Seed harvesting began in the villages in the second group (you’ll recall that the 26 villages are divided into three groups corresponding to the ripening period of the trees: the first group of villages harvests seeds from trees ripening in January-February, the second group harvests seeds from trees ripening in March-April and the third group harvests seeds from trees ripening in May-June).
The harvesting technique differs depending on the tree species. Here, on the Uapaca Somon, the women use long, light bamboos at the end of which they attach blades to pluck the clusters of seeds from the top of the tree.
For other species, the women collect the seeds that have fallen to the ground:
All the seed families have been fitted with large tarpaulins to make it easier to collect the seeds (see news item ‘Equipment for the families’). In these images, the harvesters are not using them.
The seeds will then be dried before being taken to the village for counting and mixing.
