Pause in a land of plenty

Boats carrying newly harvested rice line up to enter a processing centre in My Thanh Ward, Dong Thap Province. — Linh Pham/The New York Times

A DOZEN barges, heavy with just-harvested rice, cut their engines and floated to a halt. Two huge rice mills upriver stopped de-husking and bagging as electricity prices peaked.

It was mid-morning in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta – one of the most productive agricultural areas on Earth, in a nation that is the world’s second-largest exporter of rice.