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| Sun Drying of Palay on the road |
After the recent typhoon, the roads in rural areas of Isabela are back to normal - used as dyer for newly-harvested palay.
Sun drying like this is a common practice among the locals. Although each town has their heated air and in-store drying facilities as well as those Flatbeds being distributed by the Department of Agriculture, some farmers still opt to manually do the job. Mainly because it is cheaper. When they use machines, drying will only take a couple of hours but they have to spend for fuel which is relatively more expensive. Relying on the sun means lower cost although labor intensive.
The farmers manually need to turn the rice every 30 minutes or so. It is indeed a tough job. And it's itchy.
Isabela is the second largest province next to Palawan and it is known as the Rice Granary of the North. It produces around 15% of the country's total rice output. So during the harvest season, rice in a stretch of streets and even in national highways is a common sight.
