yielded about 78 tons (the average one hectare was about 1.1 tons last year). The locality encourages people to grow rice to keep the indigenous traditions, giving priority to loans to maintain production.
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