Rice farmer levels wet soil with hand tool before planting

Rice farmer levels wet soil with hand tool before planting

A barefoot rice farmer wearing shorts, shirt, and a brimmed hat levels the muddy soil in his field with a hand tool before planting wet-rice. A thatched shelter and more tools are visible on the left, while a bush bearing red and white flowers protrudes from the front right. Coconut palms and earlier planted rice, about a foot high, is growing in the background in neighboring fields.Farmers without plows and cattle or oxen teams available to them level their newly flooded and hoed rice fields by hand with leveling blades attached to long wooden poles. Afterwards, any remaining grasses and other weeds are removed or trampled deep into the mud so they will not displace the tender rice seedlings.