Atypical Agricultural Fields from Around the World

In agriculture, the word field refers generally to an area of land enclosed or otherwise and used for agricultural purposes such as: cultivating crops, usage as a paddock or, generally, an enclosure of livestock and land left to lie fallow or as arable land. But these arable lands are more than farmland, these fields are works of art:

Longji Terraced Fields

The rice terraces are built into the hillsides. The terraces look like great chains or ribbons as they wind from the foot to the top of the hill. This ingenious construction makes best use of the scare arable land and water resources in the mountainous area. There are about 66 square kilometers terraced fields in southeast of Longsheng.

Fields by Guilin river, China

Spectacular Longsheng terraces near the villages of Ping and Jinkerg in northeastern Guangxi Province.The fields are beautiful all year round as the rice grows and matures, changing colours as it does so.

Longsheng Terraced Rice Fields, China

Home to perhaps the most beautiful terraced rice fields in China. Built by hand by the Hani people over 1,000 years ago. 

Sunset at Yuanyang fields

The paddies are flooded from December to April which creates a reflecting pool effect that draws photographers from around the world. They are particularly spectacular at sunrise and sunset. Occasionally patience is necessary in order to out wait the shrouds of fog. Popular rice terraces to visit include the Bada, Laohuzui and Duoyicun rice fields.

In summer, the paddies are green with growing rice plants. After the fall harvest, the paddies become bare earth.

Tulip fields, Netherland

The Netherlands exports approximately 2 million cut tulips every year and even more bulbs, many destined to far away countries like Japan and Australia. However, Germany and the States claim most of the harvests. It is believed Canada imports close to 50 million tulip bulbs. 

The country devotes over 10,000 hectares to tulip cultivation. Concentrated in the northern part of the Netherlands, the majority of tulips are grown seasonally outdoors, so that production peaks in Spring.

Lavender Field, Luberon,France

 Lavender is a Mediterranean plant and is the most popular of aromatic plants known for its perfume and therapeutic virtues. The Romans already used it for its olfactory qualities. Provence in France is a famous area where lavender is grown in large fields.

Here are some amazing artwork images on the rice fields made by the Japanese farmers:

The residents of Inakadate, Japan, have taken the art of playing with their food to an entirely new level. Every year, rice farmers work together to plant their crops so that they’ll grow in artistic patterns visible only from above.

The rice paddy art will be visible until September, when it will be harvested.

Japanese farmers commonly grow a variety of rice, called tsugaru-roman, which buds with green leaves. In order to design their crop art, they include kodaimai rice, which grows with purple and yellow leaves and provides the contrast needed to create lines and depth within the work of art. Some farmers incorporate brown and yellow rice into their field art as well.

Image of center-pivot irrigation project in the Sahara desert in southeastern Libya. The project lies just east of the Libyan city of Al Jawf. Desert-based irrigation projects such as this one typically drill thousands of feet underground to tap fossil water deposits. There are a half-dozen or so such projects in Libya; this is one of the largest, with almost 100 irrigated fields, each over one kilometer in diameter.

Pivot irrigation in Jordan

The total irrigated area in Jordan is estimated at 76,000 hectares distributed between the Jordan Rift Valley (JRV) of 33,000 hectares and the highlands and the desert areas (43,000 ha).