Ducks Love Rice Fields

Here in Bali I have a wide-angle view of rice fields:

(Photo literally taken with a wide-angle lens.)

For many days the farmers seem to do the same things. When the rice is growing their main job seems to be shoo-ing away the birds from eating the profits.

Now that the rice has been harvested there’s a new task: getting the fields ready for new seedlings.

To this end they release their domestic flocks of ducks. The ducks go to work for themselves by eating and pooping – thereby fertilizing the rice fields as well as getting fatter for the farmers’ future meals.

Seems like a win-win even though the ducks get eaten: the farmers insure a healthy population of future ducks!