1) An easier version
From
the picture, I can see farmers transplanting (replanting) rice
sprouts1 to let them grow to
maturity2 on a proper rice paddy.
It reminds me of cows ploughing or tilling the land to prepare the soil for growing rice. The rice seeds are allowed to grow for a while immersed in water and soil until the green sprouts are seen. Then these green sprouts are replanted in the rice paddy.
In China, farmers are doing this by hand because they are working on smaller plots. Machines will be used in developed western countries because their plots are so big that they cannot easily find enough farmers to do the replanting by hand. But in certain parts of China, we do have huge farms as well.
Rice is
staple3 food in China and demand for it is high. There are different kinds of rice in the market. Some people like rice grown in the northeastern region. Some people prefer to buy rice imported from Thailand. Some rice takes more water to cook and some take less water to cook. It is quite interesting to see how the rice ends up on our dining table as food.
2) A more difficult version
From the picture, I can see farmers transplanting (replanting) rice sprouts to let them grow to maturity on a proper rice paddy.
That reminds of a different scene in developed western countries. We will find farm machineries doing the planting rather than having the farmers to do that manually. We will not see cows plouging or tilling the soil to ready the field for growing rice. Instead, ploughing machines will be used.
I think in China the farming plot is usally smaller and
scattered4 out so it is not
viable5 to use machineries, which are expensive equipments to buy on the one hand. On the other hand, there is plenty of cheap
labor6 supply in China so it is advisable to absorb the manpower in farming. While in the developed western countries, it is not easy to get enough manpower to work on farms which are really huge, so planting manually is simply
impractical7.