Rice paddies are alive with villagers transplanting the rice seedlings

We are well into July and with it the rainy season. After the heat of the previous months, the rains bring a welcome relief for everyone, but they also play a much more important role in the northern Thailand.

Rain forests become lush and full of life, everything is growing and thriving, fruit and vegetable are in abundance.

It is a wonderful season for exploring the countryside if you bring a raincoat along and don’t mind getting a bit of mud on you.

And not just the forests, local hill tribe villages are bursting with life as well. The rains brought the rice planting season with them. The season has officially started in May with Royal ceremonies in Bangkok and villagers in our area started planting seeds in nursery paddies. Then everyone waited for the first rains to come and wet the ground. When they did, it was time to plough the fields. While some villages use modern mechanic ploughs for this, there are still a lot of fields that are ploughed more traditionally, with water buffaloes. This is one of the most iconic postcard images from Thailand.

Now with all the fields prepared, it’s time for transplanting the rice seedlings from their nursery paddies to the flooded paddies all across the country. This is strenuous work that requires a lot of time and helping hands. Seedlings are transplanted one by one to give them space for growth. The villagers return to their homes from Chiang Mai and even Bangkok to help their families and friends. Some of them risk losing their jobs in the city, but they still come to join one of the most important yearly events in the villages. Rice is the most important crop and rice paddies are the heart of village’s wealth and well-being. Successful transplanting of rice seedlings and abundant growth will ensure food supply for the coming year.

While rice transplanting is already done and the seedlings are growing quickly on many paddies, there are still some fields waiting for the work to begin. Transplanting season lasts from early June until the end of July. Northern Thailand is full of waterways and villagers will take advantage and irrigate their fields if they can. But even the waterways depend on rain, no rain and the rivers and streams would not have enough water and flow for irrigation. Those who have an option to irrigate their fields from local waterways, can start transplanting the rice early in the rainy season, while those who mostly depend on rains, have to wait a bit longer.

If you hurry, there is still some time to give the villagers a hand and experience rice transplanting by yourself. I know that Thai people make it look easy, but trust me, it is anything but.

How long can you, as a novice, keep up?

Don’t just stand and look, try and join us on one of the following tours to find out:

• 2 Day Lanna Adventure
• 3 Day Lanna Adventure
• 5 Day Karen Lover

Among other fun activities, these three tours will take you in the rice paddies and give you a once in a lifetime chance to work with the local people.

1. Thailand is one of the leading rice exporters in the world.
2. The country focuses on quality rice strains, not on the quantity of produce, and the most produced rice strain is the fragrant Jasmine rice.
3. Rice is the most important food crop in Thailand and grows on over half of all farm-able land.
4. Rice is the most important food for Thai people. So important that words for food (aahaan) and rice (khaw) are interchangeable in Thai language.