On the way to one of the farms, the local farmers were harvesting rice using their big, new self propelled headers and then bagging the proceeds to be transported off farm. The farmland is divided into Mu's with a Mu being 1/15 of a hectare. Given a farming family in the country might consist of dad, mum and two kids, they are farming 3.2Mu (0.8 Mu per person) or about 0.2ha. Average yields (we heard) were 4.7t/ha though this is all irrigated and most statistics in China have to be treated with suspicion.
The other photo shows the Chinese grain "drying" methods. The roads in China are excellent, with many 3 and 4 lane dual expressways, 2 lane dual expressways are almost run of the mill. Anyway, after the rice is harvested and bagged, you will drive along and see grain spread out taking up one lane of the road where it will either be drying (the Chinese use rakes or brooms to spread it around) or even threshed (just let the trucks and buses drive over it to break the husk off). Very ingenious, if only I could adapt this method to the Newell Highway!!
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