Rice field, Dhamrai, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Info. Rice field, Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, a nation that's never recorded a freezing temperature, rice is grown throughout the year. But growing an aquatic crop in the dry season – October to March – is complicated, requiring high-yield plant strains and additional irrigation.

Drying the grains is simpler, though: As these workers spread rice thinly over a large field, heat from the sun warms it and the surrounding air, creating an arid environment to vaporise moisture within the grains. It's tough work but very important – rice is the staple of Bangladeshi cuisine for the more than 160 million people who live in this South Asian nation.