15th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
Paddy processing

Millions of grains of rice are laid out to dry at a mill as workers brush them with leaves in the hot sun. The men and women work for eight hours a day in the boiling heat, making sure the rice does not burn as it drys after being boiled, by regularly raking it out and then sweeping it back into hundreds of rows. The lines of yellow rice stretch out for 100ft (30metres) on the concrete. More than 2,000 people work eight hour days to organise the rice, which comes from 100 different mills, and successfully dry the food before it can be stored or sold.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 02.2017
Date Uploaded: 08.2017
Photo Location: Bogra, Bangladesh
Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Copyright: © Azim Khan Ronnie