Mokie’s Stern-Wheeler

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Necessity is the mother of invention.

The floods are over and the wind shifted, the rainy season is past. Now, the work  and expense of repair faces us. “The Rice Farm Boys” franticly spent much of November trying to plant a new crop in the mud. The floods were brutal on our rice, and hard on our equipment. Paul Mok (Farm Manager) took an idea from the 1850’s Mississippi River Boats and built the most efficient mud tillage machines in Cambodia. “Mokie’s Stern-wheelers” use 1/4 the fuel of a roto-vator and are three times as fast.

We’re now finished planting this late crop on the land which we can irrigate, it’s up and, we are and in the thick of harvesting our late crop. As you look at the photos note the sequence of going from weed and stubble covered ground to a smooth mud to newly established rice.

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