International Photojournalist and Photographer

In the village of Son, the rice planting season is just finishing and the villagers now wait to harvest the golden ears of rice in the late autumn. Here, the rice paddies are still ploughed with traditional wooden hoes pulled through the sludgy slip by water buffalo. Red clay fields, flooded with water, are planted with rice saplings by young girls up to their knees in mud. The military formation of the rice saplings contrasts sharply with the sinuous curves of the clay perimeter walls contouring the limestone hillside, where not an inch of space is wasted.

Rice the is the staple food for Vietnamese people and most of the rice grown here in this remote mountain village will be stored and eaten by the families who grow it. Vietnam in general however is the worlds second largest exporter of rice and will export an estimated 8 million tonnes in 2011 with a value in excess of $3 billion to the country.