How to measure the weight of a harvest

Often when you ask a farmer how much he has harvested, the farmer says: " I harvested 22 casks of rice," or " I harvested 18 baskets of cotton," or " I harvested 5 sacks of coffee."

Usually farmers do not use the same units of measurement to measure the amount they have harvested. So it is difficult to compare the harvest of one farmer with the harvest of another farmer.

To do that, it is better to measure the amount harvested in kilogrammes (kg).

You can measure the weight of a harvest in kilogrammes on scales or on a weighing machine. The dealers or trading companies who buy agricultural produce have scales to weigh the harvest of each farmer.

But sometimes the dealers cheat the farmers in weighing their produce. So it is often worth while for all the farmers of a village to have their own scales.

Then each farmer can know exactly how much he has harvested from each field of cotton or millet or cocoa. When he sells he cannot be cheated by the dealer, because he knows the weight of the cotton, millet or cocoa that he is selling.

If you have not got a pair of scales, you can get someone to weigh the rice contained in one cask, let us say 8 kg. Then, if you have harvested 22 casks, that makes about 8 kg x 22 = 176 kg.