In Australia, there are about 2200 families farming rice.

During July and August, the land is prepared for the sowing in ------ . The land is separated into bays each about four hectares surrounded by rice banks that keep sufficient water in. The bays are all on a slope so that water can flow from one bay to the other, making irrigation easier. To make the banks, there are machines called disk bankers and the ground can also be levelled using machines.

Sowing

The rice seeds are sowed three ways:

1) Aerial sowing: the seeds are soaked for 24 hours and drained for 24 hours so they can pre-germinate and shoot. Then they are sown from and aeroplane into flooded bays. Each hectare of land would require about 250kg of seed.

2) Combine sowing: combine sowing sows the seeds with a combine or seeding machine pulled by a tractor. These machines can dig a trench for the seed, drop the seed in the hole along with fertiliser and cover with soil.

3) Sometimes the seeds are sown on pasture without removing the previous crop. The left over plants are eaten to stubble by livestock , burnt into the ground or eradicated herbicide.