My 100th Rebirth a day before the Apocalypse novel Chapter 1000

Chapter 1000: Chapter 998 Need More Hands

The rice fields, in particular, would be automatically irrigated at the proper intervals. The loaches, frogs, crayfish, freshwater eels, and conches released into the paddies to reproduce would also be cared for by the system and harvested automatically once they reached maturity.

With half of the rice fields designated for normal crop production and the other half for spiritual crops, and rice occupying the largest portion of the farmland, Marcus would only need to personally oversee half of the most labor-intensive area.

"Young Madam! This is wonderful," Marcus said, clearly excited. "With automatic harvesting, I wouldn’t need to manually reap the rice, especially since it’s almost ready. But I’m not sure what happens after that. Would the system also handle threshing, cleaning, drying, and hulling the grain to remove the husk?"

He paused, then added thoughtfully, "Rice requires far more steps than most crops. Unlike vegetables, which only need to be picked once they mature, rice has to go through several processing stages, including milling. I’m curious whether the automatic harvest takes care of all of that as well."

"We’ll see once harvest time comes," Kisha said thoughtfully. "If the automatic harvest only collects the rice from the plots and leaves us with the grain and stalks, then we can ask Hugo’s team and the Winters men to help with threshing. If needed, we can also ask the blacksmith to make proper equipment to speed things up."

She continued, already planning several steps ahead. "With more hands, we can finish threshing and cleaning faster, removing stones, debris, and anything else that shouldn’t be there, before drying the rice under the sun to remove the remaining moisture. As for hulling, we can ask the blacksmith to make a rice husker as well."

Kisha paused briefly, then added, "We’ll need those machines anyway once the spiritual rice is harvested, since that still requires manual processing. We might as well process both batches at the same time."

After all, they had more people to help now, and there was no reason not to make full use of that advantage.

The main reason Marcus had been putting in most of the effort on the farmland was because of his ’Green Thumb’ gift, which allowed the crops to grow healthier and faster. However, that didn’t mean he had to handle the harvesting alone. Once the crops reached maturity, anyone could help with the work, and at that stage, extra hands mattered far more than talent.

With the biogas project nearly complete, Hugo’s team could shift their focus back to assisting Marcus on the farmland while also helping Mike collect and repurpose animal dung for the compost bins.

Still, as Kisha thought it through, she realized that even with more than a dozen people, Hugo’s team alone wouldn’t be enough. There were simply too many plots of land and too much work to be done.

She would need to assign Marcus additional manpower to increase their efficiency. Besides, Duke was already overseeing the construction of the employee dormitory, which meant expanding the workforce was already part of the plan.

So Kisha decided to share her concerns with Marcus.

"Marcus, as you’ve probably noticed, my territory can upgrade and expand," she said calmly. "And this likely won’t be its final upgrade. The farmland will continue to grow in size, which means you’ll eventually need more hands, not just for the crops, but for Mike’s animal farm as well."

She paused, giving him time to think.

"Even with Hugo and his team helping around the farm, their numbers still won’t be enough in the long run. So when you have time, I’d like you to go back to HOPE Base and recruit more farmers."

"Preferably, wood-type awakened ability users. They may not directly accelerate crop growth like your ’Green Thumb’, but their affinity with plants will still be helpful and, more importantly, will greatly increase our manpower."

Kisha continued, her tone steady and practical. "Once you’ve selected suitable people, bring them to me so they can sign the slave contract. That will ensure the secrecy of the territory space. In return, they’ll be able to live comfortably here, with accommodations in the employee dormitory."

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